We’re back, and this time we’re going to do things right. I’m shifting the column around a little bit, and I think this should help in the future. Since I never learned how to shut up, I’m going to start each week with a mini-"issues" piece (or several really mini ones), and then carry on to the decklist. How is this different from the first two Grab Bags? This time, I’m doing it intentionally. Oh, and I’m going to label it "The Burning Issue" and pretend people other than me care.
The Burning Issue
This week’s issue is my belief that Magic should move towards a more, if not entirely, digital format in general. First, let’s examine the negative impact of this; obviously, they lose some / most / all paper sales, put judges mostly out of business, the game loses some of its interactivity, and secondary impacts like damaging the sales of card sleeves, junk food, and whatnot. So what’s to like about the digital move? Convenience and price. Wizards’ saves bunches of money on producing cards, packaging, tournament venues, deck registration forms, and so forth. Further, all sorts of issues with paper cards become null in the digital domain. Errata? A snap, since most of the work now comes from deciding what needs errata in the first place. After that, it’s a simple change in the database and whoosh, the errata is in place on all versions of a card. While possible, it’s also much more difficult to steal, damage, or lose digital cards than their paper counterparts, all cards are in mint condition regardless of how often they’re played, and four copies of a card can go into any number of decks.
Not to mention that life becomes easier for players. If more and more tournaments were held online, they save travel costs (and times) for thousands of players, and could probably lower the price of the product fairly drastically. True, some of the money they save then goes to server costs and maintenance and so forth, but I’m willing to bet that they’d save more than they’d lose by a healthy margin. Of course, if the price of the game goes down, there’s bound to be more players, which might overall increase Wizards’ revenue. I say might because doubtlessly Wizards has all sorts of marketing experts and analysts in their employ who’d know for certain better than I would, and frankly I don’t want to get nailed on the forums.
Of course, there’s several factors standing in the way of this right now; Magic Online is currently incapable of handling several issues (especially those regarding arbitrarily large amounts of stuff going on) let alone the lack of older cards for the purpose of tournament and / or eternal format play.
We’ve been told that Wizards plans to resume making older sets available online after 3.0, but then last I heard, they’re still using the 2.0 rules engine, so at best these are long-term issues to consider for 3.5+ versions of the client, probably 4.0+ since I suspect the current engine would need basically a total overhaul if it were to be expected to handle constant online tournament play. On top of that, there’s the "conversion fee" for anyone who’s never played digitally before; trying to turn one’s paper collection into a digital one would be a hassle to some, to put it very, very lightly. For this reason alone there would have to remain at least some paper market for many years, since otherwise Wizards would be up to their ears in pitchforks and torches. Plus, if I recall, a lot of the art of very early sets remained the property of the artists involved, but seeing as how they digitally re-created Consecrate Land from nothing and did a fine job of it, I think so long as the majority of artists gave permission to digitally "print" those cards, the cards belonging to whomever might refuse could have new art commissioned for a reasonable cost.
Another concern is that Magic was concepted as a portable game, which led to the early motto of "All you need is a deck, a brain, and a friend", and some people might be concerned that the game would lose some of its portability if a change such as this were to occur. To a point, those people are correct, but on the other hand, there has been a revolutionary change to computing since Magic was conceived, which is the advent of affordable laptop computers. I’m not sure how common it is outside of the United States, but here it’s quite typical to see multiple people using laptops even in fast food chains over lunch. As wireless Internet options continue to expand and improve and the process of economics continues to make laptops more affordable, I have good reason to believe that within the time scale of a project like this, that laptops will only better serve to fulfill this role by the time such a change could take place in the game. Although I actually wonder, if laptops were then what they are now, might Magic not have been conceived as entirely digital to begin with? If so, would they still have chosen the "card" interface we’re all familiar with, or something else entirely? Kind of my own Planeshifted version of Magic, if you will. Wizards asks "What if Wrath had been Black?" I ask "What if Magic had always been digital?"
As the Internet becomes more and more prevalent in daily life, I believe the issues of Internet connectivity and connection speed will become less of an issue by the time this would ever be truly feasible. I bring it up now only because a decision like this could be years in the making, and the sooner it’s at least discussed, the sooner it could come to pass, or not to pass, depending on whatever measuring stick Wizards decides to judge what is "best," although I hope at least some of that stick would involve player opinion.
There are other benefits, too. A whole new slew of design space would open, and although Wizards continually reassures us they are in no danger of running out of ideas any time soon, having a much deeper well to draw from can’t hurt. Many effects would be possible online, effects that are simply impossible or incredibly annoying in the real word, such as cards with "random" (I use this term loosely when discussing computers) targeting or abilities. In fact, the recent Great Designer Search included some Unglued cards that partially explored such design space, using effects that would be difficult-to-impossible in meatspace. Further, if true tournaments capable of following the DCI "floor" rules could be done, they can run much faster than a real-life tournament, not to mention with little to no direct human involvement on Wizards part. This is huge, if done well; they could have more time to support older formats like Vintage, even year-round.
All in all, while I think the drawbacks to such a move are quite harsh, I think that the benefits to such a change in the long term would eventually outweigh them (say, probably within 1-3 years of implementation) for many people involved, and hopefully discussion of the issue will reveal it would benefit most people involved.
Why I Bring This Up
Well, obviously I’m rather biased as I play exclusively online to begin with, and I write almost entirely about online formats. This is a given. What particularly forced my hand though was the general apathy Wizards has been showing towards Magic’s online equivalent when I feel they ought to be embracing it. We only recently had the first news we’ve had of 3.0 in months, a project already quite thoroughly delayed. Further, it becomes increasingly obvious that the DCI pays little to no attention to exclusively online formats, which I also feel is bad. The errata issue is particularly irritating as well; especially given the amount of errata issued for older cards, there’s a good reason the main manual for the game (comprehensive rules), as well as all the errata, is stored online. There’s been so much of it, and so much more needs to be done that if the game itself were played more exclusively (although not necessarily entirely exclusively) online, I think Wizards could do a better job of handling this.
For example, the lack of timely errata affected the deck I’m covering this week, in that I couldn’t build it the way I wanted to, due to a creature that almost certainly is missing a creature type it should have, and because it hasn’t been reprinted in awhile, it’s never been updated. Specifics down in the deck list. While a small issue, to be certain, there are many, many effects in the game that work off of creature types, and as such, I think it’s important that all creatures have sensible types. Obviously with paper Magic being prevalent as it is, it would be an utter pain for Wizards to go through and figure out which creatures need new types, not to mention it would be realistically unlikely-to-impossible for us players to keep up and the number of differences between printed and errata’d cards. Again, this is a worry that dissolves online. Even the current incarnation of Magic Online has a checkbox option to view all cards with their current Oracle wording, including things like errata and creature types, so Wizards only has to update a database and we have nothing to remember. Note this also destroys the reason of not making a card because of "memory issues," because computers don’t worry about memory in quite the way we do.
The Decklist
This week, we’re going to go to Tribal Classic, with a deck that surprised me with how capable it was despite some of the cards I decided (or had) to use. That’s not to say it’s competitive or anything… far from it. It has been, however, much better than it looks on paper. And speaking of how it looks on paper…
Creatures (28)
- 4 Matsu-Tribe Sniper
- 4 Jolrael's Centaur
- 4 Granger Guildmage
- 4 Femeref Archers
- 4 Thornscape Battlemage
- 4 Trophy Hunter
- 4 Silhana Starfletcher
Lands (23)
Spells (9)
- 4
- 3 Canopy Surge
- 2 Firebolt
Now, while it’s still on your minds, I’ll point out the above-mentioned offender: Elvish Archers. Note that they only have the type Elf, as opposed to Elf Archer, along the lines of, say, Merfolk Assassin, which is a, well, Merfolk Assassin. These were replaced (once I noticed this) with Silhana Starfletcher. On the bright side, this deck can occasionally use the mana, as even with the expensive manabase, the mana can still be shakier than a belly dancer sometimes (I’m still debating hours after deciding this was the "final" decklist whether or not to include one more White mana source – Temple Garden in place of a Forest – at the risk of worsening an already poor early game). On the down side, it also increases my reliance on mana by costing more than the Elvish Archers, not to mention I trade a 2/1 First Strike for a 1/3 Spider, and it messes up an otherwise nice curve. Instead of a 10/11/16/4 curve, I have 10/7/20/4, probably slowing the deck down a full turn on average. Mind you, all of this is simply because of one word missing from a card that should almost certainly be there.
What the deck does: Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to deploy Archers around the perimeter of the Red Zone, and use them to both keep the skies empty and beat your opponent down. Despite the surfeit of nice Archers in White, many of them have two White mana symbols, and aren’t quite as good at killing fliers so much as discouraging them from attacking – a role merrily filled by Femeref Archers. Honestly, I’d like Skyshroud Archer in here too, but he’s not online. Paper people feel free to use him, because he’s pretty good as one-drops go – I suggest over the Starfletcher, probably, or over Femeref Archers if you’ve already replaced Starfletcher with Elvish Archers because you’re reading this long after I wrote it and in your timeline, Elvish Archers already is an Elf Archer and you have no idea what I was on about before. Originally I was going to go with Green and White, and do my best to combine the two, but I eventually decided the deck was going to need reach and decided to go more G/R/w. This is because despite the fact that prior to the cannon, longbow archers were pretty much the pinnacle of military weaponry. In Magic, they all seem to have one or two power. I can only guess this is a relative measure resultant from the fact that most lifeforms in Magic walk around with a permanent Protection from Arrows spell they borrowed from Dungeons and Dragons. Translation: Print some Archers that can actually do damage please, Wizards. This deck will love you if you do.
To assist you in your mission, I’ve enlisted the aid of Thornscape Battlemage, a one-time archer who can also aim at something on the ground, along with the services of the Granger Guildmage, who can not only pass out First Strike to most of your creatures, but can also turn a drop of your blood into a flaming projectile at will. Plus, he is of course capable of taking up arms against your foe, which is usually a good thing for a creature to be able to do. I’ve also arranged to give your mission some cover fire in the form of FireBOLT (crossbows use bolts for ammunition as opposed to arrows, so this was a natural fit) and Canopy Surge, which serves a dual purpose in clearing the skies and wounding your opponent, although again at the cost of your own life. Can you see why I actually debate on the Forest / Temple Garden bit? Lastly, Assault / Battery is a versatile spell, capable of either providing cover fire or summoning an Elephant for your Archers to ride into battle. Don’t worry, the Elephant is housebroken and I gave all the archers lessons in Elephant riding prior to your debriefing (this is not an encouragement for you to remove your underclothes), so don’t worry on that account, either.
Who this deck is for: Well, obviously Tribal and Archer enthusiasts will rejoice, but moreover, this is a deck for people who enjoy strategy. Also note that all of the rares are in the manabase, so if you already happen to own most or all of the lands, it’s a very cheap deck to finish building from there. You could go with cheaper lands, as always, but of course that is a matter of risk. I might also suggest looking into Rith’s Grove; I don’t happen to own any to test with, but I suspect a pair could replace the Gruul Turfs nicely, and add an additional source of pain-free White mana to the deck. Anyhow, your mission involves using imperfect parts to build a perfect machine, so how you play is very important. There’s a lot of decision-making involved, including when and where to use your burn and deploy your creatures. Patience and proper play produce power and prizes. And there’s your dose of alliteration for however long it is you need between doses. This deck is not for people who want a quick or easy game; many times you will be forced to decide how many of your less-than-stellar men to commit to an attack, or even just the board, and how many to hold back to use tap abilities and so on. This makes Trophy Hunter one of your best creatures, since his ability does not require tapping.
What to watch out for: As with any Tribal based deck, removal is a problem, although at least not everything dies to Pyroclasm, thankfully. Your instant speed removal is limited entirely to your Guildmages, although many people are quite willing to play as though you had instant burn once you’ve shown any burn at all, so that helps – especially since astute reads have noticed this means your deck has no actual combat "tricks," since the only thing you can do during combat (at least as the aggressor) is use your creature abilities, which everyone can see coming since they don’t have Haste and Flash (thank Wizards for keywords, because that sentence would have sucked otherwise). The deck wants for a nice “Nettling Imp” -style effect for Femeref Archers, but as I couldn’t find one that appealed to me, you’ll have to rely on dumb and / or desperate opponents in order to actually use Femeref Archers as anything but a Grey Ogre. On the other hand, sometimes his simply being there is Good Enough; an X/<=4 flying creature not attacking you can be just as good as a dead one. Your other major problem is anything on the ground with four or more toughness. Three you can usually deal with through some combination of creature abilities (or combat) and burn spells, but this gets more difficult as the toughness gets higher. This is exactly why we needed Red’s reach in the first place; we could have gone with another color, but Red’s form of removal also happens to be capable of going to the dome, which has gotten this deck almost all of its wins.
Be very, very careful tapping mana. You need Green for just about everything, including much of it to repeatedly use Trophy Hunter in one turn, you need Red for both spells and activated abilities. White’s role is very minor; Granger Guildmage’s First Strike ability, and the kicker on Thornscape Battlemage, but I assure you both of those are entirely capable of turning the game on its ear, especially since the majority of people I played seemed to entirely ignore the Granger’s First Strike ability in the absence of other White cards to draw attention to the fact that I have White mana. Just make sure you have it when you need it too and tap mana accordingly. Speaking of which, I’ll mention now that if I do become able to swap out Starfletcher (for Elvish Archers), I will certainly add more Temple Gardens to the deck, since if I didn’t, I know some smart-ass (probably Talen) on the forums would point out that I continually point out the weakish mana and discuss dropping the Starfletcher otherwise.
See? I told you I never learned to shut up. Look how long this has gotten, for shame!
Signing off,
Rivien Swanson
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Flawed Paradigm on MTGO (when I actually log in)