On The Bubble - Misinformation

[raybomb]

This thread is for the discussion of the article "On The Bubble - Misinformation" by David Whitelaw. You can find it here - http://Magic.TCGplayer.com/db/article.asp?id=8008

Discuss!

[StealthBadger]

I'll wager you're the first person ever to have to decide between warren pilferers and winnower patrol with your first pick in morningtide.

[midi2304]

I'll wager you're the first person ever to have to decide between warren pilferers and winnower patrol with your first pick in morningtide.

lol - very nicely picked up. I think with hindsight, it was a Pack's Disdain or something similar. It was a 'better' black common vs what I considered to be the weaker, on-colour Patrol.

By the way, this article was due to go up Friday hence the time-sensitive nature of some of the stuff. And why Robin beat me to the punch on a lot of Maro's teasers :(

I did manage to win my 2HG Champs though and am now the owner of a full art foily Mutavault :)

[ckmcheetah]

Congrats on the draft win Dave

I remember reading that sometime in late April there is a game developers conference somewhere, this is when the new States/Champs is supposed to be announced.

[midi2304]

I remember reading that sometime in late April there is a game developers conference somewhere, this is when the new States/Champs is supposed to be announced.

Yeah that sounds like what I read too. I remember thinking it was being announced soon like.

[RoninX]

By the way, this article was due to go up Friday hence the time-sensitive nature of some of the stuff. And why Robin beat me to the punch on a lot of Maro's teasers :(


Are you still luke warm on Q now that we've had at least one instance of it spoiled? What about persist?

[jodokast34]

Hey, good article, I have to say that I agree about this whole Q thing. Although it could end up being pretty interesting with Auras that grant tap abilities and the like. I wonder if they will do a retroactive updating of things like Freed from the Real to somehow incorporate it? I doubt it because Q looks like it will only appear in costs and not effects, but strange things are happening in Magic.

Also, I just gotta put this out there--I beat you to the punch on Plainswalk. http://forum.tcgplayer.com/showthread.php?t=127780
Territory-staking ftw! Actually I'm sure a couple hundred others saw it before me. I hope it's a good card, I had a Mono-White deck that tried to make Graceful Antelope work as a color-screwer/win condition, but it never seemed to pan out.

Finally, good call on the basic/non-basic Armageddon. They'll probably save that for the Imperiosaur set, I would guess. But it would be a pretty format changing card if it was made. I would guess it would be a nonbasic hoser, they try to give basics as many strengths as they can, and a card like you suggested would be a powerful nonbasic deterrent, at least in Block.

Although Ruination was already made...anyone know what's up with the non-basic hosing themes in Exodus and Weatherlight?

[midi2304]

Also, I just gotta put this out there--I beat you to the punch on Plainswalk. http://forum.tcgplayer.com/showthread.php?t=127780
Territory-staking ftw! Actually I'm sure a couple hundred others saw it before me. I hope it's a good card, I had a Mono-White deck that tried to make Graceful Antelope work as a color-screwer/win condition, but it never seemed to pan out.

I noticed that :(

But remember I submitted this article on Thursday and it should have went up Friday ;P

Finally, good call on the basic/non-basic Armageddon. They'll probably save that for the Imperiosaur set, I would guess. But it would be a pretty format changing card if it was made. I would guess it would be a nonbasic hoser, they try to give basics as many strengths as they can, and a card like you suggested would be a powerful nonbasic deterrent, at least in Block.

The rumours are getting stronger and stronger that this will be either a basic or non-basic Armageddon.

Are you still luke warm on Q now that we've had at least one instance of it spoiled? What about persist?

Still luke warm Robin although, to be fair, I'm a bit more open to the idea than I was when I wrote the article, based on your piece last Friday and the official previews so far.

[lynxcat1]

I think you should focus on one topic rather than skimming over 3 or 4 separate ones. This article went from talking about the pros and cons of MODO to vague draft strategy, then veered abruptly into generic spoiler talk that might as well have been copy/pasted from MTGSal and then concluded with some random potshots at MaRo. There's no focus. I mean, could you just install Draftcap and walk us through your picks, or review your replays and find an interesting game situation or something? Maybe you could explain why the untap symbol merits no greater reaction than "yawn?" This article just felt blank to me.

Edit: Also, the organized play announcement is supposed to be made at the Gama Trade Show in late April. You can read about it here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dci/announce/dci20080221a). This stuff isn't hard to find. If you want to write about it in your article, can't you just take another 2 minutes and try a Google search? This is exactly what I mean when I say the article was unfocused.

[midi2304]

I think you should focus on one topic rather than skimming over 3 or 4 separate ones. This article went from talking about the pros and cons of MODO to vague draft strategy, then veered abruptly into generic spoiler talk that might as well have been copy/pasted from MTGSal and then concluded with some random potshots at MaRo. There's no focus. I mean, could you just install Draftcap and walk us through your picks, or review your replays and find an interesting game situation or something? Maybe you could explain why the untap symbol merits no greater reaction than "yawn?" This article just felt blank to me.

Hmmmm, ok. The point of the article is to be pretty 'light'. There are other guys doing the heavy stuff and I kind of thought there needed to be someone on the site that was a bit lighter and perhaps funnier and less bogged down in the minutiae of strategy - a la someone else who wrote for the site not so long ago.

I have taken your points on board though and I appreciate them. This week's article is focussed only on Block and next week I plan on doing a Draftcap'ed draft on MODO. So hopefully you will see more of what you are after in the coming weeks.

The 'untap' symbol thing just strikes me as a little uninspired. Perhaps we've gotten a little selfish lately with all the goodies R&D have thrown our way and maybe my opinion will change once I play with it. And please always remember to take my opinions (untap, Maro, etc) with a pinch of salt. Tongue will normally remain firmly-in-cheek ;)

[Destroyer51]

boo untap symbol... hooray beer!
i really don't like it... no real reasons, i just don't.

and the +20/+20 has been spoiled in the ferret's article.
5/5 guy, 7 mana, regens for free, if you tap 10 power's worth of creatures, he gets +20/+20. throw a warhammer on him to give him trample.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/tf80

too bad it's not a warrior...

[lynxcat1]

Hmmmm, ok. The point of the article is to be pretty 'light'. There are other guys doing the heavy stuff and I kind of thought there needed to be someone on the site that was a bit lighter and perhaps funnier and less bogged down in the minutiae of strategy - a la someone else who wrote for the site not so long ago.


Perhaps it's just my disdain for the whole quick-hits style of article. I feel it's used much too often as a dodge when the author has nothing meaningful to say. In place of a single coherent argument, the reader often is presented with half a dozen badly-formed arguments. This article sort of felt like that to me, but in hindsight that may be because of the gap between submission and publication. Your editor did you no favors by delaying the article and then publishing the Shadowmoor section as is. It seemed lazy as a result. That's the worst thing about writing one of these articles - it only takes one weak section for a fickle reader like me to dislike the whole article.

[midi2304]

Perhaps it's just my disdain for the whole quick-hits style of article. I feel it's used much too often as a dodge when the author has nothing meaningful to say. In place of a single coherent argument, the reader often is presented with half a dozen badly-formed arguments. This article sort of felt like that to me, but in hindsight that may be because of the gap between submission and publication. Your editor did you no favors by delaying the article and then publishing the Shadowmoor section as is. It seemed lazy as a result. That's the worst thing about writing one of these articles - it only takes one weak section for a fickle reader like me to dislike the whole article.

Well I appreciate you taking the time to tell me what you thought. I promise you the next couple of articles will veer away from the 'quick hits' formula but it is something I plan to on coming back to intermittently in amongst the heavier stuff.

[kcolloran]

I enjoyed your article except for your shots at MaRo.

As to your question about speed of spoilers. I want them as early as possible. The sooner the spoilers are out the sooner we can start figuring out how to draft them.

[midi2304]

I enjoyed your article except for your shots at MaRo.

I hope you didn't take them too seriously ;)

As fr spoilers, yes I want them as soon as everyone else but it's also nice when we get a nice constant trickle from Wizards themselves rather than having the whole set spoiled on mtgsalvation four weeks before. For me, there is a balance.

[Rakavolver]

I enjoyed your article except for your shots at MaRo.



And what's wrong with that? Dissing MaRo is a time-honored Magic tradition. He can thank himself and his card Tolarian Academy for that and the bizarre chain of bannings that followed in Combo Winter 98/99. He established himself at a time when WotC owner Peter Adkison was noted for being savagely leaderless by focusing on his love life and NOT FIRING incompetents. Mark has successfully ingratiated himself with current management and Hasbro since.

Check out the following Wikipedia entry of Mark. Possibly BY Mark? Hmm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rosewater

So who wrote that, I wonder? Hmm. "Rosewater has a Jewish background." Oh really? How's about I don't give a great goddamn what he is? About one out of every three players I face in NJ are Jewish ... background and all. So what? Who even WRITES that about themselves?!

I'm not going to list all the screw-ups Mark has made in Magic, this post would be endless. I will say I always enjoyed his "Question Mark", and The Invitational in those years in which it doesn't suck, and Mark deserves praise for them.

But if you compare the bad with the good, which wins?

[Rakavolver]

Stuffed, wild Haggis – we hunt them up here. In kilts.


Thanks, I always wondered what a Haggis looked like. Is that a Haggis egg next to it, or is it a Scottish shilling? Scottish bedwarmer?


There are many recipes, most of which have in common the following ingredients: sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours.

Haggis somewhat resembles stuffed intestines (pig intestines otherwise known as chitterlings or the kokoretsi of traditional Greek cuisine), sausages and savoury puddings of which it is among the largest types.

Gross. No wonder you have a dram with it.


As the 2001 English edition of the Larousse Gastronomique puts it, "Although its description is not immediately appealing, haggis has an excellent nutty texture and delicious savoury flavour."


Leave it to the French to make such a statement.


The haggis is frequently assumed to be Scottish in origin though there is little evidence for this, and food writer Alan Davidson states that the Ancient Romans were the first people known to have made products of the haggis type.


Oh, oh. Well, you still have James Watt, and man-skirts. Actually, the Romans wore kilts as well. NOW we know where you stole that idea from. Another question: where did the Romans steal THEIR ideas from, hmm?


A kind of primitive haggis is referred to in Homer's Odyssey, in book 20, when Odysseus is compared to "a man before a great blazing fire turning swiftly this way and that a stomach full of fat and blood, very eager to have it roasted quickly."


Oh, right. The Greeks. Always in our Culture it goes back to them.