Interesting, thanks.
Finally some BANLISTED cards getting re-watched and tested under realistic conditions.
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1
on: 01-12-2018, 04:28:28 PM
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| Started by Tabris - Last post by DarkLight | ||
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2
on: 01-12-2018, 04:00:56 PM
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| Started by Tabris - Last post by Dr. Opossum | ||
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Friday, November 30th
We made our regular friday tournament a test session for 3 of the 4 unban candidates: Jitte, Skullclamp and Gifts Ungiven.  - Leopold was not prepared for the test session (no Facebook, etc.). We informed him and gave him time for including them as a proxy/ play test card, but he decided not to. - only 2 players included all of the 3 cards - we decided to play 4 rounds instead of 3 to have more room for testing  Mentional situations: Round 1: - dmg race between Jitte and Cranial Plating - Jitte got countered - Felix cried - Nils drew Gifts Ungiven -> was not able/ did not want to cast it because it costs 4 - Felix won Game 1 after 5 minutes with Jitte on board, but opponent was stuck on 1 land anyway (kept 1-land-hand) - Marvin complains about a very strong 4/1 creature with a Skullclamp on Steffen's board (makes blocking awkward -> afraid of direct dmg spells, which could be drawn by Skullclamp after block) Round 2: - Dion G1 vs. Florian with an insane start with Fastbond into Intuition turn 1 - Florian stole Dion's jitte with Dack Fayden -> equip on True-Name Nemesis -> Florian won G1 - Skullclamp hinder a meaningful attack against Steffen + draws him 2 cards -> won him this game - Skullclamp draws Felix 6 cards, but he lost against Blood Moon - Gifts Ungiven (Counterspell, Mana Drain, Dig through Time, treasure Cruise) wins Dion G2 - Benjamin finally finds a Skullclamp in his deck -> was completely irrelevant for the game - Nils drew Gifts ungiven again -> was not able/ did not want to cast it because it costs 4 Round 3: - Marvin won G1 with of Jitte and Gaea's Cradle (opponent: Crade start was insane, but the Jitte made him concede; he would not have given up against a sword) - Dion won with Jitte, but describes it as a "speed-up" for the outcome and not the reason for the win Round 4: - Dion wins again because of Gifts Ungiven (Crucible of Worlds, Zuran Orb, Memory's Peace, Fastbond) - Felix lose with Jitte and Skullclamp - more crying - Nils' Jitte kills Felix' Fauna Shaman and with it his chance to come back into the game - Dion still winning with insane Gifts ungiven piles (True-Name Nemesis, Eternal Witness, Regrowth, Crush of Tentacles) - Dion vs. Marvin play 2:1 but announced ID  Marvin: - won him games - all 3 cards felt unfair (especially Jitte and Gifts Ungiven) Nils: - Gifts was, because of its costs, barely castable for him Benjamin: - no interactions with Gifts Ungiven - barely drew Jitte and Skullclamp and barely played against them - felt irrelevant for him Dion: - could live with a Skullclamp unban - strongest card by far: Gifts Ungiven (won him several games) - Jitte mostly only speeded games up (already good board state -> Jitte = win-more card) Felix: - saddest day of his life - would burn Jitte Steffen: - Skullclamp was a nice add-on for him - no interactions with Gifts Ungiven - all 3 cards felt ok for RDW, but could feel not ok for his other decks - would like to test them more Overall: - described the test session as refreshing/ funny - even if Jitte was not described as win relevant, it felt for all interviewed participents unbalanced - after resolving Jitte players often feels focussed on it, even if Jitte is not necessarely relevant - Gifts Ungiven was described as totally insane and unfair in decks, which could abuse it (mostly Combo) and totally irrelevant and nearly dead in Midrange - Skullclamp got the most unban votings at the end of the day - samplesize (especially for Gifts Ungiven) way too small -> min 5/8 would like to test again - participents of test session would not need more test sessions for Jitte, but definitely for Skullclamp and Gifts Ungiven (+ Birthing Pod) - some players also prepared with solutions on artifacts - partially people said, 2 relevant equipments led to distortions that only one tested equipment would not have caused (e.g. only Skullclamp would have caused less adjustment) - Leopold left because he had a Bye in the last round -> no interview - Florian dropped from the tournament after round 3 -> no interview |
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3
on: 30-11-2018, 06:24:32 PM
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| Started by Dr. Opossum - Last post by MacGyver | ||
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Thanks for the effort.
As far as I read the survey, no unbannigs\bannings should take place the next time. On the one hand most of the players are satisfied with the format and on the other none of the cards that could be voted for gathered more than 1\3 of the votes. |
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4
on: 29-11-2018, 03:45:08 AM
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| Started by Dr. Opossum - Last post by DarkLight | ||
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Laughed pretty good at some BAN/UNBAN reasonings, thanks for sharing.
Looking forward for the next Banlist changes  |
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5
on: 28-11-2018, 08:03:19 PM
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| Started by Dr. Opossum - Last post by Dr. Opossum | ||
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We had also some arguments against bannings/ unbannings of specific cards.
(NO) Ban: Imperial Seal - slow - card disadvantage II - 2 dmg II - sorcery - almost identical to Personal Tutor - fine - I don't care - I don't think it is ban-worthy - worse tutor than Demonic Tutor - tutors are fine Mana Drain - most tempo decks can't use mana to full extend - weakest card of the Watch list - often just another hard counter - we do not have many counter spells - I don't mind it - is necessary for Control II - makes Control feasable - Mana not always used - very powerful, but en par with many cards - just a counter Scapeshift - ban would destroy archetype - deck is not too strong - deck is not too dominant - deck is fine - ban tutors to weaken it instead - format can adjust to it - good against RDW - cool archetype - needs other bans (e.g. Bring to Light) - don't ban a whole deck - ban Valakut instead - watchlisted! - deck is at most slightly too strong - deck should not be destroyed - makes interesting decks Tolarian Academy - ban would destroy archtype - unique card - needs a certain set-up - leave it until deck dominates - seems ok (even if I never played the deck myself) - watchlisted! - decks are not winning tournaments -> why weaken? - cool card Treasure Cruise - first ban Dig Through Time - Blue needs this - ban True-Name Nemesis instead - Eternal formats should have this - i don't care - blue deck essential card draw - it's fine - mot oppressive - fine - cool card True-Name Nemesis - only punish passive play styles - doesn't dominate at all - don't like the design, but it is ok - ?? 3-mana-creature! - card is ok - cool card Tainted Pact - tutors are needed in Singleton formats - don't think this must go right now, but if a tutor needs to go, ban this - needs many non-basics - could be banned if Reanimator and Scapeshift need to be weakened - i'm 50/50% on this Demonic Tutor - iconic (for B) II - just don't - mostly used reactively - we need some tutors to enable Combo - keeps black attractive for Control decks - enables many strategies - helps/ necessesary for Control II - Tainted Pack is not for basic decks -> more non-basics -> more BM decks - the spirit of the format - makes Control feasable - finds mostly solutions - tutors are fine Entomb - Reanimator is not too dominant II - possibility to enable other Combos (e.g. Life from the Loam) - have not seen it being abused - Reanimator is not oppressive - I bought a japanese foil one - Is Reanimator Tier 1? - watchlisted - very powerful, but not good in late game in Reanimator -> ok Oath of Druids - unique card - needs a certain set-up - no successful archivement in recent tournaments - ban tutors before this - deck is not a problem - deck is good, but not over powered - not seen too often - Reanimator is not oppressive - I bought a japanese foil one - needs a lot cards in the deck - many cards cannot be played with it in the deck - build-around-card - creatures too strong - fine - an interesting Combo deck Dig Through Time - blue is fine - blue is dead without Dig and Cruise - ban True-Name Nemesis instead - reason to play Control - Eternal formats should have this - not over powered - blue decks essential card draw - costs double U - not oppressive - fine - hard to cast - is ok (NO) Unban: Birthing Pod - makes every creature deck a Combo pile - stupid - not more broken cards - first Birthing Pod wins - recurring tutor is bad Gifts Ungiven - we want to WEAKEN Scapeshift - makes Reanimator even stronger II - too good in Combo - not more broken cards - please no more tutors - would put Reanimator over the top - I don't know - better than most tutors Skullclamp - Skullclamp = 1-mana-True-Name-Nemesis - too strong for Combo AND/ OR creature decks II - we don't want to warp the format - draw Skullclamp = win (most of the time) - pushed creature strategies - not more broken cards - does not only favor creature decks (e.g. Tempo, Control) - HAHAHAHA... - No! - warp the whole game around it Umezawa's Jitte - dominates creature mirrors - warp the whole game around it - makes Midrange random - first Jitte wins - not more broken cards - NO - makes creature decks too strong Interesting addition: 11 participants did not write anything on the back page of the sheet. This can have different reasons like a. overlooked the back page, b. would simply not ban/ unban cards, which was written on the back page. Also: most of the participants, who did not filled out the back page, did barely filled out the front page, too. |
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6
on: 28-11-2018, 08:02:58 PM
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| Started by Dr. Opossum - Last post by Dr. Opossum | ||
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This survey was hand out at the Continental Cup in Halle, Germany, November 17th. We had 65 participants.
How often do you play Highlander (highlandermagic.info rules)? (absolute frequencies) more than 50% play at least once per week more than 90% play at least once per month  Where are you from? (absolute frequencies) structured according to play activity most participents from Berlin, Germany  How satisfied are you with the format currently on a scale from 1 to 10 (1=not at all, 10=very much)? (absolute frequencies)  (absolute frequencies) (mean) (median -> resistant to outliers) satisfaction structured according to place of residence very small samplesizes because of the heterogeneous distribution of place of residence somehow interpretable are maybe Berlin, Halle and Leipzig (seems satified) and Mannheim (seems less satisfied)  These card should be banned: (absolute frequencies) (relative frequencies)  (absolute frequencies) structured according to place of residence  (absolute frequencies) satisfaction structured according to wished banned card  Reasonings: (I tried to make the written reasonings as unadulterated as possible, even if there were synonymous formulations (eg "too strong" vs. "too powerful"). Same formulations were simply counted.) True-Name Nemesis - design II - one-dimensional - uncreative - this card is banana - non-interactive III - game breaking - boring II - unfun II - best creature in format II - a tool blue creatues / decks should not have/ should not be able to - every deck needs to add silver bullets for this - auto-include - blue beater - a blue creature should not be the best creature in a healthy format - great tool for blue - not needed - makes games stale - blue should not have such a strong creature Dig Through Time - instant III - soft tutor - too cheap IIII - card advantage and card selection (connected to other advantages) III - too strong IIII - broken - blue is the strongest color II - too powerful - leads to non-games Entomb - too fast II - random - boring/ stupid - too strong III - best tutor in game - prefers Combo - two-card-combo with every reanimation spell - would ban one black tutor (doesn't matter which one) - Reanimator is no fun - reanimator is under represented but too strong - too powerful - leads to non-games - scary Reanimator Mana Drain - too much upside to Counterspell II - too strong IIII - my teammates urge me to vote for ban - maybe too strong - counter turn 2 - ramp III - Counterspell is already too strong - variance - we already have enough counter spells IIII - game is over after Mana is used - turn-2-random-win - too powerful - too fast - tempo swing can be insane Demonic Tutor - unconditional tutor - too strong III - easy splashable - in nearly every deck - best tutor - against the spirit of Highlander - most efficient tutor - would ban one black tutor (doesn't matter which one) - "I win"-button - no skill needed - too powerful II - too many tutors in format - Combo decks on the top - lowering power level Tolarian Academy - non-interactive III - broken II - unfun - generates a lot of Mana - many decks only function with this - absurd game starts - ban, but ban would also make me sad - without downside - hard to recover with fast win clock - deck ist not too powerful, but card itself is - stupid Treasure Cruise - similar to Dig Through Time - card advantage (connected to other advantages) IIII - too cheap IIIII - too strong - broken ii - nearly Ancestral Recall II - blue is already too strong - too powerful - leads to non-games - feels unfair Oath of Druids - design failure - uninteractive II - unfun - unfair II - enchantment/ hard to handle - leads to non-games - too fast Imperial Seal - too strong - with oath (?) - too efficient - change it back to Mystical Tutor - would ban one black tutor (doesn't matter which one) - is not needed - too many tutors in format II - too powerful Scapeshift - unfun - one-card-combo III - boring - one-card-win - hard to handle - game breaking - nearly no cost for the Combo - too dominant - too little counter play - "I win"-button - stolen games - easy to build Tainted Pact - instant II - unconditional - too strong - would ban one black tutor (doesn't matter which one) - if Demonic Tutor stays - too many tutors in format II - too powerful - Demonic Tutor with at least some deck restrictions - clear ban - too much advantage in every multicolor deck with B - over powered Bring to Light - if Scapeshift is a problem/ weakens Scapeshift III Fireblast - weakens (only) RDW II Bloodmoon - non-interactive Back to Basics - non-interactive Karakas Price of Progress - too much damage - too often game ending - too cheap - create spots where you can only lose to this - feels too unlucky Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle Stoneforge Mystic - auto-include in nearly every white deck - against the spirit of Highlander The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale - too strong against creature decks Thrun, the Last Troll - impossible to handle - sometimes I have nightmares because of Thrun Bazaar of Baghdad - too much value This card should be unbanned: (absolute frequencies) (relative frequencies)  (absolute frequencies) structured according to place of residence  (absolute frequencies) satisfaction structured according to wished unbanned card people seem to be satisfied even if they would unban card(s)  Reasonings: (I tried to make the written reasonings as unadulterated as possible, even if there were synonymous formulations (eg "too strong" vs. "too powerful"). Same formulations were simply counted.) Umezawa's Jitte - strengthens creature decks II - better chances for creature decks - fine compared to other equipments - only hits creature-based decks - not enough good equipments - buff Aggro decks - format can handle it -  - only slightly better than Swords - because I want to play it - only unban, if Stoneforge Mystic is banned - fair II - safest unban of all 4 (watchlist cards) Birthing Pod - strengthens creature decks - none of the dominating decks would play it - would make creatures great - more creature decks - if we don't ban anything, this should be banned - let's test it II - needs brain to integrate it in a deck - could be fine - creature-based decks lose to Path to Exile (?) anyway - enough solutions in format - not relevant at the moment - different times than before ban Skullclamp - strengthens creature decks II - creature-based decks and midrange isn't that good anymore - needs a special setup - strengthens non-blue decks - non-blue decks become less and less present - benefits non-tier decks - probaly too slow to be busted - we should try it - buff Aggro decks - want to see what will happen Gifts Ungiven - Intuition is legal - similar high-impact cards are legal/ not at critical mass - reanimator is not very good, but viable - format is fast enough - tutor - format too aggressive - more diversity - Why is this even banned? Natural Order - without tutors it is fine Library of Alexandria - format is fast enough Mystical Tutor - consistancy is fun Sensei's Divining Top Number of cards to change: (mean) structured according to place of residence  Survey layout:   |
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7
on: 25-11-2018, 02:59:05 PM
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| Started by Tabris - Last post by Dr. Opossum | ||
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Friday, November 25th
1 Jonny S. 12 - UW Midrange 2 Niclas 9 - Mono B Aggro 3 Steffen 9 - RDW 4 Marvin 9 - GWb Aggro 5 Moritz 7 - Grixis Midrange 6 Benjamin 6 - 4C Artifact Aggro 7 Anton 6 - UWr Control 8 Nils 6 - Grixis Tempo 9 Jacob 4 - 5C Combo with Reanimator side plan 10 Karl 4 - 5C Artifact Combo 11 Dion 4 - UG Turns 12 Felix 3 - Rakdos Aggro 13 Tobias 3 - RDW 14 Jan 0 - Mono B Midrange |
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9
on: 18-11-2018, 08:47:56 PM
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| Started by Dr. Opossum - Last post by Dr. Opossum | ||
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Added Video Coverage to the main post
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10
on: 12-11-2018, 08:47:12 PM
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| Started by Vazdru - Last post by Vazdru | ||
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Great Payout! yeah - crazy thing how times changed  EUR 15 and first price Tabernacle (it) + Workshop (engl.) ...   just 7 years ago |
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