Why your cheap deck want beat me!

[Infectionfan]

Something right now is pissing me off. The new generation of Magic The Gathering player. For some reason in the past years I have been playing which isn't long. I've noticed an increasing demand of "We want cheaper decks so we can play competitive!" Said in a little screaming kid voice.

What you don't understand is a cheaper deck does not always mean a winning game.

I Have been playing magic since 2013. Not very long right? My good military battle buddy is the one who introduced me into the game after finding out I was interested in card games. He has been playing since 1993. Since the card games release. Everything I have learned about playing the game was lesson after lessons of mistakes, miss plays and just dumb stuff. One thing he taught me that so many younger players do not understand is that. NOT EVERY CARD IS MEANT TO PLAY COMPETITIVELY! I Started playing magic in draft. A game mode I believe to be the most skilled magic play there is. For someone to take random cards and make a deck and win first place is good skill in my book and even good luck. (oh but you can not say that because players now do research before drafting so they know what cards to draft!!!!!) Bull. Just because they do does not mean they will get those cards. Any way back to the point. In draft being a new player and all. I would try and take the biggest freaking cards and put them all in one deck making no since what so ever. Wrong answer! For the first 6 months I never ever won a match. EEEVVVEEERR! The reason why. Because I didn't understand the game fully AND I didn't understand the value of cards. So my best friend said "no more! You will becoming better then this!" So we began play testing and my lessons of becoming a better player began.

So a month later I'm  making top 8 drafts in local stores. Now it is time to get into some standard. My friend is a big legacy fan. He doesn't hate standard it is just boring to him, but for me I love all formats! So I asked him one day lets build standard decks and SHOOT FOR THE GODS! Because that was the new set. Theros. So I put together some crap B/G deck and got my ass handed to me.

"but why did you lose? I thought you became a better player?" The person reading this says out loud.

I lost because I was a freaking noob to standard. My friend on the other hand made it to the top 8 with a R/B boss sligh deck. I was pissed on the inside. Why do I keep lossing??? WHHHYYY!!!! So now I'm serious. I'm going to go at this like Goku went after freeza! Bam pulled out my debt card. Went to the store front desk and said! Give me mono blue dev. Tom ross build Mother fucker! No I didn't do that, but I did build mono blue in 2014 after a year of horrible defeat.

Then at that point it all changed. The deck cost 200 bucks but I didn't care because I was winning my money back in packs. and this is why I think the new generation is making magic worse. actually the modern players. Yep I said it modern.  not new or young. Modern.

In magic there is a reason Tom Ross, BBD, CVM, that one guy who won the championship and everyone thinks he will win this year. Are really good players. They understand the value of cards and the player skill skill is amazing. Tom Ross is my favorite pro player out there. (fan boy much?) Because he took a freaking 40 dollar deck and whooped some butt at invitational Columbus with boss sligh. Reason why? He understood the value of the cards and how effective they could be, but it was 40 dollars not 9. This is a version of it right here:

Deck: Boss Sligh

//Lands
17 Mountain

//Spells
4 Coordinated Assault
4 Dragon Mantle
4 Lightning Strike
3 Magma Jet
4 Titan's Strength
4 Wild Slash

//Creatures
4 Akroan Crusader
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Foundry Street Denizen
4 Lightning Berserker
4 Monastery Swiftspear

//Sideboard
3 Smash to Smithereens
3 Rending Volley
1 Rouse the Mob
1 Blinding Flare
4 Spite of Mogis
3 Searing Blood

Display deck statistics

So yes a cheap deck can win, but it will not win for ever. It took everyone by surprise he was playing a mono-red build like this because it wasn't your standard build. People look at mono-red as a deck with just haste and burn. Bull. With this build it is all about the pump and kill fast. Burn is just a bonus. Now. If you take a cheap deck right. You with me? and play vs a 2000 deck. Who do you think will win? and why? I will just leave it at this and respond to this question with your reason why. Because I'm pretty sure a deck that cost 5 dollars wouldn't beat a well put together deck with the most efficient cards even in casual play.

So My point is this. Stop complaining that magic is expensive because it always will be. That is why they have different arch types. Legacy, modern and standard then draft. If your mad because you think your an amazing player and you can't compete because decks cost so much. Then just play draft.
         

[Drunk Cynic]

Can I safely assume English is your second language? Lets me know if I am annoyed or tolerate the typos.

A well built budget deck can win in Standard, but the odds are firmly stacked against it in Modern; even with the expanded card pool, there is a strong variation in quality through the price point. The problem is the impact that a card has on the pro tour will vastly inflate the after market price. Pack Rat jumped from $1.00 to $6.50 with Theros release, serving as the keystone for standard till it rotated out. Same for the flux in prices for Siege Rhino, the initial spike of Jeskai Ascendancy, and the persistence of Goblin Rabblemaster.

[Infectionfan]

I was typing with feeling and insults or weak. You really have a thing for me. Cheap decks in modern that cost 9 dollars have no chance with grixies twin or infinity or well put together decks. If your your really skilled player you would see that.

My point is to many players now are complaining about price when they shouldn't. If eveything was brought to 5 dollar for every card. Then I could just build every top deck no issue. Practice with it. Know the deck inside and out and win all the time. Pack rat was crap. It only jumped that high due to a pro player win with mono black, but did it win? did it reeaally win? No Boss Sligh did, but it wasn't 9 dollars or 10 or 11 it was 40. There are players who complain about 40 dollars. As far as modern. Modern players complain they can not get a goyf because it cost so much or that the reason they lose is because players who played for so long like my battle buddy has an advantage over them due to the fact they keep the rights cards in-order to play both modern and legacy. I have Tom Ross infect legacy deck which is about 1000 dollars, but I can also play it in modern and win. Modern complains about the band list and then stops playing until Wizard of the cost kisses their ass and changes it. When that happens the value of my cards drop and they are no longer valuable because of complaining. A card is rated on its impact on the format. Thus jace the mindscuplt was band the day it was used  in standard back then. Now it cost 74 dollars because it is so freaking good.

9 dollars or 15 or 20 dollars will not beat a 100+ deck. Sorry.   

[Drunk Cynic]

It isn't that I have a thing for you; I post here actively, and you've been making a lot of posts worth commenting on recently. Mostly I stick to reviewing Standard Legal decks, working on thought experiments, and trying to make a deck that isn't being played everywhere. If English was a second language, I wouldn't have to assume you were a 12 year old broadcasting illusions and standing. No insult is intended, just an offer to postpone judgment.

I'm not disagreeing with your claims of dollar value on Modern decks. The rash of the "cheap deck that will humiliate expensive decks" has been laughable. Half of them don't even stack up against the modern event deck. Every card that has strong playable value in Modern will retain a high cost; nature of supply and demand. Anyone that has been playing for less then a few years should stick to Standard until they've built up a strong collection or they buy the cards to make a competitive Modern deck. Legacy is for the old collectors who held on to their cards, modern supports the mid range folks, Standard favors those just joining, and Draft/Limited levels the playing field.

Are you talking about the Banned list or the Reserved List. Contextually you pointing at each of them.

On the dominance of Pack Rat, I was focusing on the Standard format. While I'll play and build for Modern, I don't make anything more than stock recommendations on Modern decks here due to the vast size of the card pool and cost.

[Infectionfan]

Assuming someones age based off of typing is immature any way. What if the person has some mental or physical issue. Just saying. I don't so no worry about that just used to playing speed typing.

I feel these topics need to be address because they are being talked about outside of blogs and forums. The banned list and Reserved. I believe the lists should not be touch until a card is produced that disturbs the meta game. Mean while I do agree with all players that wizard of the cost needs to give a new card a chance to be answered to before they ban it.

[Drunk Cynic]

In a realm where communication is solely via typed correspondence, that is all you have to judge the person as they try to present their ideas and entertain a conversation. Thus the question I posed, trying to figure out why your text patterns were so tortured, trying to move beyond the assumption.

The Reserved list is important, as it ensures protection of past cards to maintain their value while providing a promise of sorts for the value of future cards. Wizards of the Coast main focus is the continuation of their product, convincing enough people to buy so that they can keep making it; while they have an impact on the secondary market, it is beyond their direct control.

The Banned List is another thing entirely; some cards require a prompt response. For instance, Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time had a profound impact on Modern, to the extent that they featured in every top 8 deck for 2014 Worlds Championship Modern.

[Infectionfan]

but they never gave players a chance to answer treasure cruise or dig through time. They just banned it. Just like Bitter Blossom. They are talking about banning that card because the modern players are complaining it is "to powerful." What happen to using your brain and trying to beat it.   

[Drunk Cynic]

It's a balancing act between keeping the game challenging and maintaining a player base. I suspect that the strongest aim is to ensure a diversity in the decks that appear on top. They saw the pain and belly aching when Pack Rat dominated standard, to the point that it came down to which mirror deck would win, and realized the threat that kind of deterministic feeling would have on their ability to sell cards. A rehash of the same thing in modern, where Delver took over, didn't sit well, especially since it already suffers from the existing blight of being a rich man's format. I'm not necessarily agreeing with the determination, just understanding it.

Also, to be clear: I'm not attacking you personally, just engaging in the conversation. I lurk here when my insomnia kicks in and theory craft interesting interactions for Standard. Just so happens that few people post, so what I see as a conversation may appear as an assault on your digital person.

[Infectionfan]

I don't care about negatives I care about magic  but the balancing should come 50% from the players just like it was when the game first came out.

[Drunk Cynic]

I don't care about negatives I care about magic  but the balancing should come 50% from the players just like it was when the game first came out.

Oh, no thank you. The pendulum swung much harder when the game first came out; from omg broken to 'this sucks.'

I lived through the pains of being forced to try and play with cards from Homelands. Never again.

[Yuwaki]

I lived through the pains of being forced to try and play with cards from Homelands. Never again.

This why they made Apocalypse Chime

but they never gave players a chance to answer treasure cruise or dig through time. They just banned it. Just like Bitter Blossom. They are talking about banning that card because the modern players are complaining it is "to powerful." What happen to using your brain and trying to beat it.

Its simply because Treasure Cruise can go as cheap like Ancestral Recall. Even if you cast it for U2 or U1 its still to cheap for a +2 in card advantage. Filling the graveyard isnt an issue in modern with all those 1-2 Mana spells and Fetchlands around.

Of cause competive is more expensive then casual envoirement, thats why its competive after all. Some cards are just so expensive because of other existing cards or popular Decks. Ever tried playing cards like Blood Moon / Linvala, keeper of Silence in casual? Not so effective at all compared to their impact in Modern.

Its also about the matchup you get, not just about the price of the cards.
Some archtypes rise and fall based on other popular decks in their format.
Its funny when i see those guys with there 1000$ decks they copied from some tournement guy and dont know how to play with it x)


Besides that, i like Wotc new balancing and the cards they make (pls go away Renown >:l).
Like you said, not all cards are made to be played competive (The Great Aurora , Worldfire ect).
Because the most important thing of the game is to have fun , right? : )

[V_Era]

I wont to let you know this story was so amusing the way you entertain the process of a top archetype of young planeswalkers. I do believe there is a higher level for budget and competitiveness you will find Infectious. All what Drunk Cynic was sharing is great advice.