(NOTE: Due to some video rendering problems, our first two rounds are only available as .avi file downloads. Also, in lieu of our normal written ‘final thoughts,’ we wax exhausted about the DE, our deck, and the Modern format more generally near the end of our final video.)
~~~<3 Click 'play' below to watch us describe our deck! ~~~<3
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Esper Hate for Modern, listed for your convenience
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Round 1 is downloadable as a .avi file.
Click the arrow to download the above video in .avi format.Round 2 is downloadable as a .avi file.
Click the arrow to download the above video in .avi format.Click here to show our third match. »
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Click here to show our fourth match. »
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.
It looks like there’s some sort of weird problem preventing us from rendering the first and second round videos. In an attempt to circumvent the rendering problem, I’ve tried to load the videos as .avi files instead of .mp4 files. While I seriously doubt they will play successfully on the players above, you may be able to download them by clicking on the blue arrows under the video screens.
It’s too bad. Those were enjoyable matches. Someone let me know if it is or isn’t working after a couple of hours.
Currently not able to download the matches or watch them, 4AM EST. I’ll check back later, eh?
I love watching you guys but I have to be honest I prefer Draft videos. As drafting is something I could do without a huge investment.
I know a lot of people are excited about modern but I hope when the next expansion comes out we get to see some more drafts.
Okay, so I’ve fixed something that makes it possible to download R1 and R2 as .avi files, but I’m worried we only have an audio component.
Round 1 works right now in that capacity, and Round 2 should be ready by 2:30 US East. (I may not have time beyond that to fix some of these errors now because I have to prep for Hurricane Irene.)
Appreciate the vids, but I do have some constructive feedback.
1) I understand these videos are meant to be really casual and all, but the constant silly bantering and joking honestly borders on irritating. Seems this is a continuing theme of your videos and in my opinion simply detracts from them. Case in point, in the 3rd vid, going on and on about eating a burrito and vomiting, etc. It’s just silly and dumb, and I’d rather watch just about any other person’s Magic videos than have to endure that. I also noticed this in the draft vids where one of you would be trying to analyze picks while the other would be joking or completely off-topic. It’s really jarring in my opinion…
2) Related to the first point, I wish instead you’d focus more time and effort on analyzing your plays, decisions, the matchups, etc. I don’t exactly grasp the intention of these vids, since it seems half the time you’re not really taking the games seriously anyway. If the point of these vids is just to be funny and corny, that’s fine, but it seems sites like MTGO Academy should strive for a bit more professionalism. I’d point you to LSV’s gauntlet series on CFB as a great example of being funny but also highly informative, since your videos are similar in essence to those.
Just trying to provide some honest feedback, as I certainly appreciate the fact you guys put forth the time to create these videos. I just personally think the audience could get more out of them. Thanks
RE: Stratos — You’re quite right that we’re trying for these to be casual, but your point is well-taken. I don’t think I’m going to cut back on talking about eating, etc., during the videos, but from this point on, we’ll make more of an effort to reason out our gameplay decisions when they’re important (which is quite often, actually — more often that we discussed during the above vids). We’re particularly guilty of not doing so in these videos because we were tired, but that’s not really an excuse. Next time, if we can finally get to a Legacy DE, you’ll see us be a little bit more attentive to your concerns when we’re filming.
RE: Malum — We’ll definitely be doing Drafts again. The reason we’ve been trying to look into other stuff is because we already have so much high quality Draft content on our site (Limited Resources, Simon Goertzen’s video series Modern Magic, and Table Manners). We love Limited Magic, but we think it’s a bit easy to find on the Internet, whereas Constructed videos aren’t quite as accessible or of as high of quality. In short, it’s a niche we’re still working on filling.
An unrelated note: It looks like the .avi files do indeed work, though the second one may not be completely finished. Some video players might not run these files, but there’s a ton of freeware available for download that will if you don’t already have it.
This seems like an archetype that could be developed further. What seemed to work for you after playing these games? Concerning Dark Confidant, I believe it’s a mistake to not have him in your 75. If you’re up against a deck that doesn’t punish you for the life loss, I don’t see why you wouldn’t want an arena on a stick. This would help in those games against U/W or even 12post where they don’t have a lot of pressure, but you want your soft lock pieces to stick around.
What I do appreciate though is testing out some other ideas in the new format (this was obviously a test build, hence the 2 ofs,etc.). Developing an archetype and discussing how you guys build decks is something that I’d like to see done more often. Far too often, there’s simply a brief overview of a netdeck list, without actually going in to what may be better depending on the field expected,etc. If you’re drifting from drafting, I think it would be cool to see some more in depth rogue deck building and format analysis for those looking for something a little different.
We talk a bit about how the deck performed at the end of the final video, but after thinking about it a bit more, I’d say that
(1) Leonin Arbiter is ineffectual considering what cards could be played in its place. The way that the format ‘seems’ to work right now, he’s just not good enough, and Leonin Relic-Warder or Kor Firewalker even would probably be better in the main.
(2) In a deck like this, the plan to win by hardcasting swords and equipping them is not strong enough. Equipment isn’t as good when it doesn’t just **poof** arrive in your hand with Stoneforge Mystic. I’d rather play a bigger threat in place of those swords in the future. Maybe a Baneslayer? Maybe Calciderm? Hell, maybe Angelic Destiny!? None of those sound like the best options, but they’d be interesting to test.
(3) Another piece of maindeck discard would be good. The games we won, we won because of the power of Inquisition and Thoughtseize, and we’re certainly onto something there. The comparatively lower power level of our deck requires that we really synergistically wreck our opponent’s hand at the beginning of the game, and it was probably greedy to run six Turn 1 discard spells rather than seven. Seeing your opponent’s hand and playing a Meddling Mage is pretty backbreaking for your opponent, too, especially since you have the option of locking down their hand, or anticipating one of the few cards the could topdeck to ruin your day.
Honestly, it’s unclear to me right now what sorts of decks can perform in the new format. Living End builds, for instance, would probably do pretty poorly against a build like ours, but we haven’t had a chance to test it yet. I’d also like to try the 12Post match a couple of times to see what would happen. In short, we threw together a neat list to experiment because we had to switch our plans from Legacy to Modern, and while we had fun, we could have done some much better preparation. For now, that’s okay, but in the future, we’ll exert a more concerted effort to experiment in a way that makes sense.
Editor,
In your blerb, you pose this question without proper punctuation: How tired will they be.
Is this rhetorical, since Kool is as lazy as an AIDS patient?
Are the bulls-eyes showing up over the location of every mouse click part of the actual video, or just some weird feature of this media player I DLed to watch these? >__>
Fixed that question mark. I guess Hurricane Irene got me nervous.
And yeah, chris turned on the thing that marks when he clicks. it’s not the video player, though that was my first reaction, too: “Chris, how come when I use VLC to watch .avi files, it knows when you clicked?”
Great video series, guys. I love constructed videos so much but you can’t find them anywhere, so I’m happy to see you’re willing to do whatever. Also, in response to complaints above, I think if either of you were too concerned with playing seriously or being informative and not just being natural, it could become awkward (see MJ constructed videos on SCG…his pretend surprise will always bug me at least a little bit), so I’m happy you guys just have fun.
One incredibly specific, incredibly small criticism, though…talking above the concede game box in match four makes me shudder. It’s so inadvertently rude. There’s nothing like finishing out a long DE only to have to watch your clock for 5 minutes until your opponent concedes! Also, respect chihoi, man…that dude is a beast.
Anyway, keep up the awesome videos!
PS. I hope by burrito you meant Chipotle burrito…delicious.
I suppose I didn’t watch long enough to see my only incredibly specific criticism get addressed in the video…I just became on of those guys.
Again…love the videos. Keep on keepin’ on, sirs.
I dont see why you took out stillmoon cavalier against jund.
It jumps and blocks chandras phoeneix. has problack
jumps and have evasion on offensive.
and has first strike which is good against all of his creatures.
If you download the codec from here http://www.techsmith.com/codecs.asp, you should be able to play the first two videos. I use Media Player Classic for replay.
VLC works quite well for Mac users. (I’m a Mac user :()
One of you guys sound nerdy as hell.
@Chris: I am the deep voice. AJ is the higher voice. We are both nerdy as hell
As a certain german TV channel would say: “Disgusting, smelly nerds”.
Anyways, I already PMed you that the powerlevel of your deck is very low. Moar discard, moar Meddling Mages. I think for you it will be crucial that you survive the first 4 turns. Don’t know how good Timely is in modern (zoo), but I’d play 4 (over Martyr of Sands). 2 MD, 2 SB or something like this.
Esper Charm is the best control spell atm, sadly. I think you need him.
And you need better finishers. That 5/5 shroud sphinx would be good, probably better than Calciderm (FU @ that block). I think anything that can be targeted is not a good control finisher at the moment (herro mr path), and Sphinx has evasion.
Anyways, you might be able to tune this color combination into a real control deck as soon as the meta gets more defined. Looking forward to this.
Until then, pack SB hate against 12post and Zoo and have good removal and lifegain.