FYI: cockatrice does work

I love reading play by play accounts to see what people will be doing but I'm always let down that the time isn't taken to make proxies and play against a friend. Why? The reasons are many;

• Bias towards one own deck. You cannot remove yourself from this. It's natural and in most cases on a subconscious level.
• The play test system on here is useful to get a feel for a deck, but it has too many variables in it that prove to be faulty for a live play substitute.
• It takes 5 minutes to make proxies which allows for an unbiased play against an opponent that isn't you.
• Knowing your opponent's had while playing aggro/tempo makes you play less aggressively, giving them an advantage.
• Knowing your opponent's had while playing control gives you a huge ass advantage. You make the perfect play every time.
• Playing against a friend throws in the most important element of magic; a live opponent.

That being said it was well written and I am also a huge fan of Dimir so I'm glad to see someone showing the potential of the play style.

I agree with Monoxidechild about playing with proxies and against live opponents. Reading the article, there were several other things I would have done instead as the selesnya deck (since I run one as well). Hand knowledge is everything too.

Other than that, I do enjoy reading playtest articles. Great job on your first one! Hoping to see more articles on your deck. I've been following Spootyone's showdown series as well.

Please playtest my deck:

I would like my deck to be playtested against:

deck-large:Jund-Aggro--Midrange

I would probably take out 3 Doom Blade s, and 4 Elvish Mystic s and put in 3 Dark Betrayal s and 2 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed and 2 Slaughter Games

I also agree with Monoxidechild about getting a friend and proxying the decks and playing like that

Haha I see my deck is having mana issues. How very usual of it.

The only thing I would've done differently is to populate the wurm token with Scion of Vitu-Ghazi in game 1 and not the bird. It's irrelevant though since you ended up having Ratchet Bomb . Thanks for this man! I think you've got a good deck. Yow even sideboarded exactly as I would have in this matchup. And I think it's funny that even before reading this I added in Polukranos, World Eater to my deck lol. Great minds think alike, right?

As for what Monoxidechild says, I think it really depends on the individual's situation. For example, I don't have anyone I can play with on a normal basis in person (I just recently moved). In addition to that, you have to make sure both players are of equal strength. If one player is a professional and the other is...well, me...odds are the other player would win more for that reason alone. In that case, you're getting more of a read on who is the better player -- not who has the better deck.

In addition, part of what keeps me personally happy when writing my articles is getting to try out so many different deck archetypes and learn about other things I may run into AS the person playing it. It's a much better way of learning how to get inside your opponent's head and really get a read on what they might be about to play. Perhaps it's just a personal preference though. I agree that bias will always be present, but I know in my case (and likely BeatAll's case) everything is done to be as fair as possible. I always want my deck to win because it's mine and I want to feel like I'm accomplishing something, but I know I'd never do something to skew the results because then I don't learn anything at all.

All in all, I think this article was a very good one. And I look forward to reading more of them. Well done, BeatAll.

@Spootyone

"I think it really depends on the individual's situation. For example, I don't have anyone I can play with on a normal basis in person (I just recently moved)."

I can see how this could be an issue, but a potential solution is going to a local shop and asking some players?

"...you have to make sure both players are of equal strength. If one player is a professional and the other is...well, me...odds are the other player would win more for that reason alone. In that case, you're getting more of a read on who is the better player -- not who has the better deck."

After playing in my own meta I can pick out the people above or below my play experience (Which is a little short of a year now) pretty consistently. Not to mention they might have some niffty home brews or standard net decks to test against.

"...part of what keeps me personally happy when writing my articles is getting to try out so many different deck archetypes and learn about other things I may run into AS the person playing it. "

Agreed.

I was really hoping my comments would be taken as positive criticism; like I said it was well written and is a great read.

Really I hope BeatAll keeps them coming because I'll be sure to read them.

@Monoxidechild --- I agree with everything you said, unfortunately, I'm rather restricted at the moment as spooty said he was after moving.

First off, I actually don't have an easy way to make proxies, I don't have a working printer, so I'd manually have to write every card on a piece of scratch paper and sleeve them all up to be fair.

Second, I'll admit there were several moments where I was looking at my Ratchet bomb in my hand while at the same time, there was a Advent of the wurm in spoot's hand. I can't just NOT play the wurm because of the ratchet bomb I shouldn't know is there, any selesnya player I know would have to race the pack rat as fast as possible.

Honestly, whoever is playtesting in a series such as this will have the advantage right off the bat with their own deck. Why? Because they know it. I could do some crazy things with Haunted Plate Mail in my deck, and most other people might look at it, think it's bad and never play it right. This is demonstrated in Match 1; Spoots turn 5 and Match 1; Spoots turn 9. For turn 5, when I cast Devour Flesh , a good selesnya player would sacrifice the token that was immediately made from Voice of Resurgence , but because I don't play selesnya myself, I forgot you could do that until later. As spootyone pointed out on turn 9, Scion could populate the wurm instead of the bird. I am unfamiliar with Scion of Vitu-Ghazi and I simplified its ETB in my head to read, "when this enters the battlefield, put two 1/1 birds tokens into play"

Finally, one last thing I'd like to point out - Who here has friends that are patient enough to write down a turn-by-turn play in a real game of magic and still be able to make good play-decisions? I know I would personally find that EXTREMELY distracting xD (and each person would have to write what was in their own hand, and at the end you would have to compile all that information...)

I totally agree with you there. Problem is that I don't have transportation at all (should have my license like 4 times over by now but there have been extenuating circumstances. If I had the chance, though, I'd probably give it a go. And just in case you thought otherwise, I definitely saw it as positive criticism.

Anyway, now I feel silly for turning this comment section towards me, so I'll go ahead and get back to talking about BeatAll. Pack Rat really is an amazing card. Especially in a deck like esper where I know I'd really hesitate to bring in my Last Breath or keep in my Celestial Flare . The risk of them being dead draws is just so great.

BeatAll brings up some good points I actually had forgotten to mention in that last paragraph. I think one-player writeups are probably more reasonable, whereas video playtests allow for much better use of two players.

My only question has to do with the Devour Flesh play in Game 1. Why not sack the token from Voice of Resurgence ? Even though the Voice replaces itself with another token, wouldn't the optimal play be to sac the token as Voice can generate more of them and deter further instants from the opponent?

@ShadowDragon48 - I made a play mistake from both decks in that regard --- First off, I should have cast devour flesh on my own turn. Selesnya would naturally sacrifice their voice token and still have a creature in play. As you said, sacrificing the voice itself was the play mistake from the other side. I forgot that you could sacrifice the token that was made when you cast the spell until later on.

@BeatAll: I figured as much. I've made more than my fair share of mistakes like that myself, but that's one of the biggest points of play-testing! All in all, I think it's a great article. Nice work!

Interesting read, nice to see another article with a very different style than Spooty's. The only thing I would have done differently was cast Advent of the Wurm at the opponent's end step every time, giving less time for response.

And since you're doing a similar article to Spooty, I will go ahead and submit what I think to be one of the current powerhouses in the standard environment: RBW Midrange. With access to Dreadbore , Hero's Downfall , Rakdos's Return , Obzedat, Ghost Council , and Blood Baron of Vizkopa , the deck can be brutal.

deck-large: Brutality-Incarnate

Sideboard tech against your deck.

-3 Read the Bones : I can't afford to spend a turn looking for something, I need to spend every turn brutally hurting my opponent until they can't recover

+3 Thoughtseize : Always nice to set back my opponent a little right from the get-go.

-2 Boros Charm : indestructible isn't going to save me from Devour Flesh and burn isn't all that important.

-1 Warleader's Helix : again, burn is not too important, but being able to target a creature and gain 4 life out of it can help a lot.

+3 Slaughter Games : The first one would almost definitely be used against Pack Rat seeing as how ridiculous it can get as fast as it does. This also lets me see your hand and search your library for any other threat to hit with the next Slaughter Games , such as AEtherling .

Interesting read, nice to see another article with a very different style than Spooty's. The only thing I would have done differently was cast Advent of the Wurm at the opponent's end step every time, giving less time for response.

And since you're doing a similar article to Spooty, I will go ahead and submit what I think to be one of the current powerhouses in the standard environment: RBW Midrange. With access to Dreadbore , Hero's Downfall , Rakdos's Return , Obzedat, Ghost Council , and Blood Baron of Vizkopa , the deck can be brutal.

deck-large: Brutality-Incarnate

Sideboard tech against your deck.

-3 Read the Bones : I can't afford to spend a turn looking for something, I need to spend every turn brutally hurting my opponent until they can't recover

+3 Thoughtseize : Always nice to set back my opponent a little right from the get-go.

-2 Boros Charm : indestructible isn't going to save me from Devour Flesh and burn isn't all that important.

-1 Warleader's Helix : again, burn is not too important, but being able to target a creature and gain 4 life out of it can help a lot, which is why 2 are staying in.

+3 Slaughter Games : The first one would almost definitely be used against Pack Rat seeing as how ridiculous it can get as fast as it does. This also lets me see your hand and search your library for any other threat to hit with the next Slaughter Games , such as AEtherling .

My apologies for the double post. Screwy Internet here.

That was my major comment, too. Advent of the Wurm is an Instant, and should almost always be played at instant-speed.

Otherwise, good read. I'd like to see how you fare against Akroan. Hoplite. Deck. (Need I say more?).

I was summoned to this thread, but I don't see by whom?

a great way to do proxies i just write the name on a piece of paper. cheap and effective. Costs MUCH less than having to print your own and waste all that ink

Yay another one to add for a weekly read! Should try out my deck of boros weenies that can swing like a Worldspine Wurm in a single turn :D

I love these write ups. Great start.

I do have a question about game 1. Why didn't the 2nd Ratchet Bomb kill the two pack rat tokens?

The tokens are a copy of Pack Rat . Since they are copies of a permanent, they retain the CMC of the permanent. So a Ratchet Bomb at 2 counters is needed to kill them. I'm pretty sure that's how it works.

Nice article, any misplays I was going to mention have already been mentioned by others so I won't bring them up. My deck Dork, Dork, Dork, Giant Face-Eating Monster, Dork should be fun for you, who gets to giant creatures first? xD

Can you please play-test my deck i just recently made this deck with my friends help and I need to see if its any good. Thanks! The Aggro That Changed My Meta.

I'd like to rise to the challenge with my deck, Fiesta de Naya. Against you, if Ratchet Bomb does as much work against me as it did against Spootyone, I'd side out 2 Advent of the Wurm and bring in 2 Boros Charm , giving me indestructible vs. Ratchet Bomb and other removal (excluding Devour Flesh ) and giving me a little reach with the burn or double strike. Thanks in advance for the consideration!

I like this idea, and i would like to see how my reanimator deck would do against your dimir deck: Obzedat's Kittens.

Okay, man. Here it is. A challenge, if you will.

My deck: Project BUG (I don't know how to make it all big like everyone else)

Against you, I would side board like this:

• 2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver , - 1 Hero's Downfall , - 1 Nightveil Specter and - 2 Far / Away .

• 2 Pithing Needle , + 2 Gaze of Granite and + 2 Dark Betrayal .

The goal of the deck is to Scry, Scry, Scry and Scry some more. Get all the goods to the top as quick as possible. Spend the first few turns killing shit and by turn four or five... Drop a healthy sized dude that can avoid dying. Vraska is also there to direct attention away from me. And Prime Speaker is my personal favorite to draw up a few freshly scryed cards