F6 Wars: It's well known that the MTGO timer is inaccurate insofar as to be precise to the second. It is fine for a general approximation, but when the two clocks are so similar and differ only in fractions of a second, the game is a toss up. That's why the MTGO timer constantly fluctuates in time in a non-linear way, and hilariously even may go up in time, as it constantly tries to self-correct with the main server. In fact, two different PTQ finalists, Batutinha and SneakyMisato, both lost in the finals due to time, yet were still invited to the PT anyway after they claimed that their actual time remaining in the game before timing out was different from the time depicted by the timer, misleading them, and WoTC game coordinator representatives agreed with their claims. Thus, to have my first match of last week decided by the vagaries of an inaccurate timer (which truly matters when the respective clocks differ only by a few seconds) is quite the shame. Server lag / delay deciding the outcome of a match of Magic is anathema.
With regards to bans, I am delighted to mention that I didn't even need to vote in order to bid good riddance to the worst offender of the format in recent memory, Ensnaring Bridge. (Action was also taken against WV. It's good to see people realize that complaining about anti-creature cards and anti-tribal cards in a format based around creatures of a tribal nature aren't without merit. Perhaps my legacy of cleaning up this format will outlive me after all and people learn to separate their disdain for me with credible claims about the health of a niche format). As a side note, hilariously, before the 14-1 (in games) rampage of the tiresome Bridge + Affliction combo plaguing our scene and undermining the tribal format (where the same predatory shell won both Underdog and Dog-Eat-Underdog back to back, since Bridge was not placed on the lockout list for some reason), that same deck without Bridge went 9-6 in games and didn't win any tournaments. Not weak by any means, but a vast downgrade without the Bridge. (I don't mean Rats themselves as a tribe, just that version of the deck before Bridge was added to it). Maybe now we can get back to playing Tribal instead of anti-Tribal zero-sum fun. Good riddance!
Finally, I wish to add that this is a new deck, but I am not surprised to see my other choice, the tribe Wolf, be removed from Underdog. I first mentioned the power of this tribe to its original purveyor, Kumagoro, months ago, after the printing of Nightpack Ambusher, after watching him use that card (and tribe) to great success when possible, both in Standard and Underdog. I think I wasn't taken too seriously then when I asked that we observe this tribe, but after adopting the tribe as my own and subsequently doing well with it and popularizing it more with good finishes, and putting my money where my mouth was in order to prove my point (the reason I began playing it in the first place), I feel now even a further sense of vindication about my tribal instincts seeing that now other people realize what I have realized. Now, Nightpack Ambusher even gets added to the lockout card list too. Ahead of the curve! 4/4/2020 |
Dinosaur Midrange
