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[Dark Theme]

A really nice Dark Theme

https://github.com/mingomongo/DarkMingo-Theme-for-Cockatrice/releases

You, and everybody else who might be interested, are still kindly invited to join us on Cockatrice playing, testing and talking about new and old cards, decks and strategies, and generally working on the format we all love so much - the best way to play Magic.

If you have been out of the loop for a while, I and others are more than happy to bring you, your decks, your Cockatrice client and everything else you need/want up to speed again.

Server Address:        server.cockatrice.us
Server Port:        443
https://cockatrice.us/

Ah, I just saw this  

Very nice guide! - please let me add the Sounds and Theme I use.

We have less players today than 2 years ago, but you can still play a couple hours almost every single day - specially if you wanna play against me.

Also, you can include playing against Canlander players for more variety, which works very well.

Hope to see u soon!  

Hi all, I wanna say that adding sideboardcards is certainly interesting, but is such a fundamental change, that its not the first thing that comes to my mind in terms of improving the format.

We already have countless strategic decisions to make with deckbuilding, so adding another dimension seems pretty unnecessary to me.

My top 10 innovations:
Come chat, test, play (in) online (tournaments) with the rest of us.
10 times.

We urgently need more active players right now, or even more people are going to lose interest.

That being said, new ideas are vital to the community and everybodys input is of course greatly appreciated.

First of all, thanks everybody for your efforts to advance the format we all love so much. I hope my feedback below will also help with that.

I have to say today, recent decisions made it even more difficult for me to play, please let me explain.

In my view, the analysis, which seems to be the basis for the bannings, vastly lacks samplesize and representitiveness. Its a low number of tournaments with roughly the same few players playing over and over again - i guess with very different levels of competitiveness, skill, preferences, card-availability, and so on.

Furthermore, the large amount of math used on very limited data and arguable assumptions, lead too often to questionable interpretations. The case to make these decisions should be clear-cut and based on massive amounts of data. In addition to all the tournamentresults, playtesting a gauntlet of decks and presenting hundreds of gameresults - with and without certain cards - is the least I would like to see with decisions that important.

Next, im absolutely not aware of certain decks dominating the format, not even if I follow the analysis all the way (and include pretty much all the results that are publicly available). We have incredibly powerful individual cards and some of them, like Academy, sometimes do look too powerful. These are the spikes that players talk about, but every experienced Academy player knows, what regular games in tough(er) matchups look like. Basically, after losing Sensei's Divining Top, the deck lost too much inevitability to be tier 1 already (except for the very best builds, perhaps).

Briefly on Treasure Cruise, banning a card like this in a vintage format, while a number of even more powerful cards still remain legal, in a meta that is pretty healthy, seems like the wrong approach to me. Its in the nature of the format, to have cards like that.

Lastly, I have to let you know, that pretty much every player I talked to (recently and over the years), is usually straight up disappointed and frustrated with the way the format has been managed, so please everybody, lets work together on some urgently needed improvents, thank you!

Nothing but love, Kurt

p. S. please consider to return the Free Mulligan rule again, because the amount of non-games is too high without it.

How do we defeat Collector Ouphe (, Stony Silence, Null Rod or even Back to Basics)?

The cards I came up with sofar are not exactly great:
Upheaval
Spine of Ish Sah
Chain of Vapor, Cyclonic Rift, Capsize, etc.
Clutch of the Undercity
Commit/Memory
Ugin, the Ineffable and other Planeswalkers, which I dont want to play

Ghirapur Aether Grid is what I'm going to try, but I would really like an artifact, obviously.

Hopefully you guys can give me some feedback, thank you!

Awesome, thanks for getting us started!!

I'd like to play, no matter what format we end up on.

Maybe we can use Discord for discussing details.

Awesome, thanks! GO Patrick and Max!!!!

I cant look at the updated version, since the download-links dont work for me.

Not sure why Survival of the Fittest is in the deck, cause its banned.

From the top of my head, here are some quick suggestions.

Against aggro, you can try to gum up the board and have _some_ form of lifegain:
Wall of Blossoms
Kitchen Finks
Spike Feeder
Obstinate Baloth
Wall of Mulch
Carven Caryatid
Sylvan Caryatid

More efficient removal also helps:
Fatal Push
Ghastly Demise
Abrupt Decay
Assassin's Trophy
Collective Brutality
Maelstrom Pulse

I wouldnt leave home without:
Duress
Inquisition of Kozilek
Thoughtseize
Hymn to Tourach
Liliana of the Veil

Some other cards I would consider to add:
Nihil Spellbomb
Hissing Quagmire
Yavimaya Elder
Reclamation Sage
Shriekmaw
Llanowar Elves, etc.
Zombie Infestation
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Pulse of Murasa
Scavenging Ooze
Deathrite Shaman
more Fetchlands
Tireless Tracker
Sylvan Scrying

Cards I would consider to cut:
Skyshroud Poacher
Withered Wrech
Yavimaya Granger
Viridian Shaman
Survival of the Fittest
Squee, Goblin Nabob
Krovikan Horror
Stinkweed Imp
Golgari Grave Troll
Nantuko Vigilante
Ink-Eyes, Sertvant of Oni
Thrashing Wumpus
Nezumi Graverobber

These lists could go on and on.

Bottom line: without Survival - either because its banned or you simply dont draw it often enough - your situational cards will make it difficult for you. I would try to play more all-around good cards and if your recursion picks up, thats a nice bonus and gives you reach. Also, max-out on good disruption.

Very nice, thanks a bunch!

much appreciated, thank you! : )

Thanks, i guess. Any chance for a single decklist from each tourney?

I would offer (again) to type it into Cockatrice, if at least the winner would be obliged to simply make a picture of his deck.

I'm in, on whatever the structure will be.

Also, I would like to see _some_ kind of prize/benefit for the winner each time. For example byes or free entries for the league, or possibly an invitational tournament.

Additionally, I'm still interested in something like Vintage Super Leage for our format.

Nicely done, DarkLight!

It helped me greatly to rework my own spreadsheet, thanks! : )
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RDanQG2LfuN75UDnCdUwrNOs7bF0WYjjMrBVBJi6cfM/edit?usp=sharing