Resolve

[Confidence Interval]

For those using the Gregorian calendar, and for any others besides, what are your New Year's resolutions for 2014?
(These may be Crawl-related or otherwise.)

[moocowmoocow]

Crawl: Still need to win 15-runer

Life: Succeed at school

[BlackSheep]

Crawl: Finish a ziggurat

Life: Find a new job closer to home

[Grimm]

Crawl: start playing again

"life": get a different job

[Sandman25]

crawl: learn adom/tome

real life: return back to my family

[some12fat2move]

Crawl: ascend a no-stashing-no-backtracking-no-raising-strength deep elf mage that does not suicide due to inventory frustration

Life: don't ask.

[Klown]

Crawl: Win a game.

Life: Write a novel.

[b4rR31_r0l1]

Crawl:
Win a game.
If that's not possible get into zot
If that's not possible get three runes
If that's not possible get into vaults = get a rune
If that's not possible quit this damn game

Life:
If I get better in crawl as I do now... I won't need this
If I get better quicker/quit start cubing again. So expensive ;_;

[TeshiAlair]

Crawl: Win a game that wasn't an pre-HP/AC modification Gargoyle EE

Semi-crawl: Actually start writing patches

Life: Cook at least once a week like I did during the summer.

[diviton]

Crawl: Win with a GhMo and an Abyssal Knight of some sort.

Life: Win American Ninja Warrior. I made it on the show last season, but didn't make it as far as I wanted to. Hopefully this season I do better.

[moocowmoocow]

Life: Win American Ninja Warrior. I made it on the show last season, but didn't make it as far as I wanted to. Hopefully this season I do better.

omg I love that show... good luck. If you feel comfortable let us know who you are so we can cheer.

[some12fat2move]

Life: Win American Ninja Warrior. I made it on the show last season, but didn't make it as far as I wanted to. Hopefully this season I do better.

I never heard of that show but it sounds like pure awesome

[diviton]

It's a really cool show. You should watch it this season if you get the chance. Here's a run from that show in 2012 to give you an idea of one of the courses:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI9pis4c1FU

I actually met that guy when I went to the Miami qualifier and then trained with him some more after. Really cool guy who's crazy athletic. I'm not sure if anyone cares, but since at least one of you is a fan of the show, this is my ANW submission video. Basically, they just want to know a little about you, see that you're at least moderately charismatic and that you're athletic enough to have a chance beating all the courses, which nobody has done yet. I tried to throw in some humor to keep it interesting, so it's pretty cheesy, but it got me on the show. The music is also really cheesy, but you have to select songs they pre-approve for licensing reasons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uke8DO90edA

[Grimm]

I like how you went for the kid appeal at the end there.

How do you find the time to Crawl?

[diviton]

Crawl takes up a lot of my time, honestly. >_>

Truth be told, Crawl doesn't really have any impact on my physical lifestyle since it's my job to be physical. Plus, it's not too hard to get to the gym a few times a week since powerlifting is something I'm pretty passionate about. What Crawl really interferes with is my ability to play other video games. I find myself buying a game I know I'd be really into, but waiting a very long time to play it because I'd rather spend my free gaming time just beating my head against a wall trying to beat Crawl with a new combo. Whenever I win, I usually allow myself to play something else, but it'd hard to break away until I have a little success. Crawl also screws up my sleep schedule because I'll stay up late saying "Just one more floor..."

I'm sure just about everyone here has experienced this too though.

[Grimm]

We all have. The difference is we're not ninjas in real life.

[Hirsch I]

Crawl: win the game with a Ds.

Life: survive college one more year. learn how to code.

[Azrael]

Ninja Warrior? Great show, diviton. I wish you luck.

[pratamawirya]

Crawl: Try to be less attached to my characters, or at least try to be less emotional when they die (not easy to do since the devs keep adding ridiculous features like deep troll EE, deep troll shaman, the new draconian shifter (blink encircling is crazy), the forest, etc, lol).

Life: Finish this goddamn conference paper, write a thesis, finish my grad course, and also finish writing my second book.

[Tiktacy]

Crawl: stop going on GDD. My experience in GDD feels similar to the days when I would get picked on for not believing in Santa clause.

Life: Get first place in a magic tournament with my new white/blue deck. You can check it out here if anyone is interested: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/by-all-m ... ep-trying/.

[diviton]

Why do you have a 5th Mind Control in your sideboard?

[Hirsch I]

by all means, keep trying. a little control could make it survive at least enough to, well, do anything. and your posts on GDD are not bad. do you remember me from "remove haste as a spell"?

[Tiktacy]

Why do you have a 5th Mind Control in your sideboard?

Whoops, I play around with sideboard and main board a lot, so it changes regularly, didn't really notice. X3

[Tiktacy]

by all means, keep trying. a little control could make it survive at least enough to, well, do anything. and your posts on GDD are not bad. do you remember me from "remove haste as a spell"?

Currently, the main board is setup to work against world champion decks, since the pariah combos are so much less reliable. Generally, this deck can beat most decks by the third or fourth turn just by making it impossible for them to kill you(pariah+spirit mantle or some other combo, I have a lot of options with this). It's kind of a difficult deck to understand, you have to know a LOT about the rules of magic to make it function correctly. If you are playing it right, the entire deck is control.

The usual deck will have less mind controls and more revered undead and auras. If I wanted to, I could set it up like my old deck and have stupid amounts of aura ramping going on(up to 52 damage from one creature by turn 3, and unblockable) but that doesn't work in a tournament setting.

I'm sorry, I'm getting a little carried away aren't i. I want to stay away from GDD until I figure out what makes them happy, cuz they tend to get riled up whenever I post(every thread I've ever made in GDD was a hot at some point).

[XuaXua]

Crawl takes up a lot of my time, honestly. >_>

Crawl helps you get into all sorts of shapes that don't conform to ninja standards.

[diviton]

I love MTG as well.

I have a tendency to make decks that aren't really great just because they sound fun to me. This doesn't bug me because I rarely play competitively, but I'm that kid who plays green because "Weee big creatures."

Currently, I play a Black/White/Green lifegain deck with a lot of fun combos. None of which are particularly amazing, just fun. Nothing beats having Rhox Faithmender and Sanguine Bond in play, popping a Nourish and then dropping a 14/14 Voracious worm for 2 mana...

.
.
.
Only to have it bounced back by somebody playing blue.

[Tiktacy]

I love MTG as well.

I have a tendency to make decks that aren't really great just because they sound fun to me. This doesn't bug me because I rarely play competitively, but I'm that kid who plays green because "Weee big creatures."

Currently, I play a Black/White/Green lifegain deck with a lot of fun combos. None of which are particularly amazing, just fun. Nothing beats having Rhox Faithmender and Sanguine Bond in play, popping a Nourish and then dropping a 14/14 Voracious worm for 2 mana...

.
.
.
Only to have it bounced back by somebody playing blue.

Arbor elf and utopia sprawl/fertile ground/overgrowth is the best way to pump out mana fast, you can potentially get upwards of 15 mana on turn 3, but usually it's more like 8ish.

[varsovie]

Crawl : Play more

Life : Play less

[Kaeoschassis]

Crawl: Win.

Life: Win.

[cerebovssquire]

[quote="Tiktacy]
Arbor elf and utopia sprawl/fertile ground/overgrowth is the best way to pump out mana fast, you can potentially get upwards of 15 mana on turn 3, but usually it's more like 8ish.[/quote]

I assume the UW deck is for modern tournaments?
Why aren't you playing anything hexproof? It seems like your deck is kinda weak to Path to Exile (since it gets around totem armours and is just generally strong against auras) and most other kinds of removal are still strong - you can e.g. Lightning Bolt in response to the shroud aura or a totem armour. Other aura decks like bogles prefer lifelink to stay alive rather than Pariah, and they still have consistency issues despite not relying on a Pariah combo to protect your life total. I'd hate to play against a lot of removal (UWR, Jund, Junk, etc.), permission (UWR)- and discard-filled (Junk, Jund, that mono-black deck) decks you will meet in a tournament setting. And Pariah combo is just dead to Tron's Emrakul and Karn ultimate. It's good against Twin I guess.
(if this isn't for modern this doesn't apply of course)

[Hirsch I]

pariah is just too susceptible to anything. if you want to keep it on the field, you will need some counters. judge's familiar will make the adversary think a little before making anything, for an example. regeneration has a lot of counters, revered dead is not that good.
the guildgate is crippling your deck, losing one turn can be terrible. Hallowed Fountain is not that expensive anymore.
mind control will only come into play when it does not matter anymore. you have no idea if the enemy has anything worth taking for 5 mana, and there are lots of gamebreaking stuff for 5 mana, Bident of Thassa is 4. will give you at least 1 draw per turn, and with all that damage prevention, you will smile every time
anyway, I will need to playtest it a little before I can give any more advice. I'll use this deck for the friday night magic, looks loke fun.

[Tiktacy]

@cerebov: Your responses are similar to my older brothers, if you played me, your opinions would be swayed greatly just like theirs was. Pariah is far more devastating than it looks.

I did add hex proof just today, I realized that it was missing something so I found just what I was looking for. You can go check it out now if you want.


@hirsch: Like I said, pariah is greatly underestimated. I considered judges familiar many times, and I will probably add it if I can make room in the main board, but revere dead is mostly in there since it "works" with the deck and triggers tallowisps ability.

I don't own hallowed fountain, and Probably never will. Seachrome coast is a cheaper and better option, I will be ordering that soon. I agree, it is crippling at times.

And thank you for the advice, I do extensive testing with it on a regular basis, and feedback is useful. Also, yes, it is a modern deck.

[nicolae]

I guess I'd like to win Crawl again, this time without a 0.13 GrEE

and maybe work up the motivation to design, write, and submit a little patch or two

[Hirsch I]

@Ticktacy, try putting Steel of the Godhead. very nice with your Geist of saint traft. it is the less susceptible to removal thing in your deck.
Pariah is pretty good, I used it on an B/W control not that long ago, it was fun. but enchantments are very easy to remove, disenchant is 1 mana, for example. putting your life in the hands of an aura is too dangerous. unless you use some hard control: judge's familiar, mana leak, they will give you the time you need until your spiritdancer becomes a warmachine. if you are feeling mean, playing Supreme Veredict when your spiritdancer has an hyena umbra on him will make your adversary cry. a lot.
also, trust Cerebov's Squire. he has a blue name.
but seriously, his advice on that matter is pretty good.
and you are welcome. MTG chatter is always good. MTG chatter on the Tavern makes me really happy.

EDIT:

and maybe work up the motivation to design, write, and submit a little patch or two

please, do! I'm learning to code just so I can do that too.

[Tiktacy]

@Ticktacy, try putting Steel of the Godhead. very nice with your Geist of saint traft. it is the less susceptible to removal thing in your deck.
Pariah is pretty good, I used it on an B/W control not that long ago, it was fun. but enchantments are very easy to remove, disenchant is 1 mana, for example. putting your life in the hands of an aura is too dangerous. unless you use some hard control: judge's familiar, mana leak, they will give you the time you need until your spiritdancer becomes a warmachine. if you are feeling mean, playing Supreme Veredict when your spiritdancer has an hyena umbra on him will make your adversary cry. a lot.
also, trust Cerebov's Squire. he has a blue name.
but seriously, his advice on that matter is pretty good.
and you are welcome. MTG chatter is always good. MTG chatter on the Tavern makes me really happy.

EDIT:

and maybe work up the motivation to design, write, and submit a little patch or two

please, do! I'm learning to code just so I can do that too.

Edit: this is a little off topic, so I put the whole thing in spoilers just to be safe.

Spoiler: show

[spoiler]I just did a simulation tournament against the top 8 mtg decks in the mtg 2013 Grand Prix, final score was four wins and four losses.

Adding meddler Mage made it much better! Combining it with gitaxian probe is amazing. In case you were curious:

Living end 1-2
Gr tron 1-2
Twin exarch 2-0
Other-Aggro 0-2
Affinity 1-2
Red deck(yes, that is the actual name) 2-1
Infect combo 2-1
Jund 2-1

Meddling Mage alone won half my matches for me. I am really impressed with its performance, these are top dollar decks and I managed to beat half! Pretty good if you ask me.

I updated it and added judges familiar to sideboard, but I will probably remove it for another 2 saint traits and another Spellskite when I get them.

You are right that auras are usually quite volatile, so adding saint traft and meddling Mage improved it a lot. I've considered adding mana leak, I used to have four of them in the main board, but the problem with it is that it requires you to have mana on your opponents turn which is not very easy to do. I wouldn't even consider godhead, unfortunately. It costs WAY to much, it totally breaks the mana-curve.its a good suggestion though.

Here is a bit more detail on how I play with it:

The first few rounds, I always save enough spirits so I can play them on the same turn as Tallowisp, so I get the aura tutor even if he gets controlled the moment he come out(I do usually try to bate out the control first though). This is usually the deciding factor, do I go for the quick kill(spirit mantle-ethereal armour) or do I go for the defensive stance(pariah-revered dead/spirit mantle). Generally, this choice always has to be made whenever you tutor an aura. Here is a list of combos I use depending on the game:

[spoiler]ANY targetable creature = catalyst
Pariah + opponents creature = dead creature + no damage for a turn
Revered dead + pariah + 1 or 2 untapped lands = pseudo-damage lock
Pariah + spirit mantle + catalyst = damage lock
Damage lock + saint traft/robe of mirrors = greater damage lock
Greater stall combo + hyena umbra x = greater damage lock/w Minor protection X
Kor spiritdancer = bate OR greater catalyst
Spirit/arcane spell = tutor catalyst
Tallowisp + spirit creature = aura tutor
Spare Tallowisp = potential bate OR tutor catalyst
Pariah + catalyst = temp damage lock
Gitaxian probe + meddling Mage = greater bate OR greater catalyst OR pseudo control
Meddling Mage w/o gitaxian probe = good catalyst OR pseudo-pseudo-control OR bate
Revered dead = greater catalyst
Saint traft = greater catalyst OR win condition
Hyena umbra X = minor protection X
Minor protection 1 + ethereal armor + spirit mantle + kor spiritdancer = quick win condition
Kor spiritdancer + damage lock = optimal
Spirit dancer + ethereal armor 2-4 + pariah = potential damage tank

As you can see, every single card has a synergy with one another, adding the cards you listed would put it off balance. But the hexproof advice is a good idea, and I added invisible stalker to the mix, I'll see how he works out.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/spirit-d ... 1-12-13-1/ [/spoiler]

[Baldu3]

This year I'm gonna try real hard to learn to sleep without wearing socks.

[variouselite]

thats odd cause i can not for the life of me sleep with socks on.. i mean maybe i can pass out for an hour or two with em on if im drunk but i inevitably wake up too hot/uncomfortable and have to take em off. happy new year guys

[Tiktacy]

thats odd cause i can not for the life of me sleep with socks on.. i mean maybe i can pass out for an hour or two with em on if im drunk but i inevitably wake up too hot/uncomfortable and have to take em off. happy new year guys

Haha, I'm exactly the same way!

[Grimm]

This calls for a poll.

[Hirsch I]

what, if people use socks when they sleep?
also, @Ticktacy:

Spoiler: show

yeah, your deck looks pretty efective. I still think that auras are too fragile without hard counters, but I can see why it can work. but we should go elsewere to discuss it. we completely derailed ConfInt's thread

[Confidence Interval]

we completely derailed ConfInt's thread

Hey, that's what CYC is for.

Here're mine:

Crawl: take a break from playing.
Life: take a break from Crawl and from the Tavern.

See you later in the year, amigos.

[Grimm]

sic transit Scotus tabernae

[headcrab0803]

crawl: win DgWn
rl : go to worlds in pokemon vgc

[Hirsch I]

Here're mine:

Crawl: take a break from playing.
Life: take a break from Crawl and from the Tavern.

See you later in the year, amigos.

he will be back. *snif*
he will be back.

[TehDruid]

Crawl: Win at least one more game.

Life: Find a job.

[pickled_heretic]

I play in local tournaments, mostly standard, and I am 'that guy' who always tries to dream up some hipster deck idea. My latest acheivement was winning a fnm with a deck with a total of 3 rares in it. Finals was against a guy who bought a 200 dollar deck online... Feels good. It was an izzet turn and burn deck with a few gimmicks. I am going to use a red/blue deck based on clones and fanatic of mogis with red devotion for the coming tournament this Friday.

[Grimm]

See you later in the year, amigos.

Just when we get cs and KoboldLord back.

[pickled_heretic]

Only to have it bounced back by somebody playing blue.

That was the first thing I thought when I read ticktacy's huge list of auras. For some reason the meta right now in our local standard environment is using lots of auras, which makes bounce really strong and I don't think an aura dependent deck would be much more than a speed bump whether or not it was modern.

[BlackSheep]

Here're mine:

Crawl: take a break from playing.
Life: take a break from Crawl and from the Tavern.

See you later in the year, amigos.

Going to have to take CI's cue and do the same for a while. There just aren't enough hours in the day right now.

[Grimm]

Farewell. Don't forget us.

All the greats are passing.