Subject: [misc] Academy, blah, blah, blah... Date: Wed, 04 Nov 1998 18:15:30 PST From: "Chris Schobert" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com As the State Championships get closer and closer for most of us (some, by the time you read this, you may have experienced them), all of us worry about the metagame... This has always been the case, and always will; it's just the nature of crazy Magic players -- to ponder, and worry. This time, it's slightly different, though; as to do with the State Championships, anyway... A whole new _stand_alone_set_ was added not too long ago, and with minimal playtesting under everyone's belt, they are forced to go and play in a field -- blind. Well, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement - would you settle for 20/100 vision??? The last stand alone set that was thrown at us was Tempest (oh, really?!), and it shook things up a bit... Shadow, scroll, tradewind, death, etc... they all changed the game... Quite literally, i might add. I could yell all day about the rider, and definitely about the scroll, but why? Now the new one has hit us, Saga. More stuff to sulk and complain to WotC about, just as before. Stroke, Academy, Windfall, Spiral, and some new ones guaranteed not to be played to fullest potential until sometime 5 months from now... There's similarities and differences to these stand alones. They're all cards that shake up the environment, for good or bad (depending on one's view point). They're also all cards that have more than one potential, despite what many seem to scream about. Differences, as it may or may not be obvious: the US power comes in _one_ dominant color -- blue. The result of this bad scenario is this: one _really_ friggin' powerful deck, and not enough time to test the deck out, see what it's strengths and weaknesses are... All the nice folx out there who basically cry "Wolf!!!" are just getting out of hand, once again. Remember when the reprint list for 5E came out? Any newsgroup addict will tell you the card of the moment then: Necro... "It's gonna be Necrosummer all over again..," "Magic is over, Necro is back.," "Blah, blah, blah..." The basic point I'm trying to make is this: The Academy craze is "for a limited time only," and nothing more. I've heard of many rants about "insanely powerful" decks/combos/cards that didn't make it out of the first two months of competitive play... Why, because people knew about them... and played to play against them. Necrosummer was probably the first of this long list, although this was admittedly the worst one (come on!!, I could play 4 hippies and hymns in the _same_ _deck_, why _wouldn't_ I play this deck_.??). Other fads that I can think of off the top of my head: Turbo-Stasis, Fruity Pebbles, Draw-Go (at least here, around Chicago), Bloom, Godzilla, MiRvLite Mono Red "Toast" ... Some of these decks to a lesser extent than others, but you get idea... All of them though to be a lot better than they turned out to be, all of them shot down (some more than others)... What the heck makes the Academy so special.? Nothing. Many will (and have) given me the excuse that it doesn't loose to anything consistently... Yes it does. I'll leave it @ that. Sure it can recover from Duress, Disk, or countermagic, but so can ANY OTHER DECK!!! It's all about what you draw, and when you draw it. Many have said this is the deck with the best ability to stage a comeback after drawing one card... I disagree. One word: Necro. Necro, for 7, game, match, sweep. Whatever. I've played the deck, many of the versions; admittedly not all (around 5 total)... The deck can be beaten, yes, constantly. It's pretty hard (as much as I hate to admit) to build a deck that kills this, and still fairs well against the rest of the field, but I'm confident that it can be done. At my State Championships (IL), I'll be watching the field carefully. If I expect so many Academy's, than I'll play the Anti-Academy deck, if not, I'll just play Sligh (because it's always good), and maybe something else. Who knows. But whatever. It's just a _fad_... Blah, blah, blah... Comments (oh boy...), or questions.. Chris Schobert ----- -Chris aka belfrazz@hotmail.com "Entertain you, Celebrate you, I'll be back to frame you." -Garbage V2.0; "When I Grow Up" ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com