just pay zero for disrupting shoal, got it 🙂

I have to admit that while they were interesting, the vampire brews weren’t what drew me to this site. Originally it was the data analysis (following from the meta threads on MTGS) but since there’s been a lot of great artcles on much more than that.

This type of article is very much appreciated. I agree with the above poster that it puts you ahead of the curve and I think it’s great to get the rationale behind deck/colors/card choice for a somewhat unusual deck that has been so well tuned. Especially one that has had recent tournament results. There’s a lot of valuable info here even if RUG delver ends up only experiencing a flash in the pan success.

I’m glad to hear these kinds of “brews” are more the style people are looking for. There is definitely a place for these decks in Modern and it’s important that we cover them when we see signs of success. It’s one thing to cover tribal Vampires or other decks without a lot of competitive success. Those decks are still interesting exercises and might have potential, but they also just aren’t the spike-oriented content people expect. A Temur Delver build, however, is exactly where we want to see the “brews” going. My guess is that other readers feel the same way, although only time and more data will tell for sure.

Agreed. This type of article is what the modern cummunity needs… Not another vampire tribal article, and certainly not another burn primer.

Nicely done.

As one of the people who complained about the less than spikey content on here, I completely disagree with your assessment.

This article is a perfect example of what we should be seeing on the brew side. Something that has done well, is slightly off radar and the article was written very well.

RUG Delver just took down a major event, and Modern Nexus was the first site to get an indepth analysis of the deck (if you exclude the MTGS forums). This puts the site ahead of the curve. Now the deck may be a flash in the pan never to be repeated, or it might be the next big thing. At least we have some insight into the deck and the decisions that went into it and can make our own decisions.

To Nickolay and Sheridan –
While I like the data analysis side of the site it is articles like this and the other brews that I enjoy most. Now I know you have said you are moving away from that but I thought I would give you another ‘customers’ perspective. As for weekends I am usually busy with either family or actually playing the game so any content published then would not be looked at until Monday. Which means I am quite happy with a five day article week.

Oh, no, I am a fan of the article itself, it’s very well put together, the guy knows how to write and it was most certainly interesting. But the topic itself wasn’t what I was personally expecting to find.

1) We are working towards some kind of content schedule, but it probably won’t be as defined as you are discussing here. Wednesdays are going to be a stats day and Tuesdays are going to be a weekend-in-review sort of day, where we pick some aspect of the weekend’s results/lists and discuss it in detail. But otherwise, Monday and Thursday will be more open. This gives us more flexibility as we add writers. Once we get up to two articles per day, there will probably be a guaranteed article on any given day and then one “flex” article.

2) Weekend content is a work in progress. Not all MTG sites do it and it’s unclear what the best kind of weekend content will be. This could be dynamic coverage of an event, it could be week-in-reviews, or it could just be more articles. The bottleneck there is obviously writers, which is something we are working to fix.

3) We definitely understand the business aspects of this and are thinking of it that way. But I also come from a data background and don’t want to make hasty decisions without both a plan and some underlying metrics, so that’s why some changes are going to be gradual and others will be quicker. I’m sorry to hear you weren’t a fan of this article, and keep letting us know how the others are doing.

One thing that comes up to mind is having more transparency on the… “content schedule”? Whatever you call it, whenever you want to be consistent in what type of content comes out on what day (which looks like you’ve been doing since the inception of this place and is definitely the right approach), it should probably be mentioned somewhere and pinned to the front page.

Also, while sticking to only one article a day is fine, more would be what we Magic players like to call “strictly better”. You are trying to gain ground in a medium with no shortage on content and creators and the only thing that will set you apart is how much work you are willing to put in. To that point, you have to consider you are, more or less, in the gaming industry. The weekend is the most active part of the week (this is especially true for Magic players) and having no content then is baffling at best. That’s like a game store not working on weekends. They would go bankrupt. Usually in this business Monday is the day-off.

Just some feedback from a customer. Because let’s be real, this *is* a business (even though I doubt that’s why you are doing it) and since I’ve turned adblock off for you, I’m practically giving you money. I know most people aren’t as picky as me, but I don’t have all day to browse through content and when I do I expect certain quality. This article for instance, even though it’s very good indeed, is not exactly what I was expecting when more “spike” content was announced, despite technically being exactly that.

Thanks for voicing these concerns. First, we haven’t replaced Sean with anyone. Jordan has not yet been added to the staff, although you will see some more of his pieces in the coming Fridays.

Second, with respect to “brews”, there’s a difference between Vampires lists without tournament results, and taking down a large 8 round event with a new version of a once-established deck. Temur Delver was a powerhouse back in November and December, and an easy tier 2 contender. This just represented one way of remaking it in the current metagame. In fact, it is the most successful Temur Delver list in the current metagame: think of it as a checkin on a previously competitive deck that still shows promise. We aren’t just interested in reporting on the tier 1 and tier 2 decks. We also want to identify up-and-coming decks in the format and how those decks can work for our readers.

You can expect to see at least 4 days of straight competitive (tier 1 and tier 2 content, along with theory and discussion related to tournament-level Modern) on any given week. Friday will be the only day this might shift to decks like Jordan’s, but even then it won’t be an every-Friday sort of thing. That means out of 20-some articles in a given month, you will only see 3-4 on “brew” or “grassroots” style decks. But definitely keep letting us know how the content is. If it’s not working for you, chances are it’s not working for others and that’s something I want to know.

I mean, the dude is obviously very good at Magic and deckbuilding and has the guts and skill to bring a brew like this to an event and win against very competitive players but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a tier 2.5/3 deck that happened to be played by the right person in the right meta with the right randomly decided matchups. Props and best of luck to Mr. Boisvert, but I’m still waiting to see some competitively-oriented content.

Apart from that, this was awesome. I look forward to seeing more results with it!

Regarding card choices I do know that your testing process was very intense and every card has shown over and over again why it should be included over other choices (even curious ones 😉 – therefore I advice people to play the deck as it is for at least a couple of tournaments (besides the SB) before making any changes.

I hope to see more modern content from you in the near future – there will be always room to brew competitively. You are a brilliant and innovative mind, a deep intellectual understanding of the game and hard work are the road you are currently on that will keep you above the curve 🙂

Regards,
Philip