@Smmenen said:
@Brass-Man said:
As usual, loved the podcast 
On the question of Force of Will on Mana Crypt, I wonder if we're framing the problem wrong.
If your opponent is on Eldrazi, hitting a Mana Crypt might be one of the best things you can do with a Force of Will.
But given that ... does the optimal anti-Eldrazi postboard plan run Force of Will at all?
I guess it depends on what your strategy is.
For some strategies, it's the Eldrazi themselves that is the obstacle to winning or the biggest threat. For other strategies, it is the Sphere effects (Thalia/Null Rod/Thorn) or whatever, that is the biggest threat to winning.
For strategies trying to attack Eldrazi with a combo plan, rather than on the ground, than siding out Force might make sense.
Eldrazi also comes in so many flavors and forms right now, that it's difficult to make a universal statement about how to attack it. I just think that the point about countering Mana Crypt is an interesting one because of the specific way in which is generates mana.
The immediate response to Eldrazi seems bifurcated: On the one hand, we have Aggro Gush decks loading up on Path/Plow effects, or mass sweepers like Balance. On the other hand, we have people tinkering around with things like Key/Vault or Painter combo (Painter attacking Eldrazi indirectly).
I don't know where we are going to land, but I think it's complicated by the range of shells in which Eldrazi appear. White Eldrazi and Workshop Eldrazi both feature TKS, but they do very different things.
The Eldrazi have a big advantage on the format in that there aren't 23 years of accumulated solutions to them - there is no Massacre/Sulfur Elemental/Elemental Blast or Hurkyl's Recall.
I disagree that Eldrazi have a big advantage due to being new; there have been similar decks like Eldrazi in the past. Anyone who has played on Magic Workstation can probably relate. Aven Mindcensor + Blood Moon, Glowrider + Thorn of Amethyst, and Sphere of Resistance + Chains of Mephistophles are just a few examples of combinations that have existed for years and that are probably even more difficult to deal with than the Eldrazi. The fact that these combos are not simultaneously dealt with by Hurkyl's Recall is exactly the point.
Eldrazi is only being propped up because the flavor of the cards are new but the actual tactics are old. Workshop decks used to play Juggernaut all the time; All this (the Eldrazi) is, is a Juggernaut Stax deck with a new flavor of cards and much excitement.
The cantrip blue decks have had a weakness to aggro because much of the deck is designed for blue vs. blue games. Dredge has been taking advantage of that weakness for years, and Goblins/Merfolk are amongst other aggro decks that are fully ready to take take down an unsuspecting Gush player. Despite this weakness, very few people have actually gone the aggro route because people just play what they play. This Eldrazi invasion is people actually taking the initiative to play something that beats the cantrip Blue deck.
People were playing the Eldrazi deck in Vintage back when the set first was released. But it wasn't until Randy 4-0ed that daily did it actually spike to metagame-participant levels. This is due to the influence that pro players and magic online have on Vintage. The fact the Eldrazi is new is also exciting, although the tactics aren't brand new.
One thing different about the Eldrazi (compared to decks of the past) is that they are BIG, although just vanilla creatures. How does a Reality Smasher stop a Yawgmoth's Will? Is a 4 mana Duress really that good in a format with Vampiric Tutor? Is a Reality Smasher + Thorn of Amethyst more difficult to deal with than an Aven Mincensor + Thorn of Amethyst?
Could you imagine, during Gifts era, someone casting a 5 mana 5/5? Its a Juggernaut.