What's on your exclude list?
Posted: 02 Nov 2016, 18:29
by lujo
I don't suppose most folks use the exclude list when they play shandalar, but I do. Bunch of reasons:
What do you keep out of your Shandalar pool? Do you get tired of the clutter and just take things out?
--- EXCLUSION PACKAGES, LAST UPDATED FOR GEMCUTTERS GUILD 1 ---
Links to subgroups of cards you might want to add to your shandalar.ini exclude list, along with explanations.
Bushido and Flanking
- My reasons | Open
- 1) I make decks in forge and it doesn't remember my custom filters, so I have to separate out things I know I'm not going to use for the AI into two expansions apart from the one I'm using ("Stuff that the AI's not capable of handling", and "Stuff that's too alien/harsh to confront the player with"). This is just to save time, so I don't have to sift through it every single time, and also to not use stuff I know doesn't work. So I happen to have a list of questionable stuff to just copy bits from.
2) I don't much like using the mechanically unfair/harsh/alien stuff vs. the AI myself. Also, if I take certain things out of the shop pool I'm much less stressed while making AI decks. Simple example are the various Circle of Protection: White variants.
3) The pool (and even the original pool) is loaded with color hosing. This is actually quite bad for a setting with so many mono-colored decks. I'm rather comfortable taking out every single thing that grants stable protection from color or has non-one-shot protection from color, as it tends to not only hose most decks of that color but also tends to stump the AI when it's facing it. It's hexproof, unblockable and indestructible (sorta) lumped all into one and usually just tacked onto somethig with no cost adjustment. I do love some of the cards and some of them are really iconic, but it just raises too many issues. Most of landwalk is mostly the same, as is quite a bunch of other color hosing.
I generally don't use those in AI decks, and would feel stupid if I was using it in play as those cards are usually inherently unfair, so I'm ok with taking most of it out.
4) Some stuff is just completely alien in an invasive way if you take it out of it's home environment. Horsemanship, Tempest-block Shadow and Infect/Poison are examples of that. I don't feel like subjecting the AI to any of that. The first two are supposed to be conditional evasion, but there's simply no way for them to not be absolute evasion most of the time. The third changes the rule about how many lives you have in a game of MtG, which is both silly and redundant/chlashing with Shandalar's own silly rules about how many lives you have in a game of MtG. Funnily enough Phyrexian Unlife is in, and I think i'll leave it in and even use it in some white deck.
5) Things I just know I won't use in play, like Slivers. They're not invasive, but they+re insular and just don't appeal to me. I'd use them in an AI deck that could use them, and I'd stick the random sliver into a developing deck, but I wouldn't shop for them.
6) The damned pool is huge and unwieldly so shaving off random "junk" isn't a bad idea. I don't have too many things in this category right now because I'm really hesitant to dismiss cards as bad (or attempt to clar the pool of non insanely top-of-the-curve-efficient cards), but Crazed Goblin is a joke card and I really don't need it, and the original lucky charms (+ Soul Net + Urza's Chalice) have aged rather badly.
What do you keep out of your Shandalar pool? Do you get tired of the clutter and just take things out?
--- EXCLUSION PACKAGES, LAST UPDATED FOR GEMCUTTERS GUILD 1 ---
Links to subgroups of cards you might want to add to your shandalar.ini exclude list, along with explanations.
Bushido and Flanking