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Rudy's Mail Time

Reddit

It's time for another mailbag! I gotta say, I think I actually really enjoy doing these mailbag articles. The questions I get range from serious to quite ridiculous and I love answering all of them.

Chad Harney

Would you rather fight 100 Storm Crow sized Emrakuls, or 1 Emrakul size Storm Crow?

Guess we're gonna start off with ridiculous. I think I'm drawing dead either way but I'm more likely to defeat 100 Storm Crow-sized Emrakuls since they would be significantly smaller than an Emrakul sized Storm Crow.

Chris Cloud

As a person that tries to be all inclusive with people when at a tournament.. What do you do when someone you play against is being grouchy/unsportsmanlike? How do you handle it?

For a long time I was one of those people. I hated losing more than anything. Since then I've calmed down a lot and don't act that way anymore. When people are like this in our matches I try and let it go. Sometimes people have bad days, as well. So, in general, I try to not think about it as that's something that can sit heavy on you throughout the day and be distracting.

Timothy Taylor

Do you want Hogaak banned? Should it be banned?

Luke Rubin

Will Hogaak get banned?

Hogaak has been extremely problematic in Modern. It has completely warped the meta and has even made Arclight Phoenix a relatively tier 1.5-2 deck. Now that's scary. Unfortunately I think we are going to have to sit on a Hogaak meta for a while, but with the next set (or maybe even a tiny bit sooner) Hogaak will no longer be a playable card in Modern.

John Wiley

Is Cheerios a viable modern deck right now?

Cheerios is a deck that feels like it is always close and not quite there. The London Mulligan has definitely helped make the deck a slightly better choice. If players are moving toward playing completely uninteractive decks then it is likely that Cheerios is a good choice. If no one can interact with you then you have all the tools and time you need to jam.

Michael Antrim

Is Wrenn and Six the last straw for Maverick Mike?

Maverick hasn't been playable for quite some time but the introduction of Wrenn and Six into the meta has helped close the door on small creature strategies and has made Basic Lands very good. Wrenn and Six has basically helped shut the door on losing Wasteland battles. While Knight of the Reliquary is a powerful card overall, and likely great in a Wrenn meta, the players alongside Knight aren't very good.

Brendan Hagan

Are Four-Color Pile decks good or bad for Legacy deck-building.

Tariq Patel

Legacy update, where delver fits, where you see it going moving forward?

Legacy has changed so much recently. Wrenn and Six has completely shifted the meta and made Wasteland and lower converted mana costs really important. Because of this I actually think Delver might be the best deck at the moment. It has a lot of great answers for random decks, can play the best sideboard cards, and has those sweet free wins. I'm not sure which variant of Delver is correct, but Four-Color seems to have the best answers to random nonsense. Although, if people are getting incredibly greedy it is even possible that Stifle might be good. Don't tell Chad please. He really likes Stifle.

Sam-Luca Rolph

What motivates you to still play the game? What has building a team has meant for you personally and financially? Your highest and lowest moments from playing Magic this year?

My motivation to play this game has dropped substantially but it isn't because I'm unhappy playing it. This is because my work, home, and business life has changed. Running Nova has taken up a ton of my time and to be honest I don't really regret anything. Now my motivations are a bit different. Now I just play team events because playing Magic has become about seeing my friends and not about trying to win. I used to be about that, but I think for the most part my career playing Magic has come to an end. I'm relatively happy with where I am in Magic and what I've accomplished and while I'd love to win another Open I'm not going to hold my breath for that. Running the team has come with a lot of growth. I've had to make some tough decisions along the way and I've been really happy that I've had Harlan and Ally guiding me and being the voice of reason in a lot of situations. Having people you can rely on is immensely important and in the process I've become good friends with both of them. I've continued my growth as a person and I think the team has really forced me into keeping on track with that. Financially I haven't made any money, but being able to help subsidize these teams being able to travel and play has been reward enough.

My highest moment playing Magic this year was Top 8ing SCG Richmond on my birthday weekend. I played reasonably good Magic all weekend and got to play a sweet deck. And while the deck wasn't playable after that weekend, getting to Top 8 alongside Harlan playing the same deck was incredible. The lowest point for me was likely at SCG Philly. My poor decisions led to us losing two matches that we needed to win to Top 8 and when I told Drake to bottom a Gut Shot he listened to me instead of trusting himself to keep it and it ended up costing us a match. That was pretty brutal and definitely haunted me for quite some time. Hopefully I get a chance to run back that team with Ally and Drake though because they were both excellent teammates and I had a lot of fun playing with them all weekend.

Timothy Taylor

This needs to be addressed every six months or so: Wawa, Sheetz, or RoFo? Please cite some empirical evidence to support your claims, not simply "Wawa GODS, RoFo CLODS!" type of answer. Thanks!

The answer is WaWas. The answer will always be WaWas. Why is this a question? Let me break this down for you people unfamiliar with these three stores. WaWas has excellent choices in food including sandwiches, soups, and even mac and cheese. Sheetz is if you took all this good food, dropped the quality, and then deep fried it all. And while sometimes (specifically when drunk) this kind of food is very appealing; in general it is not. Royal Farms, also known as RoFo, is Sheetz if you took away all the options of food and replaced them with fried chicken. If that's what you're in the mood for, go for it. I'm gonna stick with WaWas as long as they exist and their delicious choices of wonderful food.

Kyle Boggemes

Should I do a mailbag article?

Kyle you definitely should. It's a nice break from the grind of playing and writing and is a ton of fun. I always enjoy these. And I think you would too. It was fun to put together these questions and answer them. A healthy mix of Magic and non-Magic stuff for a nice balance.

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