The Science of Magic: Genetic Engineering, Part Two. by Amadeus

[Streetz]

This thread is reserved for the dicussion of the following article:

http://www.magicdeckvortex.com/mdvarticle0265.htm

Please read it, enjoy it and discuss it here.

What did you like about the article? Was it inspiring, informational, ingenius? Was it inappropriate? Was there anything you really liked or didn't like about it?

Let the author know here!

Thanks!

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[jimtop]

Hi Amadeus and all other judges and contestants! It was pretty fun to share sliver love and the articles are very nice! Congrats WorstNightmare!

[Streetz]

Amadeus, had you received say 20 submissions -- would you have still tested out each deck against each other?

[Amadeus]

That's an interesting question. In the case of this contest, it just fit the theme well because you wanted to see which "species" would dominate. But with a large number of submissions, that really would have taken a long time to test. What alternate methods have been used in the past for judging deck submissions to contests?

[Streetz]

In the contests I hosted in the past, I didn't do any real testing. I just reviewed the decks and made my own judgments of each one.

[Amadeus]

@jimtop: Thanks for the comments and your submission. I really enjoyed it too. Sorry it took so long to get the results out.

@ Streetz: I wouldn't trust my own judging on its own. I needed to play the decks to get the feel for them and see how they hung together. Perhaps with more experience... As an aside, I didn't like the "cost" category. It skewed the results a bit, I think. What have you done in the past in this area?

[Maleficent]

Even though it's been, um, a really long time I'd like to add that this contest was awesome very well thought out and unique. Definitely a different approach to things, and that in itself sets it far above any normal contest. I think it's pretty well known that I like my flavor, and this did a great job capturing that in your own way (and w00t highest flavor score! Booyah! ) So well done, Amadeus and congrats to YWN

[Streetz]

This article is being reposted 1/9/08. Feel free to discuss this article or in some cases, re-discuss this article if you've read it already.

[guest1234]

Originally Posted by Streetz

Amadeus, had you received say 20 submissions -- would you have still tested out each deck against each other?

If you ever get that busy, I recommend a preliminary round to weed out the weaker decks. Divide everyone into groups, and then only the better decks/players of each group advance to the final round.

[FreezeDried]

Overall, this was an enjoyable read. I'm still a bit unsure that I see the seperation between the "flavor" and "style" scoring categories. It also seemed like the judging for "flavor" was a bit sporadic: in one review, the deck gets points off for having "flavorless" cards like lightning helix, and in the other they get props for aether vial and sunhome ?? Is the idea of slivers being bred out of test-tubes and put into a fortress (I have some flavor problems with a lot of non-basic lands....I can see a sinkhole destroying a land, but I don't know how a fortress gives someone double-strike o_O...) somehow better than the idea of slivers being bred to shoot lightning........hmm.......okay; I may have answered my own question here, mid-rant. The source of Lightning Helix is the player, not the slivers......whereas Sunhome enhances the slivers themselves (somehow) and aether vial is the player playing scientist and making little test-tube babies....err slivers.

Okay....well I guess that's all I've got. Looks like people had some fun with this: good job.