MDV Visitor Comments:
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MDV Featured Article - Visitor Comments of 2006. - by Streetz - posted 2/26/06 - discuss here

2/1/06 John Streetz writes:  Hello expiring mind!  Nice to meet you. 

Thanks for your comments.  I am glad to know that there are people in the world that actually enjoy the MDV deck database and articles - I know I do.  You are visiting MDV for what it is most well known for - decks - and for that I am thankful.  The articles, the combos, the visual spoilers... those are just things that help to expand the site and make it most interesting.  It is the MDV Deck Database that should reign as king of MDV attention.  The decks is where MDV gets it's name, the decks are what the site started with and thus the decks should be king.

About the deck ratings, I'm glad you asked.  It is comments and emails like this that give me an opportunity to discuss a facet of MDV that hasn't been discussed before.  In this case, it is the deck ratings. 

Off to the right of all the decks in the database you will see a number.  The number is one to five and usually uses decimals.  A deck that is 0 is really, really bad.  A deck that is 5 is really, really good.  3 denotes a mediocre decks and everything else in between should be self-explanatory. 2 is something that isn't very good (but perhaps it is very fun).  A 4 is an above average deck. So, how do I come up with these numbers?

Visually and subjectively.  I come up with these numbers based on what I see in the deck.  If I think the cards work very well together, I give it a 3.4 to 5.  If it seems like strictly a casual deck and is weak but fun, I give it a 2.5 to 3.5.  These numbers that I assign to a deck are not official... they are just my interpretation of the deck power to a number.

I hope this helps.  And thanks again for the intriguing comments.  ~Streetz~

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2/1/06 John Streetz writes: First - thank you!  I love it when people talk about my site outside of the net and it looks like you are doing this.  I always appreciate it when other players teach newer players too.  Even more so when they refer them to MDV!

Anyway, you want to find all of the pages on MDV with "Cathodian"?  You are in luck.  I installed a search function (thanks to my web host) about 4 months ago.  You can go to the MDV search page by clicking here.  Or, you can click on the image to the right reading "? / SEARCH / MDV".  That will take you to the same page.

Some things I've noticed about the search engine on MDV.  It likes one word searches.  If you try to search for "Skull of Orm"... it will come up blank.  Now I know there are decks used Skull of Orm on the site.. but why isn't it registering them?  That.. I don't know.  But, if you reduce your search to "skull" or "orm" you are more likely to find the decks you are looking for.  If you ever find any other problems with the MDV search function, please let me know.

I hope this helps.  And thanks again for the great comments and referrals.  ~Streetz~

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2/1/06 John Streetz writes:  This is an important comment and say this because there are a lot of members of the forum, but atleast 20% of them never post.  I would imagine about 80% of these non-posters won't post because the never received their confirmation email.

So... if you are having troubles signing up for the MDV forum, please send me an email.  I can always manually activate your account.  ~Streetz~

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2/1/06 John Streetz writes:  Simply put - no.  Unless I ask you to, you should never send me a deck list via email. I won't reply to them and it clutters up my hotmail account.

For those that don't know, I am no longer using AdventuresOn as a means for you all to submit decks.  Why?  Just because.  MDV has grown in the past 3+ years and I feel the deck submission utility was not gaining MDV anything.  While you were able to submit decks easily, I wasn't able to post and review them easily.  What fun is it to submit a deck unless you were able to view it on the site within a few weeks?  It isn't fun.  Plus, the deck submissions were mostly duplicates or decks already found in the deck database in some forum.  That's a lot of time to review a bunch of deck duplicates and unfun decks for me.  I think you can understand why I chose to drop this.

Plus, MDV now has a forum.  What better way to submit a deck than to submit a deck on the casual deck forum (linked here) where other members of the forum can comment on it.  You can get a lot more out of your time in posting a deck if you do it in the forum.

I ask that you post your deck ideas in the casual deck forum from here on.  Not just you, but everyone.  You will get much better feedback using that method and it will give you an opportunity to check out the forum and maybe even become a part of it.  Thanks for sending in the comments.  ~Streetz~

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2/1/06 John Streetz writes:  Sure to the first question.  I can always use help.  However, I don't think your encyclopedias will do me any good because I already have all of them.  They are, unfortunately, no use anymore.  With all of the oracle changed on cards in the Mirage Block because of the MTGO, these books are very out of date.

How can I use help?  Easily.  You could write an article for MDV thus giving other members of the MDV community something to do while they visit the site.  You could review pages of MDV for errors and email me with them so I could fix them.  You could visit a sponsor and support them so the sponsors/advertisers continue to support MDV with their funds.  These are all ways to help me.

About your second comment, this is a not bad idea.  I will consider it... although it would be a lot of work to do.  Having a creature spoiler for every magic creature is quite a task but would be very beneficial I think for everyone. 

Thanks for your comments, Darker.  I do appreciate any and all comments... good and/or bad.  ~Streetz~

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2/1/06 John Streetz writes:  That's an amusing comment.  You see, not every deck I post on MDV has a description.  This is because not every deck I find on the internet has a description.  A lot of the times I find decks on a random website and just the deck is posted.  No additional information is posted with the deck.  Thus I am stuck only posting the deck.   

If only I had time to write a description for every deck on MDV - that would take me two years.

When I grab a deck from, say, www.wizards.com, about 70% of the time it is in an article in which the author of the article/deck talk about it.  If they do, I post their description if it's a good one.  If it's now, I don't.

Recently I updated all 1500+ decks in the deck database and while I was making the updates (which mind you took me 8 months to do)... I went back to the original website where I found the deck and I looked for a deck description.  If the deck iin the database didn't have a description and I found one, I added it to the deck while I was updating the layout.  Abour 200+ decks received descriptions this way.  That's very cool.

To get to my point - not every deck in the MDV deck database will have a description.  This is just a nature of the MDV beast.  It's unfortunate, I know... but I can provide you with everything, right?

Thank you for your comments.  ~Streetz~

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2/1/06 John Streetz writes: First and foremost, I appreciate you sending in a possible error found in MDV.  While this one isn't an error, I still appreciate the comments. 

Being that I am one guy running (what I'd like to think as a popular site) I can't be perfect.  I am prone to make errors or post bunk combos, decks or whatever.  This is where you all come in.  If you send me an email telling me about an error, I then will know it's an error and I will try and fix it ASAP.  If it's not an error, such as this one, I will let you know if I can.

Second, thanks for the uplifting comments.

Third, Platinum Angel prevents you from losing.... as long as she is in play.  If a card would make you lose the game, you don't.  It's that simple.  If you need more information, I would encourage you to check out the Rules Corner found in the forums.  There, the resident rules gurus of the MDV forum will help you.  Unfortunately, I am not one of the gurus.

Thanks.  ~Streetz~

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2/1/06 John Streetz writes:  While this isn't really a 'visitor comment'... it is.  It gives me an opportunity to makes some comments on your email. 

You see, I no longer have a deck clinic on MDV.  This is for many reasons, the most important being that I don't have enough time. The last time MDV had a deck clinic was three years ago and I would find it safe to assume you weren't reading MDV back then.  With all of that said, I will never be able to help you with your deck via email.

If you want to get some comments on your deck, go to the MDV forum.  Post your deck idea in the casual or tournament deck forum and let other users of the forum help your deck out.  Between the moderators and resident deck critique-ers (like PerfectCell, Twinkee, JSweeney and others).. you're deck will become ship-shape in no time.

Oh.  And while I'm no grammar expert, please send your emails to me with good grammar.  I can usually decipher what you are trying to tell me, but sometimes I can't.  Keep good grammar in mind when you are sending me your comments and what not.  Some of the comments have been gracefully eddited by my FrontPage spell checker.. but there are still errors.  Thanks.  ~Streetz~

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