Tariq and merging

Blooded Sand wrote:

BenPeal wrote: I don't know what your version of "successful" is, but I'm seeing quite a lot of players getting use out of a lot of Advanced vampires.

Ben, you have been making a lot of sense so far, but arguing that having adv or base vampires CAPABLE of merging in a TWDA deck indicates that the MECHANIC of merging is fine, is a strawman.

If you're gonna cherry-pick things I say, can we cherry-pick some other things, too?

BenPeal wrote: That said, I agree that the existing influence phase mechanic for merging is unsatisfactory, and perhaps it could be sent for review.

Yeah, I agree that "casual merging" for vamps like Ramona could use some help.

And don't put words in my mouth, either. I didn't say that the merging mechanic was fine. I was refuting the notion that there exist few to zero tournament-winning decks that involved Advanced vamps or decks that sought to merge vamps. That doesn't mean that the following don't need improvements:

- the influence phase merging rule
- non-influence-phase merging options
- Advanced crypt cards

Blooded Sand wrote: Getting use out of advanced vampires is one thing, getting use out of merging vampires is something completely else.

I agree.

Ben, if you look at the context of what he said, he in no way said anything about advanced vampires. He said that there are zero TWDA decks that make use of merging. Now if you want to make "make use of" mean "have an incidental merging angle" rather than "explicitly focuses on merging vamps as a key mechanic" then your response holds water. I did not cherry pick, i responded to your exact post. Which did, in fact, comment on the set of advanced vampires in the TWDA and not the number of decks in the twda that use merging as a key mechanic.

Blooded Sand wrote: Ben, if you look at the context of what he said, he in no way said anything about advanced vampires. He said that there are zero TWDA decks that make use of merging.

Which is factually incorrect.

BenPeal wrote:

Blooded Sand wrote: Ben, if you look at the context of what he said, he in no way said anything about advanced vampires. He said that there are zero TWDA decks that make use of merging.

Which is factually incorrect.

Now who is cherry picking?