I agree with Mark. Erin has a great on-air persona. Sometimes the commentators don't get enough credit for managing how difficult it can to be "on" for extended periods of time, especially as the evening wanes.

What does everyone think of continuing this "Pods of 4 Contestants" set-up? A lot of us opposed it and the disastrous tie-breakers quagmires from last season vindicated that. I preferred one night of five matches with all contestants present. The audience gets to see 10 decks, rather than four, and the constant turnover of fresh faces kept things from reaching a lull in the midpoint.

I've been playing one in my Oath list and I love it. Combo oriented blue really wants the information because sometimes you go all in on a line and if it blows up in your face you're down multiple cards. This helps offset the loss of Probe. And importantly, it shuts down things present in the metagame that were not as problematic in 2015--Ravager (can prevent Oathing and do lethal right over Griselbrand's horns), Ballista (can kill you despite successful Oath activation and prevent it), Dack Fayden (annoying way for Delver decks to eschew the Oath threat until they have massive advantage), Bazaar of Baghdad, Mishra's Factory, Karakas, Dark Depths, Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Oath has more unique issues with Jace than other decks because the bounce ability is a drastic reversal of fortunate compared to say "bounce your Pyromancer." It also has unique issues v. Factory since that is a method opponents use to kill you when you have the Druids but not the Orchard. Oath is also more open to attacks from Wasteland due to the Orchard, and as an added bonus to this card's existence, it's the least affected blue deck out there since its mana base has the lowest # of fetches.

@brass-man Excellent post, particularly the pointers for beginning at the bottom.

It's possible we hear more about the negatives on MTGO because the positives are so ubiquitous and even obvious that they become invisible, but all of what you write is true. It's very nice to be able to play Vintage every day and now even competitive Vintage via leagues.

I think part of the reason the negative is emphasized so much is because many of the hiccups are (sometimes easily) resolvable, and the persistent failure to address them leaves us annoyed and bewildered.

Infinite combos require you to iterate every step, so this punishes Bomberman, Dragon, Splinter Twin, and even that Daru Spiritualist lifegain combo from years back if someone wanted to resurrect it. Gifts Ungiven had an error where you could end up giving your opponent 3 cards if you clicked incorrectly; not sure if that was fixed. And your clock will be punished an average of approx. 150 seconds per match if you are running Monastery Mentor, Flusterstorm, and Seeker of the Way. Mana Vault asks you intrusive dumb questions every turn even if it's just chilling there untapped. Energy Flux and Kataki are also very time consuming for an opponent in ways that they would not be in paper.

Monthly seems best to me, as it can then be a highly anticipated thread without as much cantankerousness. Thanks for your diligent reporting (and Ryan & Jonathan Suarez as well!).