While we're all posting decks, here's the one I came up with.
Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
3 Mentor of the Meek
3 Borderland Ranger
4 Wolfir Avenger
1 Wolfir Silverheart
1 Soul of the Harvest
4 Pentavus
3 Craterhoof Behemoth
Artifacts
4 Vessel of Endless Rest
3 Manalith
Sorceries
3 Green Sun's Zenith
Enchantments
4 Cathars' Crusade
Planeswalkers
1 Elspeth Tirel
Lands
14 Forest
Got most of the non-avacyn cards to build via some trading with my friend who has ALL THE CARDS, and a few of them (1 Craterhoof, 1 Cathars, 2 Vessels, 1 Wolfir Avenger) from some early trading with other pre-release buddies... Waiting on my Booster Box tomorrow, then going to trade my temporal mastery I got from the pre-release (and others if need be) for the rest I need. Should be ready to play by next weekend.
I've been playing solitaire games in Cockatrice and it seems absolutely insane so far. Pentavus + Cathars' Crusade is probably the most broken card combo I've seen in Standard.
Still no idea what to put in for a sideboard, though.
Pentavus + Cathars' Crusade is probably the most broken card combo I've seen in Standard.
To be fair, it's a 5 mana enchantment and a 7 mana creature. Powerful as hell if it goes off, but it's not like they won't have at least some time to get something going as well, or interfere.
I've got a CC on order, and intend to load it into my Ghave deck along with a Pentavus once it's in.
Unless they're packing an unstoppable kill or Insurrection, that oughta be game. (though as noted before, the Ghave deck is really just becoming "40 land, 59 absurdly powerful enchantments/artifacts + Ghave". Just got my Doubling Season in the other day as well. Resolving that thing and untapping becomes an absolute nightmare.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
Not knowing a lot about Block Constructed, or how AVR has changed the metagame (as Block basically only exists online, where AVR isn't), most of the slots are totally unpredictable.
The only cards I really like are Hellrider in the Medium Creature slot and Curse of Death's Hold for the Enchantment.
From the url, I'm guessing it's from the Magic Invitational 2007. Apparently, there's going to be a cube at the Players' Championship this year. No confirmation of what the cube looks like though.
Well, my booster box of Avacyn Restored only had 2 mythics in it, so I'm pretty pissed about that. Misthollow Griffin and Sigarda; at least Sigarda will likely find a home in my Rafiq EDH deck.
Got a Vexing Devil and a Cavern of Souls which I think I'm going to try and trade really fast before the price for them drops. Thinking about Standard decks I'm going to make, leaning towards either WR Humans with a heavy Knight theme (because tribal decks are always great and I love Knights) or a crazy GU soulbond/flicker deck because I love shenanigans and nothing says shenanigans like flicker with soulbond. Any thoughts?
Vexing Devil is think is going to settle down to an 8ish dollar card once everyone gets over the inevitable RDW that shows up on the release of a new set. Higher than Stromkirk because it might see play outside of standard.
Cavern I think is going to sit around at about $20+ for good. It is a solid card, produces mana of any colour, meaning for tribal decks or ones that take advantage of it Cavern becomes an automatic 3-4 of. Like, even if we're talking M12 duals, I don't need more than four if I only have a single Red/Green deck. But if I have a R/W deck that could use it in go a set of Caverns. But then I've got my R/B Vampire deck that needs a set of them too. And my B/U zombie deck....
If it was being used solely for preventing spells from being countered I can see it, but the fact it is a really good mana fixer for creature focused decks means it is going to see play in any format that creatures are a thing. And that people will get use out of multiple playsets.
I got insanely lucky with my booster box. Bold = Mythic, obviously
Left column:
Tibalt, the Fiend-blooded
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight / Foil Island
Terminus
Devastation Tide
Angel of Glory's Rise
Cavern of Souls Primal Surge
Captain of the Mists
Cathars' Crusade
Arcane Melee
Angel of Jubilation
Dread Slaver
My friend's box, not so much, but I gave him a few VERY good trades to get his Craterhoof and a few other cards from previous sets I wanted off him, so we were both happy.
Left:
Hound of Griselbrand
Gallows at Willow Hill
Cavern of Souls
Ulvenwald Tracker
Moonsilver Spear
Alchemist's Refuge / Foil Farbog Explorer
Wild Defiance
Zealous Conscripts / Foil Fettergeist
Stolen Goods
Tyrant of Discord
Wolfir Silverheart
Reforge the Soul
Middle:
Champion of Lambhold / Foil Lone Revenant
Cathars' Crusade
Demonic Rising
Harvester of Souls
Spirit Away Sigurda, Host of Herons
Angel of Jubilation Craterhoof Behemoth
Killing Wave
Infinite Reflection / Foil Lair Delve
Rite of Ruin
Riders of Gavony
Right:
Angel of Glory's Rise
Arcane Melee / Foil Corpse Traders
Wolfir Silverheart
Treacherous Pit-Dweller / Foil Hanweir Lancer
Descendants' Path / Foil Latch Seeker
Slayer's Stronghold
Revenge of the Hunted
Desolate Lighthouse
Herald of War
Captain of the Mists
Dark Impostor Avacyn, Angel of Hope / Foil Crippling Chill
I'm going to try and pick up as many Terminus, Bonfires and Entreat the Angels as I can short term in reasonable trades.
I've got a playset of each of them, but was suprised the latter two stayed so low in price for as long as they did considering rarity.
Lots of good uncommons I didn't bother to log, too. Like, I got enough Vessels of Endless Rest and Wolfir Avengers to fill up my deck posted at the top of the page. And I don't really play red, but I bet I got enough good red cards to cobble together a RDW deck without buying anything else if I had to. Really happy I got a whole box.
So it turns out Deadeye Navigator is one of the most absurd rares in the set.
When you're wrathing their board (Mist Raven) and gaining twelve life (Goldnight Redeemer) a turn you tend to fall in love with a card.
I think I'm gonna try and fit him into a Birthing Pod deck. Flickering Stonehorn Dignitary 3 times has got to be an uber beating.
Friend code for Pokemon fiends everywhere: Arch 0447-6824-1112
My favorite Deadeye combo I've seen is Zealous Conscripts. Like, alright, you've already got zealous conscripts on the board and you play Deadeye and bond him to Zealous Conscripts. Next turn, you untap the 6 mana you used to play Deadeye.
1. 2 mana: Blink Zealous Conscripts, gain control of enemy creature till end of turn.
2. 2 mana: Blink Deadeye to unbond him, and bond him to the creature you just stole.
3. 2 mana: Blink the creature you stole. You now permanently control it.
So I finished the deck I was building, that I posted earlier with the Craterhoofs and the Cathers Crusades. Played a couple games against my buddy.
How obscene is this deck? In one of our games, I won by swinging in for a hundred and six combat damage, bringing him down to -86 life because he didn't even bother to declare blockers. All of the damage was trample, and 75 of it was flying-with-trample.
On turn six.
(Turn 3: Cathars Crusade came out. Turn 4: Pentavus came out. Turn 5: I bring out another mana creature that buffs the pentavus to 6/6, and the Pentavus creates five 5/5 Pentavites. Should have done this in reverse order, but oh well. Turn 6: Craterhoof Behemoth comes out. I have 9 creatures including the Craterhoof so all creatures get +10/+10 (one from Cathars) and trample. I swing in with 6 15/15's and a 16/16.)
Can someone detail some of the combat flicker shenanigans? For example, if I attack and the blockers are declared, can he then flicker his blocker so that it's not in combat any more and thus block without concern for his creature dying? Furthermore, if I were to blink a guy, would he still be attacking or would he be removed from combat?
Also, during what "step" in the combat step does one do all this stuff?
Can someone detail some of the combat flicker shenanigans? For example, if I attack and the blockers are declared, can he then flicker his blocker so that it's not in combat any more and thus block without concern for his creature dying? Furthermore, if I were to blink a guy, would he still be attacking or would he be removed from combat?
Also, during what "step" in the combat step does one do all this stuff?
if you flicker a blocker after blockers are declared, than whatever it was blocking is still blocked, but the blocker wont receive any damage.
if you flicker an attacker, than it would come back no longer attacking.
Can someone detail some of the combat flicker shenanigans? For example, if I attack and the blockers are declared, can he then flicker his blocker so that it's not in combat any more and thus block without concern for his creature dying? Furthermore, if I were to blink a guy, would he still be attacking or would he be removed from combat?
Also, during what "step" in the combat step does one do all this stuff?
if you flicker a blocker after blockers are declared, than whatever it was blocking is still blocked, but the blocker wont receive any damage.
if you flicker an attacker, than it would come back no longer attacking.
Okay, what happens if you flicker a blocker blocking a creature with trample? For the sake of argument, let's say the attacker is a Primeval Titan and the blocker is a Hill Giant. Does the player take 6 damage, 3 damage, or no damage?
Can someone detail some of the combat flicker shenanigans? For example, if I attack and the blockers are declared, can he then flicker his blocker so that it's not in combat any more and thus block without concern for his creature dying? Furthermore, if I were to blink a guy, would he still be attacking or would he be removed from combat?
Also, during what "step" in the combat step does one do all this stuff?
if you flicker a blocker after blockers are declared, than whatever it was blocking is still blocked, but the blocker wont receive any damage.
if you flicker an attacker, than it would come back no longer attacking.
Okay, what happens if you flicker a blocker blocking a creature with trample? For the sake of argument, let's say the attacker is a Primeval Titan and the blocker is a Hill Giant. Does the player take 6 damage, 3 damage, or no damage?
6 damage, while it is blocked it wont be assigning any damage to the blocker so all of it can go to the player
R/W Humans: Striker into Silverblade will end worlds.
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Cloistered Youth (Interchangeble with Loyal Cathar, but he has harsher requirements and isn't as big for Silverblade)
4 Silverblade Paladin
4 Kruin Striker
4 Hero of Bladehold
Lightning Mauler seems better than Kruin Striker, especially with Hero of Bladehold. Silverblade Paladin is more vulnerable than Mirran Crusader, Doomed Traveler is a bad one-drop and Champion of the Parish isn't very threatening without Raise the Alarm or at least a few more two-drops. Or you can drop the Champion, Raise the Alarm and Honor of the Pure and go for a more burn-oriented approach: Grim Lavamancer, Stormblood Berserker, Gut Shot, Pillar of Flame, Incinerate. The vampire deck could use Gut Shot to trigger the Berserker as well. The other human deck has a few borderline (borderland?) cards and the Architect deck could use more artifacts to ramp into.
Yesterday, I pulled a Tamiyo in Sealed and a Cavern of Souls in draft.
Unfortunately, I got nothing particularly good in blue (outside the PW) for the sealed, and accidentally pulled a high mana curve in draft, and thus was obliterated in both.
Oh well. I can trade that Tamiyo for entry in the next tourney. :P
One thing to help keep these flicker effects straight is to remember that whenever a permanent is returned it is an entirely new object, with no memory of what it was before. That means it is no longer a blocking creature, or be targetted by a spell or ability, will be summoning sick, and will no longer have any buffs from its previous life (counters, auras, equipment).
The only exceptions are creatures with "phasing", but that's a fringe case and really only relevant in commander and MAAAYBE legacy.
A friend found his old (Revised/Fallen Empires) collection in his closet.
I looked through it, found a bunch of Demonic Tutors, a couple of Sol Rings, two Revised duals (Badlands and Tundra), and a handful of other decent assorted rares.
I pulled out the good stuff and said, "So, this stack is probably worth about $150-200" and he said, "Okay. It's yours. I don't care."
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
The only exceptions are creatures with "phasing", but that's a fringe case and really only relevant in commander and MAAAYBE legacy.
Creatures that phase out are not officially exiled (any more). They're technically still on the battlefield... they just don't exist in the same reality as the rest of it.
Posts
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
3 Mentor of the Meek
3 Borderland Ranger
4 Wolfir Avenger
1 Wolfir Silverheart
1 Soul of the Harvest
4 Pentavus
3 Craterhoof Behemoth
Artifacts
4 Vessel of Endless Rest
3 Manalith
Sorceries
3 Green Sun's Zenith
Enchantments
4 Cathars' Crusade
Planeswalkers
1 Elspeth Tirel
Lands
14 Forest
Got most of the non-avacyn cards to build via some trading with my friend who has ALL THE CARDS, and a few of them (1 Craterhoof, 1 Cathars, 2 Vessels, 1 Wolfir Avenger) from some early trading with other pre-release buddies... Waiting on my Booster Box tomorrow, then going to trade my temporal mastery I got from the pre-release (and others if need be) for the rest I need. Should be ready to play by next weekend.
I've been playing solitaire games in Cockatrice and it seems absolutely insane so far. Pentavus + Cathars' Crusade is probably the most broken card combo I've seen in Standard.
Still no idea what to put in for a sideboard, though.
3 predator ooze
4 birds of paradise
1 llanowar elves
2 thrummingbird
2 viral drake
2 merfolk looter
19
4 ponder
3 vapor snag
3 rangers guile
4 mana leak
2 increasing savagery
2 sword of war and peace
18
3 inkmoth nexus
1 gavony township
4 hinterland harbor
1 sunpetal grove
9 forest
6 island
24
fun when it works, when you draw consecutive lands it dies out quickly
To be fair, it's a 5 mana enchantment and a 7 mana creature. Powerful as hell if it goes off, but it's not like they won't have at least some time to get something going as well, or interfere.
I've got a CC on order, and intend to load it into my Ghave deck along with a Pentavus once it's in.
Unless they're packing an unstoppable kill or Insurrection, that oughta be game. (though as noted before, the Ghave deck is really just becoming "40 land, 59 absurdly powerful enchantments/artifacts + Ghave". Just got my Doubling Season in the other day as well. Resolving that thing and untapping becomes an absolute nightmare.
maybe you could splash for Loothouse?
Path of Exile: snowcrash7
MTG Arena: Snow_Crash#34179
Battle.net: Snowcrash#1873
Not knowing a lot about Block Constructed, or how AVR has changed the metagame (as Block basically only exists online, where AVR isn't), most of the slots are totally unpredictable.
The only cards I really like are Hellrider in the Medium Creature slot and Curse of Death's Hold for the Enchantment.
E: I pack 1 pick 1 picked Time Walk! And I don't even know if that was right!
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
You do not. You'd be drafting thousands of tickets worth of cards, otherwise.
i'm pretty sure that picking anything over lotus/moxen/time walk/ancestral/sol ring is wrong.
Path of Exile: snowcrash7
MTG Arena: Snow_Crash#34179
Battle.net: Snowcrash#1873
Considering Time Walk isn't online, as none of the Power 9 are, I think he actually meant Time Warp. And Sol Ring isn't in the MTGO Cube either.
And Time Warp isn't very good.
I meant Time Walk. I did a draft simulation on a website, which supposedly had the MTGO cube. Now I am confused.
This: http://www.wizards.com/magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/927 is supposedly the Cube right now.
So I am confused as to what this: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Events.aspx?x=mtgevent/mi07/cubelist is, that I found Googling around.
That second link is the card list for the physical cube used at the 2007 Invitationals in Germany.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Got a Vexing Devil and a Cavern of Souls which I think I'm going to try and trade really fast before the price for them drops. Thinking about Standard decks I'm going to make, leaning towards either WR Humans with a heavy Knight theme (because tribal decks are always great and I love Knights) or a crazy GU soulbond/flicker deck because I love shenanigans and nothing says shenanigans like flicker with soulbond. Any thoughts?
Cavern I think is going to sit around at about $20+ for good. It is a solid card, produces mana of any colour, meaning for tribal decks or ones that take advantage of it Cavern becomes an automatic 3-4 of. Like, even if we're talking M12 duals, I don't need more than four if I only have a single Red/Green deck. But if I have a R/W deck that could use it in go a set of Caverns. But then I've got my R/B Vampire deck that needs a set of them too. And my B/U zombie deck....
If it was being used solely for preventing spells from being countered I can see it, but the fact it is a really good mana fixer for creature focused decks means it is going to see play in any format that creatures are a thing. And that people will get use out of multiple playsets.
Tibalt, the Fiend-blooded
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight / Foil Island
Terminus
Devastation Tide
Angel of Glory's Rise
Cavern of Souls
Primal Surge
Captain of the Mists
Cathars' Crusade
Arcane Melee
Angel of Jubilation
Dread Slaver
Middle:
Temporal Mastery
Exquisite Blood / Foil Goldnight Commander
Archwing Dragon
Burn at the Stake
Descendent's Path / Foil Geist Snatch
Malignus
Otherworld Atlas
Sigurda, Host of Herons
Conjurer's Closet
Druid's Repository
Restoration Angel
Rite of Ruin / Foil Dread Slaver
Right:
Dread Slaver
Gallows at Willow Hill / Foil Exquisite Blood
Champion of Lambholt
Divine Deflection
Deadeye Navigator
Desolate Lighthouse
Dual Casting / Foil Forest
Somberwald Sage
Silverblade Paladin / Foil Vorstclaw
Lunar Mystic
Demonic Rising
Moonsilver Spear
My friend's box, not so much, but I gave him a few VERY good trades to get his Craterhoof and a few other cards from previous sets I wanted off him, so we were both happy.
Hound of Griselbrand
Gallows at Willow Hill
Cavern of Souls
Ulvenwald Tracker
Moonsilver Spear
Alchemist's Refuge / Foil Farbog Explorer
Wild Defiance
Zealous Conscripts / Foil Fettergeist
Stolen Goods
Tyrant of Discord
Wolfir Silverheart
Reforge the Soul
Middle:
Champion of Lambhold / Foil Lone Revenant
Cathars' Crusade
Demonic Rising
Harvester of Souls
Spirit Away
Sigurda, Host of Herons
Angel of Jubilation
Craterhoof Behemoth
Killing Wave
Infinite Reflection / Foil Lair Delve
Rite of Ruin
Riders of Gavony
Right:
Angel of Glory's Rise
Arcane Melee / Foil Corpse Traders
Wolfir Silverheart
Treacherous Pit-Dweller / Foil Hanweir Lancer
Descendants' Path / Foil Latch Seeker
Slayer's Stronghold
Revenge of the Hunted
Desolate Lighthouse
Herald of War
Captain of the Mists
Dark Impostor
Avacyn, Angel of Hope / Foil Crippling Chill
I'm going to try and pick up as many Terminus, Bonfires and Entreat the Angels as I can short term in reasonable trades.
I've got a playset of each of them, but was suprised the latter two stayed so low in price for as long as they did considering rarity.
Lots of good uncommons I didn't bother to log, too. Like, I got enough Vessels of Endless Rest and Wolfir Avengers to fill up my deck posted at the top of the page. And I don't really play red, but I bet I got enough good red cards to cobble together a RDW deck without buying anything else if I had to. Really happy I got a whole box.
When you're wrathing their board (Mist Raven) and gaining twelve life (Goldnight Redeemer) a turn you tend to fall in love with a card.
I think I'm gonna try and fit him into a Birthing Pod deck. Flickering Stonehorn Dignitary 3 times has got to be an uber beating.
1. 2 mana: Blink Zealous Conscripts, gain control of enemy creature till end of turn.
2. 2 mana: Blink Deadeye to unbond him, and bond him to the creature you just stole.
3. 2 mana: Blink the creature you stole. You now permanently control it.
Fucking EVIL.
How obscene is this deck? In one of our games, I won by swinging in for a hundred and six combat damage, bringing him down to -86 life because he didn't even bother to declare blockers. All of the damage was trample, and 75 of it was flying-with-trample.
On turn six.
(Turn 3: Cathars Crusade came out. Turn 4: Pentavus came out. Turn 5: I bring out another mana creature that buffs the pentavus to 6/6, and the Pentavus creates five 5/5 Pentavites. Should have done this in reverse order, but oh well. Turn 6: Craterhoof Behemoth comes out. I have 9 creatures including the Craterhoof so all creatures get +10/+10 (one from Cathars) and trample. I swing in with 6 15/15's and a 16/16.)
Also, during what "step" in the combat step does one do all this stuff?
if you flicker a blocker after blockers are declared, than whatever it was blocking is still blocked, but the blocker wont receive any damage.
if you flicker an attacker, than it would come back no longer attacking.
Okay, what happens if you flicker a blocker blocking a creature with trample? For the sake of argument, let's say the attacker is a Primeval Titan and the blocker is a Hill Giant. Does the player take 6 damage, 3 damage, or no damage?
6 damage, while it is blocked it wont be assigning any damage to the blocker so all of it can go to the player
R/W Humans: Striker into Silverblade will end worlds.
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Cloistered Youth (Interchangeble with Loyal Cathar, but he has harsher requirements and isn't as big for Silverblade)
4 Silverblade Paladin
4 Kruin Striker
4 Hero of Bladehold
2 Pillar of Flame
2 Bonfire of the Damned
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Clifftop Retreat
11 Plains
3 Mountain
2 Slayers' Stronghold
R/G/W Humans: More longterm than the R/W one.
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
1 Deranged Outcast
3 Blade Splicer
2 Borderland Ranger
3 Fiend Hunter
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Restoration Angel
3 Zealous Conscripts
2 Bonfire of the Damned
4 Cloudshift
1 Oblivion Ring
7 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Copperline Gorge
2 Gavony Township
4 Razorverge Thicket
SB: 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
SB: 2 Stony Silence
SB: 2 Witchbane Orb
SB: 2 Ancient Grudge
SB: 2 Ray of Revelation
SB: 3 Timely Reinforcements
G/U: Swing for the fence!
4 Grand Architect
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Ranger’s Guile
4 Tracker's Instincts
4 Cackling Counterpart
2 Noxious Revival
2 Twisted Image
2 Temporal Mastery
2 Revenge of the Hunted
4 Hinterland Harbor
11 Island
4 Forest
3 Buried Ruin
2 Evolving Wilds
B/R Vampires: With a dash of human for flavour.
2 Stonewright (Suprisingly nice with the Captain)
4 Stormblood Berserker
4 Vampire Interloper
4 Stromkirk Captain
2 Dark Impostor
4 Bloodline Keeper
3 Falkenrath Aristocrat
2 Olivia Voldaren
2 Pillar of Flame
2 Dismember
2 Tragic Slip
1 Doom Blade
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
8 Swamp
6 Mountain
2 Dragonskull Summit
SB: 2 Doom Blade
SB: 2 Stormblood Berserker
SB: 2 Tragic Slip
SB: 4 Forge Devil
SB: 2 Pillar of Flame
SB: 3 Surgical Extraction
Love to hear any suggestions you guys want to throw in though.
so here's what I threw together for wild defiance
4 fling
3 wild hunger
3 mutagenic growth
3 arc trail
3 pillar of flame
4 bird
3 llanowar elf
4 strangleroot geist
3 hound of griselbrand
3 garruk's companion
3 druid's familiar
Unfortunately, I got nothing particularly good in blue (outside the PW) for the sealed, and accidentally pulled a high mana curve in draft, and thus was obliterated in both.
Oh well. I can trade that Tamiyo for entry in the next tourney. :P
The only exceptions are creatures with "phasing", but that's a fringe case and really only relevant in commander and MAAAYBE legacy.
Mmmmm....toasty.
I looked through it, found a bunch of Demonic Tutors, a couple of Sol Rings, two Revised duals (Badlands and Tundra), and a handful of other decent assorted rares.
I pulled out the good stuff and said, "So, this stack is probably worth about $150-200" and he said, "Okay. It's yours. I don't care."
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Creatures that phase out are not officially exiled (any more). They're technically still on the battlefield... they just don't exist in the same reality as the rest of it.