I've been tinkering with this casual deck for a while. It's pretty straight forward. Drop a Gelectrode or a Dragonaut, play a ton of cheap cantrips and burn and go to town. Right now I'm looking for suggestions to make it a little more consistent.
//Creatures
4 Gelectrode
4 Wee Dragonauts
1 Niv-Mizzet the Firemind
//Draw
4 Preordain
4 Slight of hand
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
//Land
9 Island
8 Mountain
1 Shivan Reef
1 Caldera Lake
I prefer instant draw with gelectrode because you can do everything at the end of their turn. You may consider think twice and telling time. Both instant draw and with think twice you can use it early and still get a burn out of it with gelectrode. I had a pretty good rav/time spiral standard deck that was black red and blue that was basically instant draw, instant burn and instant destroy creatures/land. I freaking loved it. I wish I remembered the deck list...
I remember my opponent cast tendril of corruption on my gelectrode, in response I cast wrecking ball on his Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, so his tendril did 0 damage. Felt like a big man.
built from memory, might be a little spotty... I think I eventually left the cut purses out for infiltrators. The thinking was I either burned creatures out or all my creatures had eaten their removal, so dropping either the cut purse or infiltrator let me build card advantage like whoa.
I just play casually, the jhoira deck is for fun anyways.
I'm firmly convinced that nothing involving Jhoira as a general is "fun" for everyone else at the table. Even using her to suspend "harmless" things is horribly broken more often than not. She gets around mana/color screw way too easily.
Unfortunately if you want to go pure red/blue she's one of your only three options at the moment -- and Niv-Mizzet is pretty degenerate as well.
That's been a fun point of making up a whole pile of EDH decks: searching up legends of various colour combinations. Who knew there were only two Blue/Green Legends? And they were both printed during one of my periods off of playing the game.. and even in the same set?
So my Blue/Green control/Unblockable deck became Bant Control / Exalted / Unblockable, as an example.
I hope this weekend to hit someone so hard with an unblockable Rafiq that I knock them clear off the table.
Doing a whole pile of deck building/shuffling on short order has also been an interesting whirlwind. Once I hopefully wrap up the last 4 or so tonight/tomorrow night, I'm going to have to pull as many cards I feel should be in as many decks as possible (mass removal, targetted removal of all flavours, colour fixing / mana acceleration, etc) and start trimming. Some decks run a bit light on creatures but heavy on removal, some are the opposite, but at the very least I figure most should have some way to clear the board of creatures (and/or other things), something to deal with an errant or out of hand General, and go from there. Like, the Angel deck has a bunch of sub-optimal white cards in there to pad out the numbers because I only had like 25 mono white angels, but after last nights slash and burn approach to old decks, I can afford to toss some pretty sweet creatures that will be nice to have on hand, even if they're not actually angels.
Which is another thing I kind of like; building a mostly tribal deck but if you fall short it's really not that big a deal. With only 1 Urza's Incubator in 99 cards, if I draw it, great, and if not, just gonna have to go on without it.
I think what's dawning more and more is that this almost feels a bit like the early days when I played magic; big decks, not packing multiples of much of anything, and while there's optimization going on, it's still leading to playing cards that I probably wouldn't have otherwise, either as a "second _____" due to being a functional reprint, or even a slightly less optimal version of something I'd like to have on hand.
I also recognize that in being literally 'years behind' on this EDH thing, I'm probably gushing over shit you guys appreciated back in, like, 2008, but it's pretty shiny and new for me.
Hopefully our irregularly attending fourth player will be able to make it on Friday. Having 3 other people to watch out for can make things significantly more interesting than just 2, as I find that can often lead to waiting for an opening and then just having 2 people gang bang the weak link (in one fashion or another), whereas such an alliance of convenience is less likely when that third party may or may not decide to stab one or both of them in the back mid violation.
Edit: when all is said and done, I think I'll have built 12 EDH decks in the course of less than a week, though of varying levels of quality until I can put some real time into tweaking them. Admittedly, most of them are just variations of aggro and/or control (any combo is pretty tame), and am only keeping 2 'regular' decks sleeved for now; Myrs and a green/white monstrosity I call "Mirari's Coup".
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
so i got fed up with card sleeves after buying a pack and the 2 individual packs being cut at different lengths, enough to make them not worth playing with. so i ordered 6 packs of the sleeves with a black lotus on the back, got them all today, and so far they're all looking quite even. i just pulled em out and mixed em up in a box, and now i have a box of card sleeves! woo...
put together an eldrazi green deck today, which ill probably be playing friday. i hate when im missing a single uncommon for it, using a bird of paradise in place of the last treespeaker. and a myr battlesphere in place of emrakul!
also tried my hand at blue black control, from blue/white... i think im switching back. Gideon Jura is just too awesome. might try out mono black though.
anywho, ive not ever gotten much into EDH, mostly because no one around here knows much about it. Hopefully with wotc sort of "unofficially" adopting it as Commander, people will gain some interest in it. im kinda curious how the unique cards they print for commander will be looked at for standard. im guessing they wont make them good enough to make people want to use them.
unique cards from commander won't be in standard unless they get printed in a standard set. for example, before scars was printed, contagion clasp (unique to a duel deck) was only legal in eternal formats.
I dunno if you guys are into speculation but this is a pretty great idea I think.
Personally I think it will go New Phyrexia, puts Magic's best (in my opinion) villain back into power, if Mirrodin won it would be boring with nothing really changing, and with phyrexians back to wreck shit, maybe a return to Dominaria?
I know people are attached to the name, and I'm fine with calling it EDH still. That's usually what I call it as well, but the raw venom that the name of the WOTC products has inspired in some people seems uncalled for to me. I've seen people on other sites proclaiming that they won't even play with anyone who calls it Commander.
Seems like a rather bizzarely elitist attitude to come from people who are often in the same breath those who gush about how inclusive EDH is. "By the people, for the people, but if you don't use the old/my term for it you can show yourself out or be thrown out!"
Also, interesting page, I honestly suspect that the games days and whatnot where people can get bonus cards for playing Mirran or Phyrexian decks are going to lead to the winning group/name/cards.
If that is the case, I'll be curious to see if they'll let us know what we missed out on from the side that wasn't picked, assuming at least some of the cards would be different (obviously not a ton, but some notable fraction of the set).
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
EDH as a name isn't as friendly to new players, either. Someone who just started playing recently isn't going to know who the Elder Dragons are, and the game hasn't focused on actually having an Elder Dragon general in a long time.
Speaking of the December 20 update, I made a few hints last week on Facebook about it. Without giving away the store, I noted that the new product puts some stuff in the Comp Rules that may allow us to make some changes, and I'm putting Brooding Saurian back in all my green decks. Added Exclusive StarCityGames.com Bonus: I may also be taking out Tajuru Preserver.
Meaning, rule changes to Generals - any activation cost or casting cost of the general can be the colour of your deck. Look out, Memnarch decks! (Adding Brooding Saurian to his deck).
Meaning, rule changes to Generals - any activation cost or casting cost of the general can be the colour of your deck. Look out, Memnarch decks! (Adding Brooding Saurian to his deck).
Emrakul being banned (take out tajuru preserver).
yep, taraju prevents all of the annihilator effects. the other 2 aren't as OP as emrakul is. Annihilator 6 or w/e it is, is brutal to an edh deck.
Guillame Matignon is our world champ, defeating Guillame Wafo-Tapo in a U/B control mirror. His win ties him with Brad Nelson in the player of the year race and they will have a match to determine the winner at Pro Tour Paris.
Slovak Republic is our team champs.
Watching the UB mirror in the finals was incredibly depressing, because neither player really has an answer to Grave Titan other than to counter it or Memoricide from the sideboard. Whenever a GT would hit the other player would pretty much shrug and scoop it up.
B.C. on
Friend code for Pokemon fiends everywhere: Arch 0447-6824-1112
I have come to you in search of assistance. My gf used to play alot of magic but after college she didn't have a group to play with so she's been out of it around 2-3 years. Recently a cafe near us started a Magic night ever week so she's getting back into it.
I'd like to get her some cards for Christmas as I hear her deck is out of date, alas I have no idea what anything about Magic means. What questions should I slyly ask to figure out what she needs? Anything basic I can just buy (packs wise?).
Grave Titan is so good. I played it before it was cool and popular.
Interesting Extended results. A whole lotta Vivids/Bloodbraids and zero RDW/WW. No Goblin Guides. No Figure of Destinies. No Spectral Processions. I reckoned Anathemancer would have made an impact, but apparantly not. Not sure what to brew in the upcoming PTQ season then. Can't be arsed to play 5cc/Jund.
Yeah, I watched the world championships. I was rooting for Randle, Froehlich, Janse, anyone who wasn't running that damn U/B deck. It's the best deck. It's the same deck. It's boring. Ugh.
Also, I'm relentlessly rebuilding my artifact deck, since I think the time has almost come for it to really get good. I ordered the cards before they get too expensive, but I'm (sadly) looking for Opals now, after trading away three of them. Oops.
The artifact deck is the future, by the way. Probably going to be the NEW Tier 1.5 deck when Besieged comes out. I'm changing it over to Artifacts/White, because Tempered Steel is necessary when you can only run 4 Steel Overseers and they die to stupid removal. Experimenting with Proliferate, which works well with:
-Tumble Magnet
-Everflowing Chalice
-Steel Overseer's +1/+1 counters
...almost makes Lux Cannon good
...might make Golem Factory decent
looking really hard at which artifact creatures give real value despite being artifacts.
I have come to you in search of assistance. My gf used to play alot of magic but after college she didn't have a group to play with so she's been out of it around 2-3 years. Recently a cafe near us started a Magic night ever week so she's getting back into it.
I'd like to get her some cards for Christmas as I hear her deck is out of date, alas I have no idea what anything about Magic means. What questions should I slyly ask to figure out what she needs? Anything basic I can just buy (packs wise?).
You can ask her about her deck, like what colours is it, what cards are already in it, how it wins, etc. This will give us a better idea toward what cards she might want/need to make it better. The other option is buying her packs, but they're pricey and random: she might not get what she wants.
Really it's probably best if you let her choose. It's kind of like buying someone a CD and not knowing what their musical tastes are: entirely hit or miss.
As an explanation to Crazed Llama, the card "Jace the Mind Sculptor" is probably the most powerful card in the "standard" tournament scene right now (Standard is the last 2 blocks, including up to 6 expansion sets and 1-2 of the yearly "core" sets). That card is also a good $90-110+ each (and a deck can run up to 4 of them). Unless she's planning on playing hardcore tournaments, it'd probably be a giant waste to even pursue those. I don't think "playing magic at a local cafe" justifies going to quite those lengths.
Anyway, do you know what colour or colours she likes to play? Have access to any decks she's played, and if possible a favourite one? The most recent set is a revisit to a setting from several years ago, one she'd likely be familiar with.
Also, by "a lot of magic", are you saying that she used to play in tournaments frequently, or had friends to play with at a kitchen table regularly? Does/did she enjoy big multiplayer games, or mostly one on one? Does she still have all her cards?
Magic cards are kind of a hard thing to surprise people with. There's a lot of potential to waste money on cards that don't or are unlikely to get used. Maybe look into a gift certificate for a local store? Or maybe suggest she teach you the game and look into a Fatpack (a product with 6 booster packs of 15 cards, a cardboard storage box and a die for counting life) of a recent set (M11 or Scars of Mirrodin most likely).
A format that she may or may not be familiar with is called "EDH" or "Elder Dragon Highlander". This could be a good starting point for you to jump in and her to start over; instead of a normal deck of 60 cards (probably about 24 land and 36 other cards, many of them sets of 4) you play with a 99 card deck (about 40 land) but no duplicates allowed, which leads to a lot of other cards being played as you struggle to fill in those last few creatures or spells you want on hand. You also pick out a Legendary creature as your deck's General, but that's probably more info than you need.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
So getting back into magic after taking a break to Warmachine for the past year (I can only afford one vice at a time.) I've been doing pretty well at the FNM drafts but I still need to get a feel for this set (which I think is loads better than zendikar, though I bowed out before rise, but seriously the first two sets were rubbish) Is there a place online you can do free drafts and play? I've done a couple on mtgo but its pricey and I prefer to play in the flesh when money is involved. That came off weird. Anyhow thanks in advance.
Yeah, I watched the world championships. I was rooting for Randle, Froehlich, Janse, anyone who wasn't running that damn U/B deck. It's the best deck. It's the same deck. It's boring. Ugh.
Also, I'm relentlessly rebuilding my artifact deck, since I think the time has almost come for it to really get good. I ordered the cards before they get too expensive, but I'm (sadly) looking for Opals now, after trading away three of them. Oops.
The artifact deck is the future, by the way. Probably going to be the NEW Tier 1.5 deck when Besieged comes out. I'm changing it over to Artifacts/White, because Tempered Steel is necessary when you can only run 4 Steel Overseers and they die to stupid removal. Experimenting with Proliferate, which works well with:
-Tumble Magnet
-Everflowing Chalice
-Steel Overseer's +1/+1 counters
...almost makes Lux Cannon good
...might make Golem Factory decent
looking really hard at which artifact creatures give real value despite being artifacts.
edit: what are her colors?
Triskelion gives a pretty decent source of direct damage with all the counters you can add with overseer and proliferate.
Yeah, I have a few Triskelion, and I've tried them with proliferate. I'm not sure about them because they're so expensive for what they actually do; I'd rather just run Steel Hellkite / Wurmcoil Engine at 6 mana, if anything. Wurmcoil's basically the artifact titan, and Steel Hellkite is also an awesome source of removal.
...Grim Poppet in this deck would be NUTS, but then it'd be an Extended deck.
So getting back into magic after taking a break to Warmachine for the past year (I can only afford one vice at a time.) I've been doing pretty well at the FNM drafts but I still need to get a feel for this set (which I think is loads better than zendikar, though I bowed out before rise, but seriously the first two sets were rubbish) Is there a place online you can do free drafts and play? I've done a couple on mtgo but its pricey and I prefer to play in the flesh when money is involved. That came off weird. Anyhow thanks in advance.
There's Magic Workstation, it's rudimentary but it's free and does the trick. A lot less players on there, and most people are dicks. But if you disagree with paying for virtual content then it's the perfect answer.
Also I really think Scars is a terrible set. Infect is a pretty poorly designed mechanic, especially when the nearest equivalent would be double-strike which is priced fairly on all cards it shows up on, and it's power level was assessed properly. Zendikar brought landfall which is a neat mechanic, and had quite a few awesome cards like Goblin Guide, plus fetchlands. Worldwake also brought some of the most powerful cards in constructed (read: Jace the Mind Sculptor).
Brewed a deck while watching Worlds top8. Been playing it again my brother a lot and it's been doing surprisingly well. It's basically a ramp deck, but mythic style ramp instead of titan style ramp. Basic idea is to wave into a bunch of awesome permanents. It features a lot of planeswalkers to make the control matchup much better. SB is mostly for agro and ramp. SB could use some work still as could the exact ratio of which planeswalkers. Deck plays zero non permanents except for the waves in order to maximize the waves, but your opponent doesn't know that so feel free to always represent mana leak. This deck is also insanely fun.
4 Joraga Treespeaker
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Overgrown Battlement
4 Lotus Cobra
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Gideon Jura
4 Acidic Slime
2 Venser, the Sojourner
4 Frost Titan
2 Rampaging Baloth
3 Genesis Wave
Brewed a deck while watching Worlds top8. Been playing it again my brother a lot and it's been doing surprisingly well. It's basically a ramp deck, but mythic style ramp instead of titan style ramp. Basic idea is to wave into a bunch of awesome permanents. It features a lot of planeswalkers to make the control matchup much better. SB is mostly for agro and ramp. SB could use some work still as could the exact ratio of which planeswalkers. Deck plays zero non permanents except for the waves in order to maximize the waves, but your opponent doesn't know that so feel free to always represent mana leak. This deck is also insanely fun.
4 Joraga Treespeaker
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Overgrown Battlement
4 Lotus Cobra
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Gideon Jura
4 Acidic Slime
2 Venser, the Sojourner
4 Frost Titan
2 Rampaging Baloth
3 Genesis Wave
I may end up cutting the wurm, against red decks I take out most of the ramp so getting to 7 is too difficult as well as being the only card you cant put into play off a wave for 6. Will prolly cut 1 Baloth and 1 Wurm for 2 Baneslayers. Found out the hard way the defenses vs agro do nothing vs flyers. Other option would be Emeria Angel.
I may end up cutting the wurm, against red decks I take out most of the ramp so getting to 7 is too difficult as well as being the only card you cant put into play off a wave for 6. Will prolly cut 1 Baloth and 1 Wurm for 2 Baneslayers. Found out the hard way the defenses vs agro do nothing vs flyers. Other option would be Emeria Angel.
Yeah the Pelakka Wurm seems out of place. Same as the Rampaging Baloths really. With only 2 of them in the deck it seems as though you wouldn't hit them very often, even with Wave. Though I can see how awesome it would be to play Wave, hit a Baloth, and two fetchlands haha so many beasts!
I know I want the 4 frost titans for sure. I wanted 2 more "big threats" that also answer problems as they come in. I'd love something like Admonition Angel but this deck can never hardcast a triple white so I ruled that out. Thought about Roil Elemental, not sure if that's too cute. Primeval and Volition Reigns.
I know I want the 4 frost titans for sure. I wanted 2 more "big threats" that also answer problems as they come in. I'd love something like Admonition Angel but this deck can never hardcast a triple white so I ruled that out. Thought about Roil Elemental, not sure if that's too cute. Primeval and Volition Reigns.
Roil Elemental would be hilarious. What about something not so big but decent like Glimmerpoint Stag? Could have some fun interaction with Frost Titan. I'm assuming you want to keep this Standard legal. Might as well use arguably the best creature in Standard right now: Primeval Titan.
Anyway, my group got some EDH games in, and I think I'm officially in love with the format. It led to some absolutely crazy games, and nobody knew what would happen from one turn to the next. Played a one on one with my mono-red deck that wasn't too far off, but did reinforce that said deck can probably burn (heh) to make space for a new one at some point. Then we got some 3-player games going; Uril the Miststalker and Sliver Overlord were both fun generals to run with. Changelings are definitely key things to consider, given my group's appreciation for Tribes of all sorts (even in EDH, it seems). Then we had a 4 player planechase game which dialed the crazy up to 11.
Note to self: using Phage the Untouchable with Balthor the Defiled as your general is NOT a good idea. I nearly lost to her repeatedly, and ended up using some creative dancing to occasionally bounce/hide/murder her all on my own. Eventually won that game, but not without nearly clutching defeat from the jaws of victory at least once or twice. Can't wait to get some more games in the coming weeks, and really need to go back through my decks to find homes for tons of cards.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
So recently I have renewed interest in playing some Magic. I stupidly sold my beta/unlimited cards forever ago like a dumdum.
What I'm saying is that I am starting the game fresh right now. And trying to figure out the best place to start. The number of purchasing options is simply staggering compared to when I collected, and I'm really just looking to buy a starter deck of some sort and then boosters.
So recently I have renewed interest in playing some Magic. I stupidly sold my beta/unlimited cards forever ago like a dumdum.
What I'm saying is that I am starting the game fresh right now. And trying to figure out the best place to start. The number of purchasing options is simply staggering compared to when I collected, and I'm really just looking to buy a starter deck of some sort and then boosters.
Find your nearest store that is a part of the Wizards Play Network and go to their booster draft. Tell them you are new. Drafting is the best way for new players to build a collection. They will teach you how to play. Most of them also have new player starter packs they will give you if you ask them (YMMV). Doing drafts is a great way to learn to play on an even playing field, you're going to be overwhelmed at first, but you'll build a collection while you learn.
For additional products to buy on top of this I'd recommend the Deckbuilders Toolkit. There are 2 version of this, ask them to make sure it's the one with all standard legal cards. It's like 280 cards, a whole bunch of land and great commons/uncommons that are very key to a lot of decks. If you want to buy a theme deck go ahead, they're all about the same.
I know I want the 4 frost titans for sure. I wanted 2 more "big threats" that also answer problems as they come in. I'd love something like Admonition Angel but this deck can never hardcast a triple white so I ruled that out. Thought about Roil Elemental, not sure if that's too cute. Primeval and Volition Reigns.
Roil Elemental would be hilarious. What about something not so big but decent like Glimmerpoint Stag? Could have some fun interaction with Frost Titan. I'm assuming you want to keep this Standard legal. Might as well use arguably the best creature in Standard right now: Primeval Titan.
Glimmerpoint doesn't really do anything in this. Would rather play Emeria Angel at that CMC, also like what I have for 4cmc right now. I'm leaning now towards 4 Frost Titan / 2 Volition Reigns in the main. Then putting Baloths and Baneslayers in the side.
Posts
I prefer instant draw with gelectrode because you can do everything at the end of their turn. You may consider think twice and telling time. Both instant draw and with think twice you can use it early and still get a burn out of it with gelectrode. I had a pretty good rav/time spiral standard deck that was black red and blue that was basically instant draw, instant burn and instant destroy creatures/land. I freaking loved it. I wish I remembered the deck list...
I remember my opponent cast tendril of corruption on my gelectrode, in response I cast wrecking ball on his Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, so his tendril did 0 damage. Felt like a big man.
built from memory, might be a little spotty... I think I eventually left the cut purses out for infiltrators. The thinking was I either burned creatures out or all my creatures had eaten their removal, so dropping either the cut purse or infiltrator let me build card advantage like whoa.
dudes
3 prodigal sorcerer
3 prodigal pyromancer
4 gelectrode
2 dimir cut purse?
2 shadowmage infiltrator?
draw
3 think twice
3 telling time
2 ancestral vision
counter
4 remand
killing stuff
3 wrecking ball
3 hit/run
3 some burn spell?
bounce
3 clutch of the undercity?
22 lands
I'm firmly convinced that nothing involving Jhoira as a general is "fun" for everyone else at the table. Even using her to suspend "harmless" things is horribly broken more often than not. She gets around mana/color screw way too easily.
Unfortunately if you want to go pure red/blue she's one of your only three options at the moment -- and Niv-Mizzet is pretty degenerate as well.
So my Blue/Green control/Unblockable deck became Bant Control / Exalted / Unblockable, as an example.
I hope this weekend to hit someone so hard with an unblockable Rafiq that I knock them clear off the table.
Doing a whole pile of deck building/shuffling on short order has also been an interesting whirlwind. Once I hopefully wrap up the last 4 or so tonight/tomorrow night, I'm going to have to pull as many cards I feel should be in as many decks as possible (mass removal, targetted removal of all flavours, colour fixing / mana acceleration, etc) and start trimming. Some decks run a bit light on creatures but heavy on removal, some are the opposite, but at the very least I figure most should have some way to clear the board of creatures (and/or other things), something to deal with an errant or out of hand General, and go from there. Like, the Angel deck has a bunch of sub-optimal white cards in there to pad out the numbers because I only had like 25 mono white angels, but after last nights slash and burn approach to old decks, I can afford to toss some pretty sweet creatures that will be nice to have on hand, even if they're not actually angels.
Which is another thing I kind of like; building a mostly tribal deck but if you fall short it's really not that big a deal. With only 1 Urza's Incubator in 99 cards, if I draw it, great, and if not, just gonna have to go on without it.
I think what's dawning more and more is that this almost feels a bit like the early days when I played magic; big decks, not packing multiples of much of anything, and while there's optimization going on, it's still leading to playing cards that I probably wouldn't have otherwise, either as a "second _____" due to being a functional reprint, or even a slightly less optimal version of something I'd like to have on hand.
I also recognize that in being literally 'years behind' on this EDH thing, I'm probably gushing over shit you guys appreciated back in, like, 2008, but it's pretty shiny and new for me.
Hopefully our irregularly attending fourth player will be able to make it on Friday. Having 3 other people to watch out for can make things significantly more interesting than just 2, as I find that can often lead to waiting for an opening and then just having 2 people gang bang the weak link (in one fashion or another), whereas such an alliance of convenience is less likely when that third party may or may not decide to stab one or both of them in the back mid violation.
Edit: when all is said and done, I think I'll have built 12 EDH decks in the course of less than a week, though of varying levels of quality until I can put some real time into tweaking them. Admittedly, most of them are just variations of aggro and/or control (any combo is pretty tame), and am only keeping 2 'regular' decks sleeved for now; Myrs and a green/white monstrosity I call "Mirari's Coup".
except I usually just play it in big multiplayer matches where we tend to be terrible
but casting time stretch with cast through time is a fun way to do things
or djinn of wishes casting anything (mostly emrakul)
put together an eldrazi green deck today, which ill probably be playing friday. i hate when im missing a single uncommon for it, using a bird of paradise in place of the last treespeaker. and a myr battlesphere in place of emrakul!
also tried my hand at blue black control, from blue/white... i think im switching back. Gideon Jura is just too awesome. might try out mono black though.
anywho, ive not ever gotten much into EDH, mostly because no one around here knows much about it. Hopefully with wotc sort of "unofficially" adopting it as Commander, people will gain some interest in it. im kinda curious how the unique cards they print for commander will be looked at for standard. im guessing they wont make them good enough to make people want to use them.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/599
I dunno if you guys are into speculation but this is a pretty great idea I think.
Personally I think it will go New Phyrexia, puts Magic's best (in my opinion) villain back into power, if Mirrodin won it would be boring with nothing really changing, and with phyrexians back to wreck shit, maybe a return to Dominaria?
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
Seems like a rather bizzarely elitist attitude to come from people who are often in the same breath those who gush about how inclusive EDH is. "By the people, for the people, but if you don't use the old/my term for it you can show yourself out or be thrown out!"
Also, interesting page, I honestly suspect that the games days and whatnot where people can get bonus cards for playing Mirran or Phyrexian decks are going to lead to the winning group/name/cards.
If that is the case, I'll be curious to see if they'll let us know what we missed out on from the side that wasn't picked, assuming at least some of the cards would be different (obviously not a ton, but some notable fraction of the set).
Look at how oddly New Phyrexia fits in with those names.
Here, we pronounce it "ae day haa," which sounds natural enough. I doubt this is going to change.
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/multiplayer/20709_Embracing_The_Chaos_Answering_The_Mail.html
Emrakul being banned (take out tajuru preserver).
Mmmmm....toasty.
yep, taraju prevents all of the annihilator effects. the other 2 aren't as OP as emrakul is. Annihilator 6 or w/e it is, is brutal to an edh deck.
Magic Online - Bertro
Slovak Republic is our team champs.
Watching the UB mirror in the finals was incredibly depressing, because neither player really has an answer to Grave Titan other than to counter it or Memoricide from the sideboard. Whenever a GT would hit the other player would pretty much shrug and scoop it up.
I have come to you in search of assistance. My gf used to play alot of magic but after college she didn't have a group to play with so she's been out of it around 2-3 years. Recently a cafe near us started a Magic night ever week so she's getting back into it.
I'd like to get her some cards for Christmas as I hear her deck is out of date, alas I have no idea what anything about Magic means. What questions should I slyly ask to figure out what she needs? Anything basic I can just buy (packs wise?).
Interesting Extended results. A whole lotta Vivids/Bloodbraids and zero RDW/WW. No Goblin Guides. No Figure of Destinies. No Spectral Processions. I reckoned Anathemancer would have made an impact, but apparantly not. Not sure what to brew in the upcoming PTQ season then. Can't be arsed to play 5cc/Jund.
edit: Buy her Jaces.
Also, I'm relentlessly rebuilding my artifact deck, since I think the time has almost come for it to really get good. I ordered the cards before they get too expensive, but I'm (sadly) looking for Opals now, after trading away three of them. Oops.
The artifact deck is the future, by the way. Probably going to be the NEW Tier 1.5 deck when Besieged comes out. I'm changing it over to Artifacts/White, because Tempered Steel is necessary when you can only run 4 Steel Overseers and they die to stupid removal. Experimenting with Proliferate, which works well with:
-Tumble Magnet
-Everflowing Chalice
-Steel Overseer's +1/+1 counters
...almost makes Lux Cannon good
...might make Golem Factory decent
looking really hard at which artifact creatures give real value despite being artifacts.
edit: what are her colors?
You can ask her about her deck, like what colours is it, what cards are already in it, how it wins, etc. This will give us a better idea toward what cards she might want/need to make it better. The other option is buying her packs, but they're pricey and random: she might not get what she wants.
Really it's probably best if you let her choose. It's kind of like buying someone a CD and not knowing what their musical tastes are: entirely hit or miss.
Salmon'd for o_O
As an explanation to Crazed Llama, the card "Jace the Mind Sculptor" is probably the most powerful card in the "standard" tournament scene right now (Standard is the last 2 blocks, including up to 6 expansion sets and 1-2 of the yearly "core" sets). That card is also a good $90-110+ each (and a deck can run up to 4 of them). Unless she's planning on playing hardcore tournaments, it'd probably be a giant waste to even pursue those. I don't think "playing magic at a local cafe" justifies going to quite those lengths.
Anyway, do you know what colour or colours she likes to play? Have access to any decks she's played, and if possible a favourite one? The most recent set is a revisit to a setting from several years ago, one she'd likely be familiar with.
Also, by "a lot of magic", are you saying that she used to play in tournaments frequently, or had friends to play with at a kitchen table regularly? Does/did she enjoy big multiplayer games, or mostly one on one? Does she still have all her cards?
Magic cards are kind of a hard thing to surprise people with. There's a lot of potential to waste money on cards that don't or are unlikely to get used. Maybe look into a gift certificate for a local store? Or maybe suggest she teach you the game and look into a Fatpack (a product with 6 booster packs of 15 cards, a cardboard storage box and a die for counting life) of a recent set (M11 or Scars of Mirrodin most likely).
A format that she may or may not be familiar with is called "EDH" or "Elder Dragon Highlander". This could be a good starting point for you to jump in and her to start over; instead of a normal deck of 60 cards (probably about 24 land and 36 other cards, many of them sets of 4) you play with a 99 card deck (about 40 land) but no duplicates allowed, which leads to a lot of other cards being played as you struggle to fill in those last few creatures or spells you want on hand. You also pick out a Legendary creature as your deck's General, but that's probably more info than you need.
Triskelion gives a pretty decent source of direct damage with all the counters you can add with overseer and proliferate.
...Grim Poppet in this deck would be NUTS, but then it'd be an Extended deck.
There's Magic Workstation, it's rudimentary but it's free and does the trick. A lot less players on there, and most people are dicks. But if you disagree with paying for virtual content then it's the perfect answer.
Also I really think Scars is a terrible set. Infect is a pretty poorly designed mechanic, especially when the nearest equivalent would be double-strike which is priced fairly on all cards it shows up on, and it's power level was assessed properly. Zendikar brought landfall which is a neat mechanic, and had quite a few awesome cards like Goblin Guide, plus fetchlands. Worldwake also brought some of the most powerful cards in constructed (read: Jace the Mind Sculptor).
4 Joraga Treespeaker
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Overgrown Battlement
4 Lotus Cobra
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Gideon Jura
4 Acidic Slime
2 Venser, the Sojourner
4 Frost Titan
2 Rampaging Baloth
3 Genesis Wave
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacomb
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Razorvege Thicket
5 Forest
3 Island
SB:
1 Pellaka Wurm
4 Obstinate Baloth
4 Calcite Snapper
4 Spreading Seas
2 Rampaging Baloth
Pellaka Wurm is so good, brings me back to when I first started playing and fell in love with Wurms.
Yeah the Pelakka Wurm seems out of place. Same as the Rampaging Baloths really. With only 2 of them in the deck it seems as though you wouldn't hit them very often, even with Wave. Though I can see how awesome it would be to play Wave, hit a Baloth, and two fetchlands haha so many beasts!
Roil Elemental would be hilarious. What about something not so big but decent like Glimmerpoint Stag? Could have some fun interaction with Frost Titan. I'm assuming you want to keep this Standard legal. Might as well use arguably the best creature in Standard right now: Primeval Titan.
SoaL "whip my lizardman" commenting on shortforeskin having a discussion on cutting the wurm.
Anyway, my group got some EDH games in, and I think I'm officially in love with the format. It led to some absolutely crazy games, and nobody knew what would happen from one turn to the next. Played a one on one with my mono-red deck that wasn't too far off, but did reinforce that said deck can probably burn (heh) to make space for a new one at some point. Then we got some 3-player games going; Uril the Miststalker and Sliver Overlord were both fun generals to run with. Changelings are definitely key things to consider, given my group's appreciation for Tribes of all sorts (even in EDH, it seems). Then we had a 4 player planechase game which dialed the crazy up to 11.
Note to self: using Phage the Untouchable with Balthor the Defiled as your general is NOT a good idea. I nearly lost to her repeatedly, and ended up using some creative dancing to occasionally bounce/hide/murder her all on my own. Eventually won that game, but not without nearly clutching defeat from the jaws of victory at least once or twice. Can't wait to get some more games in the coming weeks, and really need to go back through my decks to find homes for tons of cards.
What I'm saying is that I am starting the game fresh right now. And trying to figure out the best place to start. The number of purchasing options is simply staggering compared to when I collected, and I'm really just looking to buy a starter deck of some sort and then boosters.
Find your nearest store that is a part of the Wizards Play Network and go to their booster draft. Tell them you are new. Drafting is the best way for new players to build a collection. They will teach you how to play. Most of them also have new player starter packs they will give you if you ask them (YMMV). Doing drafts is a great way to learn to play on an even playing field, you're going to be overwhelmed at first, but you'll build a collection while you learn.
For additional products to buy on top of this I'd recommend the Deckbuilders Toolkit. There are 2 version of this, ask them to make sure it's the one with all standard legal cards. It's like 280 cards, a whole bunch of land and great commons/uncommons that are very key to a lot of decks. If you want to buy a theme deck go ahead, they're all about the same.
Glimmerpoint doesn't really do anything in this. Would rather play Emeria Angel at that CMC, also like what I have for 4cmc right now. I'm leaning now towards 4 Frost Titan / 2 Volition Reigns in the main. Then putting Baloths and Baneslayers in the side.