Thassa's Oracle was the piece they decided to ban rather than Tainted Pact? Ok, sure.
This was 100% the right choice. Thassa's Oracle has been a problem in multiple formats because it turns out there are plenty of good ways to mill your library and Oracle's EtB ability not even requiring oracle to still be on the battlefield to win meant that there was very little interaction possible to the combo.
Made Mythic with UR Giants.
Final boss was people coming home from work and starting up their control decks. So I waited until this morning after they went back.
Actual final boss was UB flash tribal.
Won because they let me resolve Reflections.
And then they couldn't Ashiok Erasure both Calamities that went on the stack.
Well shit. There goes my just get games over with as fast as possible with minimal amount of effort/paying attention/caring if I won deck (Treasure Hunt/Oracle). Everyone else had switched to Tainted Pact version, ban that! Bah!
"For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men. Not women. Not beasts...this you can trust."
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
Thassa's Oracle was the piece they decided to ban rather than Tainted Pact? Ok, sure.
Yeah, you ban the broken card.
Like, you could run Tainted Pact with Laboratory Maniac (if it was in Historic) but that version would be fine because you can actually interact with it by killing the Maniac. With Oracle it's counterspells or nothing.
Thassa's Oracle was the piece they decided to ban rather than Tainted Pact? Ok, sure.
Yeah, you ban the broken card.
Like, you could run Tainted Pact with Laboratory Maniac (if it was in Historic) but that version would be fine because you can actually interact with it by killing the Maniac. With Oracle it's counterspells or nothing.
WAR Jace is the LabMan in question for Historic and it has the same problem plus one extra MV.
Thassa's Oracle was the piece they decided to ban rather than Tainted Pact? Ok, sure.
Yeah, you ban the broken card.
Like, you could run Tainted Pact with Laboratory Maniac (if it was in Historic) but that version would be fine because you can actually interact with it by killing the Maniac. With Oracle it's counterspells or nothing.
And I can respond with many, many things you can run Oracle with that are fine because people have been doing it for a long time now. It was only the addition of Tainted Pact that caused the problem here.
I think it's more likely that Pact will be used in broken ways in the future than Oracle would have. The team that makes banning decisions clearly felt differently. C'est la vie.
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
Tainted Pact is just a weird tutor that can empty your library. It's only abusable if you have a card that (a) you want to tutor for and (b) rewards you for emptying your library. Other cards like that currently exist, but aren't good enough to pay off Tainted Pact.
That is inherently far more restrictive than a card that says "win the game." It's true that bad Oracle decks exist, but it's a lot more likely some enabler will come out that breaks one of those than a card that is specifically as good as Oracle.
What should I be naming in player draft with silver quill silencer?
Plumb against GB?
I may have been passed every silverquill card and removal, so probably looking at a +1/+1 counter deck.
It depends a lot on what your opponent has been showing you.
Edit: plumb is probably not a good choice regardless because silencer only triggers on cast, not on copies
You're unlikely to guess something that triggers the Silencer more than once regardless in limited, so not triggering on copies doesn't really matter.
I'd probably pick Infuse With Vitality or Mortality Spear though, as both are cards I see a lot more of in draft games. That or go with a common creature like Bayou Groff.
Bo3 is better but I play Bo1 a lot. Most of the time, I'm in the mood for just a single quick game of magic and the ranked ladder is a better experience than going into the quick play queue. It also means I don't have to think about sideboarding which I'm horrible at.
Is it just me or are people getting a lot slower to take their turn?
Is it the people on mobile?
Fiskebent on
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KetarCome on upstairswe're having a partyRegistered Userregular
I keep getting matched with very slow players lately who are using decks from recent cgb videos. It's fine when people do white magecraft or whatever, but there are a lot of people who decide to make way more complicated control or combo decks and then either have no idea what to do most of the time or sit there spending way too much time trying to predict what I'm going to do. It's been noticeable and pretty irritating after a while.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Silverquill draft deck went 2-3 with two losses to mana screw.
So now I've a Fractal draft deck.
At 2-1 because I got Claim the Firstborned on my 8/8 fractal for exactly lethal.
Also Double Mastered a symmetry druid for 4x trample another game though, so it balances somewhat
KetarCome on upstairswe're having a partyRegistered Userregular
@discrider It's not something that will take you to (or keep you in) Mythic, but for a change of pace if you have the cards try running Azorius Lurrus in the Play queue some time.
I run it along similar lines to what you did with Hateful Eidolon Lurrus, but base it around Protean Thaumaturge instead. Arguably not as good without that card draw from the Eidolon, but so much more fun when you have a couple of Thaumaturges out and turn them both into Elder Gargaroths while dropping Pacifism on your opponent's Gargaroth. Or just throwing All That Glitters on something and suddenly going from 1 Archon of Sun's Grace on the field to 3 and just rapid firing out the Pegasus tokens. Nobody ever gives a shit about the Thaumaturges until they turn into something much bigger, so they rarely get preemptively killed. Pacifism and Heliod's Punishment instead of actually killing the opponent's creatures. Starlit Mantle to flash protect your creatures from targeted removal and also allow you to transform the Thaumaturges.
+2
KetarCome on upstairswe're having a partyRegistered Userregular
Seriously, the glee when someone quits because you played another Protean Thaumaturge now that they understand what they do is damn near unparalleled. Like my last two games :P
Last time it got the Protean into a Gigantisauras with +1/+1 counters on it.
Another game it copied someone's Renata commander, while their Renata was then turned into a frog.
KetarCome on upstairswe're having a partyRegistered Userregular
Yeah. I used to run Frogify, but dropped it for now because I frequently get matched up against selesnya counter decks and Frogify doesn't do much to slow those critters down. It's really just about going over the top with a crazy number of lifelinked flyers, aside from those occasions where I get to have Thaumaturge fun++ and railroad people with the same creatures they were planning to maul me with.
I'm too tired to shrink down the screenshot to fit forum rules right now, but I just had one where I smacked someone with a lifelinked 11/10 Terror of the Peaks (Thaumaturge with All That Glitters and Staggering Insight) to go up 35 to 4. Alseid on the board on the off-chance that they were packing Banishing Light or similar instead of just burn for removal, and 7 cards still in hand. It felt glorious.
Guy plays Krogan, fights his own thing that I had stolen (land fractal), attacks, blows up the enchantment that will kill his Ape next turn, plays Henge.
I steal his Ape, blow up his Henge with it, and then sac it to draw a card.
BR blows up/steals/discards all my stuff has become more demoralising to me than UB counter/destruction.
Somewhat annoying that 50% steal 50% sac has been so effective.
Ok.
Test of Wits, BR stealy sacrificy vs all colour sagas/ covetous urges.
Guy covetous urges my hand twice to find like five stealie cards both times.
But this is after I managed to stick a clackbridge troll.
So he steals my Akroan War the first time, and the troll changes side like eight times before the saga drops and he finally kills it.
Slowly climbing the BO3 ranks with mine. Its not super powerful or super fast. What it can do is hold its own vs any other the other meta decks and usually force a competitive game.
It deals with sideboarding OK mostly by swapping counterspells or damage as needed.
Sideboard
2 Negate (RIX) 44
2 Test of Talents (STX) 59
1 Disdainful Stroke (GRN) 37
2 Mystical Dispute (ELD) 58
1 Soul Sear (M21) 160
2 Ox of Agonas (THB) 147
2 Draconic Intervention (STX) 96
2 The Akroan War (THB) 124
1 Redcap Melee (ELD) 135
been debating some fabled passages but tap lands really hurt early on. If you're not dropping a t3 Galazeth or Torrent or a t4 Goldspan you're pretty fucked
...i just went 6-3 with the most ridiculously aggressive lorehold deck.
leonin lightscribe and reflective golem, curve topped with a single combat professor & pigment storm, 14 lands.
a few turns i swung in for over 20 damage. i felt INCREDIBLY rude a few games.
Lesson(harhar) from Premier and Premium draft: People are much more aggressive about getting learn/lesson cards than the AI is. Start early or don't bother.
Posts
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/may-19-2021-banned-and-restricted-announcement
This was 100% the right choice. Thassa's Oracle has been a problem in multiple formats because it turns out there are plenty of good ways to mill your library and Oracle's EtB ability not even requiring oracle to still be on the battlefield to win meant that there was very little interaction possible to the combo.
Final boss was people coming home from work and starting up their control decks. So I waited until this morning after they went back.
2 Reflections of Littjara (KHM) 73
4 Squash (KHM) 152
1 Temple of Epiphany (M21) 252
4 Volatile Fjord (KHM) 273
3 Snow-Covered Island (KHM) 279
2 Crystalline Giant (IKO) 234
3 Frost Bite (KHM) 138
4 Bonecrusher Giant (ELD) 115
4 Basalt Ravager (KHM) 122
4 Aegar, the Freezing Flame (KHM) 200
5 Snow-Covered Mountain (KHM) 282
4 Snow-Covered Mountain (KHM) 283
3 Snow-Covered Island (KHM) 278
4 Invasion of the Giants (KHM) 215
3 Shatterskull Smashing (ZNR) 161
3 Fire Giant's Fury (KHM) 389
3 Calamity Bearer (KHM) 125
3 Quakebringer (KHM) 145
1 Faceless Haven (KHM) 255
Actual final boss was UB flash tribal.
Won because they let me resolve Reflections.
And then they couldn't Ashiok Erasure both Calamities that went on the stack.
Yeah, you ban the broken card.
Like, you could run Tainted Pact with Laboratory Maniac (if it was in Historic) but that version would be fine because you can actually interact with it by killing the Maniac. With Oracle it's counterspells or nothing.
WAR Jace is the LabMan in question for Historic and it has the same problem plus one extra MV.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697
I found the open lane. 7-2, losses to two Silverquill(x) decks.
And I can respond with many, many things you can run Oracle with that are fine because people have been doing it for a long time now. It was only the addition of Tainted Pact that caused the problem here.
I think it's more likely that Pact will be used in broken ways in the future than Oracle would have. The team that makes banning decisions clearly felt differently. C'est la vie.
That is inherently far more restrictive than a card that says "win the game." It's true that bad Oracle decks exist, but it's a lot more likely some enabler will come out that breaks one of those than a card that is specifically as good as Oracle.
Plumb against GB?
I may have been passed every silverquill card and removal, so probably looking at a +1/+1 counter deck.
It depends a lot on what your opponent has been showing you.
Edit: plumb is probably not a good choice regardless because silencer only triggers on cast, not on copies
You're unlikely to guess something that triggers the Silencer more than once regardless in limited, so not triggering on copies doesn't really matter.
I'd probably pick Infuse With Vitality or Mortality Spear though, as both are cards I see a lot more of in draft games. That or go with a common creature like Bayou Groff.
Bo3 is better but I play Bo1 a lot. Most of the time, I'm in the mood for just a single quick game of magic and the ranked ladder is a better experience than going into the quick play queue. It also means I don't have to think about sideboarding which I'm horrible at.
Is it the people on mobile?
As said above. Bo1 even though it's clearly the worse format for competitive.
But I just hate the idea of side boarding so I don't.
Fun to watch though!
Not necessarily. I've been running into a lot of "waiting for server" interruptions since the Strix update.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697
So now I've a Fractal draft deck.
At 2-1 because I got Claim the Firstborned on my 8/8 fractal for exactly lethal.
Also Double Mastered a symmetry druid for 4x trample another game though, so it balances somewhat
I run it along similar lines to what you did with Hateful Eidolon Lurrus, but base it around Protean Thaumaturge instead. Arguably not as good without that card draw from the Eidolon, but so much more fun when you have a couple of Thaumaturges out and turn them both into Elder Gargaroths while dropping Pacifism on your opponent's Gargaroth. Or just throwing All That Glitters on something and suddenly going from 1 Archon of Sun's Grace on the field to 3 and just rapid firing out the Pegasus tokens. Nobody ever gives a shit about the Thaumaturges until they turn into something much bigger, so they rarely get preemptively killed. Pacifism and Heliod's Punishment instead of actually killing the opponent's creatures. Starlit Mantle to flash protect your creatures from targeted removal and also allow you to transform the Thaumaturges.
My constellation commander deck for FNM:
1 Eutropia the Twice-Favored (THB) 216
Deck
1 Shoal Kraken (THB) 65
1 Eidolon of Philosophy (THB) 48
1 Thassa, Deep-Dwelling (THB) 71
1 Riddleform (M21) 64
1 Search for Azcanta (XLN) 74
12 Island (ANB) 113
12 Forest (ANB) 112
1 Epic Proportions (ANB) 93
1 Destiny Spinner (THB) 168
1 Frogify (ELD) 47
1 Naiad of Hidden Coves (THB) 56
1 Protean Thaumaturge (THB) 60
1 Shimmerwing Chimera (THB) 64
1 Old-Growth Troll (KHM) 185
1 Warbriar Blessing (THB) 204
1 Wavebreak Hippocamp (THB) 80
1 Reconnaissance Mission (IKO) 65
1 Guardian Project (RNA) 130
1 Setessan Skirmisher (THB) 200
1 Setessan Champion (THB) 198
1 Nessian Wanderer (THB) 183
1 Nexus Wardens (THB) 184
1 Kiora Bests the Sea God (THB) 52
1 Branching Evolution (JMP) 29
1 Hydra's Growth (THB) 172
1 Renata, Called to the Hunt (THB) 196
1 Primeval Bounty (JMP) 421
1 Simic Ascendancy (RNA) 207
1 Enigmatic Incarnation (THB) 215
1 Primal Empathy (IKO) 200
1 Feral Invocation (M20) 170
1 Starlit Mantle (THB) 67
1 Nessian Hornbeetle (THB) 182
1 The Ozolith (IKO) 237
1 Hydroid Krasis (RNA) 183
1 Wildwood Scourge (M21) 214
1 Voracious Hydra (M20) 200
Another game it copied someone's Renata commander, while their Renata was then turned into a frog.
I'm too tired to shrink down the screenshot to fit forum rules right now, but I just had one where I smacked someone with a lifelinked 11/10 Terror of the Peaks (Thaumaturge with All That Glitters and Staggering Insight) to go up 35 to 4. Alseid on the board on the off-chance that they were packing Banishing Light or similar instead of just burn for removal, and 7 cards still in hand. It felt glorious.
Blood Aspirant is banned though?
Still haven't lost a game, even though planeswalker/enchantment good stuff would wreck me.
I've only got the one copy.
Frankly all the good constellation pieces are rare, so I look at them wistfully.
And it's too close to rotation to justify now.
400 Gems for 300 Gems/1500 Gold
so expensive but so tempting
groff groff groff
GROFF GROFF GROFF
Currently 2-1 in mine, to be continued tomorrow. Hopefully with one more win because 2 tokens effectively makes the Challenge free.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697
Still hate BR.
Guy plays Krogan, fights his own thing that I had stolen (land fractal), attacks, blows up the enchantment that will kill his Ape next turn, plays Henge.
I steal his Ape, blow up his Henge with it, and then sac it to draw a card.
BR blows up/steals/discards all my stuff has become more demoralising to me than UB counter/destruction.
Somewhat annoying that 50% steal 50% sac has been so effective.
Probably not a good idea to accidentally attack with all when there's a Body of Work on the field.
Currently at 6-2, and fractal.draft absolutely needs to pick master symmetrist up (grants trample).
Would be at like 3-3 without a clutch draw of him.
Test of Wits, BR stealy sacrificy vs all colour sagas/ covetous urges.
Guy covetous urges my hand twice to find like five stealie cards both times.
But this is after I managed to stick a clackbridge troll.
So he steals my Akroan War the first time, and the troll changes side like eight times before the saga drops and he finally kills it.
Also starring the 2/1 stolen goat of the match.
me at 7-2:
Slowly climbing the BO3 ranks with mine. Its not super powerful or super fast. What it can do is hold its own vs any other the other meta decks and usually force a competitive game.
It deals with sideboarding OK mostly by swapping counterspells or damage as needed.
Deck
2 Saw It Coming (KHM) 76
4 Expressive Iteration (STX) 186
2 Frost Bite (KHM) 138
3 Torrent Sculptor (STX) 159
2 Draconic Intervention (STX) 96
4 Goldspan Dragon (KHM) 139
4 Bonecrusher Giant (ELD) 115
2 Brazen Borrower (ELD) 39
2 Galazeth Prismari (STX) 189
3 Creative Outburst (STX) 171
4 Magma Opus (STX) 203
3 Alrund's Epiphany (KHM) 41
1 Frostboil Snarl (STX) 265
9 Snow-Covered Mountain (KHM) 282
2 Faceless Haven (KHM) 255
9 Snow-Covered Island (KHM) 278
4 Riverglide Pathway (ZNR) 264
Sideboard
2 Negate (RIX) 44
2 Test of Talents (STX) 59
1 Disdainful Stroke (GRN) 37
2 Mystical Dispute (ELD) 58
1 Soul Sear (M21) 160
2 Ox of Agonas (THB) 147
2 Draconic Intervention (STX) 96
2 The Akroan War (THB) 124
1 Redcap Melee (ELD) 135
been debating some fabled passages but tap lands really hurt early on. If you're not dropping a t3 Galazeth or Torrent or a t4 Goldspan you're pretty fucked
This is much more fun.
Draw nothing but land for a while then crackle for 5.
leonin lightscribe and reflective golem, curve topped with a single combat professor & pigment storm, 14 lands.
a few turns i swung in for over 20 damage. i felt INCREDIBLY rude a few games.
full list in spoilers.
1 Leonin Lightscribe (STX) 20
2 Lorehold Pledgemage (STX) 201
1 Reflective Golem (STX) 257
2 Star Pupil (STX) 30
2 Guiding Voice (STX) 19
2 Eager First-Year (STX) 16
2 Twinscroll Shaman (STX) 118
2 Defiant Strike (STA) 3
1 Claim the Firstborn (STA) 37
1 Sudden Breakthrough (STX) 116
1 Urza's Rage (STA) 47
1 Flamescroll Celebrant (STX) 150
1 Lightning Bolt (STA) 42
1 Enthusiastic Study (STX) 99
1 Combat Professor (STX) 11
1 Thunderous Orator (STX) 35
1 Show of Confidence (STX) 28
1 Thrill of Possibility (STA) 46
1 Infuriate (STA) 41
1 Pigment Storm (STX) 111
7 Plains (STX) 367
7 Mountain (STX) 373
Sideboard
1 Codie, Vociferous Codex (STX) 253
1 Ageless Guardian (STX) 8
1 Inkling Summoning (STX) 195
1 Prismari Pledgemage (STX) 215
1 Thrilling Discovery (STX) 243
1 Illustrious Historian (STX) 109
1 Wandering Archaic (STX) 6
4 Stonebound Mentor (STX) 239
1 First Day of Class (STX) 102
1 Grapeshot (STA) 39
1 Mana Tithe (STA) 8
1 Make Your Mark (STX) 204
2 Lorehold Campus (STX) 268
1 Curate (STX) 40