I'm not usually one for alternate card art, but the alternate art for Order of Midnight that's part of today's Daily Deals is so pretty, I kind of had to have it.
Besides, I run Order of Midnight both in my monoBlack and Orzhov Knights decks, so it's just pretty to have.
I'm not usually one for alternate card art, but the alternate art for Order of Midnight that's part of today's Daily Deals is so pretty, I kind of had to have it.
Besides, I run Order of Midnight both in my monoBlack and Orzhov Knights decks, so it's just pretty to have.
I get the feeling Seb McKinnon has been a good influence on the game's art. For quite some time now, Magic art strived for... for lack of a better word... realism*. But Seb's art pushed steadily more towards more symbolic, painterly styles. So now, while most Magic art is still in the fairly realistic style, I'm glad it no longer has to be.
Of course, I have no way of knowing for sure, but, like, I get the feeling that maybe something like Wylie Beckert's art for Thwart the Grave wouldn't have happened without Seb paving the way, you know?
*(I know it didn't always used to be that way, but then WotC stopped commissioning Rebecca Guay.)
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
I'm not usually one for alternate card art, but the alternate art for Order of Midnight that's part of today's Daily Deals is so pretty, I kind of had to have it.
Besides, I run Order of Midnight both in my monoBlack and Orzhov Knights decks, so it's just pretty to have.
I get the feeling Seb McKinnon has been a good influence on the game's art. For quite some time now, Magic art strived for... for lack of a better word... realism*. But Seb's art pushed steadily more towards more symbolic, painterly styles. So now, while most Magic art is still in the fairly realistic style, I'm glad it no longer has to be.
Of course, I have no way of knowing for sure, but, like, I get the feeling that maybe something like Wylie Beckert's art for Thwart the Grave wouldn't have happened without Seb paving the way, you know?
*(I know it didn't always used to be that way, but then WotC stopped commissioning Rebecca Guay.)
That's not entirely fair -- Rebecca Guay stopped taking WotC's calls because she became a successful painter.
but I do agree that bringing some of the painterly style back to Magic art is a good thing. Thematic consistency is nice and it's hard to do thematic consistency with a lot of abstract pieces, but some abstraction brings up the whole set.
BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
edited November 2020
So I've beat a couple of rogue mill decks with Zenith, but I've also definitely had a couple of instances of hitting only 4 lands, and I have enough to kill with the Zenith, but no way to force them to cast so that I can get get the Zenith in w/o a counter spell? And with no real board presence, I just get munched?
Edit: I guess my question is if there is a relatively easy way to get around this, or splash in Mythic Dispute, or just accept the losses?
Brody on
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
So I've beat a couple of rogue mill decks with Zenith, but I've also definitely had a couple of instances of hitting only 4 lands, and I have enough to kill with the Zenith, but no way to force them to cast so that I can get get the Zenith in w/o a counter spell? And with no real board presence, I just get munched?
Edit: I guess my question is if there is a relatively easy way to get around this, or splash in Mythic Dispute, or just accept the losses?
The traditional way of beating a counterspell is to cast one must-counter spell on their EOT and then cast the second one on your turn. Tricky with Zenith since you only have four, but my strategy would still be to dig for two Flares and only fire off a single if it's do-or-die.
So I've beat a couple of rogue mill decks with Zenith, but I've also definitely had a couple of instances of hitting only 4 lands, and I have enough to kill with the Zenith, but no way to force them to cast so that I can get get the Zenith in w/o a counter spell? And with no real board presence, I just get munched?
Edit: I guess my question is if there is a relatively easy way to get around this, or splash in Mythic Dispute, or just accept the losses?
Cycling is 100% all-in aggro. If you hold back, you lose. Even with counters. Use your cards like foxes and Stingers to bait out the counters and get your Flares powered. Build up other threats so they can't focus on the Flares.
50% win rate is honestly what you'd normally expect anyway, so you need to decide if you'd rather concede or play it out and figure out how you can adjust your play for the future.
Also make sure you're including as many 1-mana cyclers as possible, even if they're off color. The goal of the deck is to dig for Flares and dig to power the Flares.
Finally, you should be only keeping a hand if it has Flare, Fox, or Stinger. They are your main threats. Having too few lands is okay because you should be digging for more lands.
So I've beat a couple of rogue mill decks with Zenith, but I've also definitely had a couple of instances of hitting only 4 lands, and I have enough to kill with the Zenith, but no way to force them to cast so that I can get get the Zenith in w/o a counter spell? And with no real board presence, I just get munched?
Edit: I guess my question is if there is a relatively easy way to get around this, or splash in Mythic Dispute, or just accept the losses?
Cycling is 100% all-in aggro. If you hold back, you lose. Even with counters. Use your cards like foxes and Stingers to bait out the counters and get your Flares powered. Build up other threats so they can't focus on the Flares.
50% win rate is honestly what you'd normally expect anyway, so you need to decide if you'd rather concede or play it out and figure out how you can adjust your play for the future.
Also make sure you're including as many 1-mana cyclers as possible, even if they're off color. The goal of the deck is to dig for Flares and dig to power the Flares.
Finally, you should be only keeping a hand if it has Flare, Fox, or Stinger. They are your main threats. Having too few lands is okay because you should be digging for more lands.
I'd actually say only keep Fox/Stinger. You need to cycle enough to power the flares that odds are you'll pick them up in the process.
Gide-End control isn't a good deck, but it is a hilarious one. The entire gameplan is "Stick Gideon of the Trials, emblem him, and then use Pact of Negation as a Force of Will, Glorious End as a turbo-powered Disallow, and Chance for Glory as a Time Walk." Since you can't lose the game, you never have to pay the price!
Extremely expensive on wildcards and truly stupid from start to finish, but very, very fun.
milski on
I ate an engineer
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Well, managed to get to Diamond with Zenith Flare, so yay!
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
So I've beat a couple of rogue mill decks with Zenith, but I've also definitely had a couple of instances of hitting only 4 lands, and I have enough to kill with the Zenith, but no way to force them to cast so that I can get get the Zenith in w/o a counter spell? And with no real board presence, I just get munched?
Edit: I guess my question is if there is a relatively easy way to get around this, or splash in Mythic Dispute, or just accept the losses?
Against any of the better dmir decks you are definitely at a disadvantage. You basically have 4 win cards and they have something like 8-12 less expensive answers to those 4 wincon cards.
And everything you are doing activates their draw engine.
It's a very bad match up for you. Just gotta kinda accept that with some match ups.
I'm really loving Kaladesh draft. It's so stuffed with half functioning combo pieces and all the removal is so weak, it's a great chance to try and tinker together some devastating combo while your opponent and each other try to tease each other into blocks bluffing as to whether you have remove or combat tricks.
I'm really loving Kaladesh draft. It's so stuffed with half functioning combo pieces and all the removal is so weak, it's a great chance to try and tinker together some devastating combo while your opponent and each other try to tease each other into blocks bluffing as to whether you have remove or combat tricks.
...or cards with revolt you want to cast post-combat.
I'm really loving Kaladesh draft. It's so stuffed with half functioning combo pieces and all the removal is so weak, it's a great chance to try and tinker together some devastating combo while your opponent and each other try to tease each other into blocks bluffing as to whether you have remove or combat tricks.
...or cards with revolt you want to cast post-combat.
Ha, yes, revolt is a nasty little keyword. Here i am attacking with this 3/3. Do I want you to block it? Do I not want you to block it? Am I trying to kill something you have? Or get you to kill what I have? Maybe both? Or neither? Maybe I just want the damage.
Its a genuinely fun set, really slow in draft other than some of the vehicles you can get out there. No real catastrophic bombs. All of them seem to come from gradually assembling together combos. Like, two workshop assistants and the black creature that let's you sacrifice something to give it +1/+1. It really feels like old school magic. Slow and building towards victory, rather than swingy and critical event based.
Like, last night I won a game based on carefully getting counters on a few little creatures and then casting, bouncing and recasting the festival judge creature that draws cards for counters, which refilled my hand and gave me the gas to win. Nothing that came out was some catastrophic doom card, but they all built into something my opponents couldn't beat. Really great stuff.
"That is cool" - Abraham Lincoln
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Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Man, people are way too concerned with the first ability of Tinybones that they kinda neglect his activated ability.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
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Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
So. Historic artisan FNM.
I brought an Orzhov lifegain deck to bear.
I came up against an Orzhov lifegain deck with a similar, but distinct, strategy to mine.
And right there you can see the exact moment his spirit left his body.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
Because if you're going to attempt to squeeze that big black monster into your slot you will need to be able to take at least 12 inches or else you're going to have a bad time...
Just found a nice bug in Arena: 2 Legion Warboss's cancel each other out for some reason. Triggers pops and no goblin tokens.
Doh, admanb below is correct. There was -1/-1 to tokens out, they just never spawned to die to it so I forgot all about it the turn after it was played...
Xeddicus on
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
Just found a nice bug in Arena: 2 Legion Warboss's cancel each other out for some reason. Triggers pops and no goblin tokens.
Hrm... you're sure there was nothing else in play (-1/-1 to all creatures, maybe?). That's a very strange bug, both from a mechanical perspective and because I would expect it to have been seen before.
Just found a nice bug in Arena: 2 Legion Warboss's cancel each other out for some reason. Triggers pops and no goblin tokens.
Hrm... you're sure there was nothing else in play (-1/-1 to all creatures, maybe?). That's a very strange bug, both from a mechanical perspective and because I would expect it to have been seen before.
Oooohhh yeah. That was it. Odd they never spawned to die, though.
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
I would assume it's just the UI shortcutting it and if there were death triggers they would still go off, but it does look odd.
Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Always nice when you straight up outplay someone so they decide to rope you.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
I gotta say, the Bob Ross lands are some of the best land art in a long while. There's just so much great contrast and so many saturated colours in the lands. Looks a lot better than the grey or really dark lands that have been released lately.
I gotta say, the Bob Ross lands are some of the best land art in a long while. There's just so much great contrast and so many saturated colours in the lands. Looks a lot better than the grey or really dark lands that have been released lately.
They are just so damn happy!
Great feel good art, even the swap is vibrant
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Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
One nice thing about my current standard deck is that a lot of people are thinking I am running the netdeck version of it, so they do silly things like remove cards from my gy in dimir duels.
And it's like
No man
Nothing I have interacts with my gy.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
I finally broke down and built a rogues deck. It cost me all of 10 uncommon wildcards the the version I net decked.
Turn one of game one, I am on the play.
Me - swamp, go
Him - plain, go
Me - play Thieves' Guild Enforcer on his turn
Him - scoop
I am never going to play this deck again.
Even as someone who was looking forward to building a rogues deck as soon as spoilers hit, I'm so sick of rogues that if I'm in the Play queue I will scoop the second one hits. And I frequently play with a deck that's quite strong against rogues - the games are still too repetitive and unfun at this point.
Fuck me, this prompted me to look and see that Kaldheim isn't due until February. Guess I'll be sticking to mainly historic, limited and special events for a while.
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
What happens when Kaldheim drops?
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
KetarCome on upstairswe're having a partyRegistered Userregular
Hopefully the same thing that usually happens when a new set drops - the meta shakes up a bit, people move on to new decks or variations on older decks, and so on. There are usually enough new decks or big enough variations on older stuff that things at least feel less repetitive for a while.
Posts
The only Showcase styles that I didn't enjoy were the Theros ones and there were only 11 of those.
EDIT: Plus the 15 Secret Lair versions I guess.
yeah Seb McKinnon's art is always great:
http://www.sebmckinnon.com/illustration
I get the feeling Seb McKinnon has been a good influence on the game's art. For quite some time now, Magic art strived for... for lack of a better word... realism*. But Seb's art pushed steadily more towards more symbolic, painterly styles. So now, while most Magic art is still in the fairly realistic style, I'm glad it no longer has to be.
Of course, I have no way of knowing for sure, but, like, I get the feeling that maybe something like Wylie Beckert's art for Thwart the Grave wouldn't have happened without Seb paving the way, you know?
*(I know it didn't always used to be that way, but then WotC stopped commissioning Rebecca Guay.)
That's not entirely fair -- Rebecca Guay stopped taking WotC's calls because she became a successful painter.
but I do agree that bringing some of the painterly style back to Magic art is a good thing. Thematic consistency is nice and it's hard to do thematic consistency with a lot of abstract pieces, but some abstraction brings up the whole set.
Edit: I guess my question is if there is a relatively easy way to get around this, or splash in Mythic Dispute, or just accept the losses?
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
The traditional way of beating a counterspell is to cast one must-counter spell on their EOT and then cast the second one on your turn. Tricky with Zenith since you only have four, but my strategy would still be to dig for two Flares and only fire off a single if it's do-or-die.
Cycling is 100% all-in aggro. If you hold back, you lose. Even with counters. Use your cards like foxes and Stingers to bait out the counters and get your Flares powered. Build up other threats so they can't focus on the Flares.
50% win rate is honestly what you'd normally expect anyway, so you need to decide if you'd rather concede or play it out and figure out how you can adjust your play for the future.
Also make sure you're including as many 1-mana cyclers as possible, even if they're off color. The goal of the deck is to dig for Flares and dig to power the Flares.
Finally, you should be only keeping a hand if it has Flare, Fox, or Stinger. They are your main threats. Having too few lands is okay because you should be digging for more lands.
I'd actually say only keep Fox/Stinger. You need to cycle enough to power the flares that odds are you'll pick them up in the process.
Extremely expensive on wildcards and truly stupid from start to finish, but very, very fun.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Against any of the better dmir decks you are definitely at a disadvantage. You basically have 4 win cards and they have something like 8-12 less expensive answers to those 4 wincon cards.
And everything you are doing activates their draw engine.
It's a very bad match up for you. Just gotta kinda accept that with some match ups.
beating the poor bastard to death with his own cursed artifacts...
...or cards with revolt you want to cast post-combat.
Ha, yes, revolt is a nasty little keyword. Here i am attacking with this 3/3. Do I want you to block it? Do I not want you to block it? Am I trying to kill something you have? Or get you to kill what I have? Maybe both? Or neither? Maybe I just want the damage.
Its a genuinely fun set, really slow in draft other than some of the vehicles you can get out there. No real catastrophic bombs. All of them seem to come from gradually assembling together combos. Like, two workshop assistants and the black creature that let's you sacrifice something to give it +1/+1. It really feels like old school magic. Slow and building towards victory, rather than swingy and critical event based.
Like, last night I won a game based on carefully getting counters on a few little creatures and then casting, bouncing and recasting the festival judge creature that draws cards for counters, which refilled my hand and gave me the gas to win. Nothing that came out was some catastrophic doom card, but they all built into something my opponents couldn't beat. Really great stuff.
I brought an Orzhov lifegain deck to bear.
I came up against an Orzhov lifegain deck with a similar, but distinct, strategy to mine.
And right there you can see the exact moment his spirit left his body.
They'll only be valid until December 14th, though.
If only I could select which lands arena auto includes when I make a deck.
Doh, admanb below is correct. There was -1/-1 to tokens out, they just never spawned to die to it so I forgot all about it the turn after it was played...
Hrm... you're sure there was nothing else in play (-1/-1 to all creatures, maybe?). That's a very strange bug, both from a mechanical perspective and because I would expect it to have been seen before.
Oooohhh yeah. That was it. Odd they never spawned to die, though.
As someone who regularly combos Kaervek, Clackbridge Troll, and Massacre Wurm I can assure you this is the case
The mountain code is:
MoveMountains
I think they missed one of the codes because I don't see anything for Dec 1st.
They were all posted in the general MTG thread yesterday:
IslandWilderness
TreeFriend
MoveMountains
HappySwamp
They did not win that game.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Not any time soon, from the look of it.
They are just so damn happy!
Great feel good art, even the swap is vibrant
And it's like
No man
Nothing I have interacts with my gy.
Turn one of game one, I am on the play.
Me - swamp, go
Him - plain, go
Me - play Thieves' Guild Enforcer on his turn
Him - scoop
I am never going to play this deck again.
Even as someone who was looking forward to building a rogues deck as soon as spoilers hit, I'm so sick of rogues that if I'm in the Play queue I will scoop the second one hits. And I frequently play with a deck that's quite strong against rogues - the games are still too repetitive and unfun at this point.
Fuck me, this prompted me to look and see that Kaldheim isn't due until February. Guess I'll be sticking to mainly historic, limited and special events for a while.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain