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Magic: The Gathering |OT|

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A friend of mines played a rainbow Frites deck and man was it dirty.

It was mainly G/W with a splash of U/B. A bunch of Birds of Paradise, Avacyn's Pilgrim, and Llana War Elves for ramp. Mulch for fetching land and dumping creatures into the graveyard. Tracker's Instincts to further dump creatures really and that Unburial Rites. Oh and the creatures he's dumping are things like Elesh Norn, Sheohold, Kessig Wolfbreaker, Maul Splicers, Hero of Bladehold, and the main star that's just killer, Angel of Glory's Rise. Let's bring all those humans back onto the field!

I barely beat him to a best of 5 with my W/U humans but man I'm going to sideboard some graveyard hate now.
 
Ahhhhh finally back. I missed you, magic-gaf. I've been going to more and more local events with my friends. Ditched my white/black deck and probably my burn deck soon. I'm getting sick of playing aggro, I think. It gets really demoralizing playing from behind all game long against stuff like ramp, and then against control decks I either win in the first 4-5 turns or lose slowly and painfully.

I am running a white/green humans deck with lambholt, which is pretty fun, but I'm gonna start keeping my eyes open for slower decks that look like fun.

Also, what are all the multicolor names people keep using? I have no idea what any of them are, except boros, haha.
 
Seems to me like they want to reduce the overall power level of standard. I'm not sure how I feel about it. The titans were one thing, but Incinerate was a pretty perfectly designed card
 
The Ravnica shocklands have land types, so Arbor Elf can theoretically end up giving you more than just green mana if they're really reprinting those as the rumors say.

Just trying to make the best of it!
 
So I haven't played since sometime around Lorwyn block...aside from the no damage on the stack change(dumb), what else do I need to know about the current environment?
 
daemissary said:
So I haven't played since sometime around Lorwyn block...aside from the no damage on the stack change(dumb), what else do I need to know about the current environment?
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The stack change was the big one, other then that you've got some new keywords to learn and that's about it.
 
After my first AVR sealed, I told myself I would never do it again. I caved and did another one today (because for whatever reason I felt like cracking some virtual packs) and almost immediately regretted it.

What I've discovered (and correct me if I'm wrong in my assessment) is that it feels like you have to really get lucky to get enough playables in just 2 colors, and you're pretty much always forced to jump into a third, and more than just a splash. If you go in 3, you're probably to be forced into mulligans more often every 2-3 games; if you go in 2, you're probably going to be playing crap just to fill out your deck.

I guess what I'm really trying to get at is that every match always feels like it comes down to draws, not necessarily who was better at building their deck.

So yeah - after doing it twice, I'm going to say that sealed AVR is pretty damn terrible, and draft doesn't seem to be that much better. Save your money, folks.
 
Sealed is the most luck based format IMO. Played avr sealed last week and got wolfir silverheart, needless to say I rode him to victory with ease.
 
So I'm looking at tournament pack box prices. They generally seem to be half a booster box's price. Why is this? They have an almost equivalent amount of cards. Less commons and more uncommons and lands than a booster box, but I don't see how that can be hundreds of dollars difference (in some cases). Anyone care to enlighten?
 
M13 is pretty disappointing from the reveal. At least for what the card is replacing is disappointing. Hopefully it's a set I won't need to buy much of at all then.


My Local shop was able to get me the 3000 or whatever card boxes for less than $4, he said he saw them when he went to his distributor the other day so he got me 3. :D
 
It's amazing how much better DII is than AVR for limited. I just had a fantastic match in a DII draft, and even though he knocked me out in the first round (2-1), there were more interesting decisions and moments in that one match than there were in the last two AVR sealed and two AVR drafts I've done combined.

Being on a business trip in a foreign country with access to MTGO is kinda a bad thing for my spare cash. :)
 
divisionbyzorro said:
It's amazing how much better DII is than AVR for limited. I just had a fantastic match in a DII draft, and even though he knocked me out in the first round (2-1), there were more interesting decisions and moments in that one match than there were in the last two AVR sealed and two AVR drafts I've done combined.

Being on a business trip in a foreign country with access to MTGO is kinda a bad thing for my spare cash. :)
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I think triple INN is better
 
I think I'm having more fun with this deck than any other deck I've ever played:

uYwLe.png


This is obviously the budget version of this deck. The proper version of this deck runs expensive staples like Huntmasters and Falkenrath Aristocrats, and obviously you should run the dual lands if you've got them (still waiting for confirmation that the taplands are reprinted in M13 before I pull the trigger). My version loses as many games as you might expect due to mana issues, but I only ever play in the "just for fun" rooms anyway.

The Ray of Revelation is in there because I've found this deck has a really hard time beating Curse of Death's Hold (in fact, I've never beaten it - the little dudes all die, making your Monk decidedly unimpressive), and the maindeck Manic Vandal is in there because I've seen enough people maindecking Grafdigger's Cage (different versions of this deck are obviously really popular right now).
 
divisionbyzorro said:
I think I'm having more fun with this deck than any other deck I've ever played:

uYwLe.png


This is obviously the budget version of this deck. The proper version of this deck runs expensive staples like Huntmasters and Falkenrath Aristocrats, and obviously you should run the dual lands if you've got them (still waiting for confirmation that the taplands are reprinted in M13 before I pull the trigger). My version loses as many games as you might expect due to mana issues, but I only ever play in the "just for fun" rooms anyway.

The Ray of Revelation is in there because I've found this deck has a really hard time beating Curse of Death's Hold (in fact, I've never beaten it - the little dudes all die, making your Monk decidedly unimpressive), and the maindeck Manic Vandal is in there because I've seen enough people maindecking Grafdigger's Cage (different versions of this deck are obviously really popular right now).
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Switch the Vandal and Ray for a Revoke Existence and another land. I think 22 is too few even when you have proper duels.

Are Falkenrath Aristocrats really that expensive? One of the main reasons the deck is good in Block is you can combo out with it, Fiend Hunter and Angel. I guess you have the Disciple for that though.
 
f0rk said:
Switch the Vandal and Ray for a Revoke Existence and another land. I think 22 is too few even when you have proper duels.

Are Falkenrath Aristocrats really that expensive? One of the main reasons the deck is good in Block is you can combo out with it, Fiend Hunter and Angel. I guess you have the Disciple for that though.
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I've never had issues with not having enough mana, just not the right mana. Mulch, Pilgrim, and Ranger always seem to get me there in terms of quantity. I put Ray in there because of the flashback (and since my collection is still quite small, the fact that I could get a playset easy from the pennybot was not irrelevant), and Vandal was swapped in for the third Kessig Malcontents without that much thought as a "just in case." Revoke is a fine card though; I'll give it a shot and see how it performs.

Aristocrats are about 9 tickets; not ridiculously expensive, but I'm not going to buy that before I buy the lands I'm missing. Huntmasters, on the other hand, are 25... And yes, Disciple is basically the poor man's Aristocrat in this deck; you don't get the infinitely huge indestructible flier, but you can still get some good repeatable effects out of it. One play I've been looking for, but has never come up, is to Fiend Hunter my Angel and then cast Blasphemous Act - pretty sure that'll always get a concession.
 
FreedomFrisbee said:
So I'm looking at tournament pack box prices. They generally seem to be half a booster box's price. Why is this? They have an almost equivalent amount of cards. Less commons and more uncommons and lands than a booster box, but I don't see how that can be hundreds of dollars difference (in some cases). Anyone care to enlighten?
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Because for recent sets they're all theme decks, not actual randomized cards. Which sets are you looking at?
 
I've been crushing folks online with my new newest brew "We are the champions".

iPJLGgEKsN7vs.png


Some stuff is temporary in there, like I'll replace the druids familiars with Wolfir Silverhearts when I get some.
 
red_13th said:
Whoa, Serra Avatar? Wizards should bring back cool old cards like that more often. Urza's Saga ftw.
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Agreed, but is it ever rough to see how badly old creatures stack up. Not that Serra Avatar was fantastic back in the day, but she was definitely the biggest vanilla creature ever. Stock up on them before Sneak Attack gets leaked!
 
ultron87 said:
Lol. Make up your mind Wizards. Either reduce power level or don't.
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Maybe they just want to rebalance the colors? Nerfing Incinerate makes sense if regeneration is going to be a big thing for green in in this next cycle...

But it's not like black is terrible right now either. Blue is really the only color that feels "too strong" to me at the moment (mostly thanks to Snapcaster and Stalker).
 
Thoughts on reprints as someone who likes to play more controlling decks in constructed.
Given what they've said about Mana Leak recently, I wouldn't be surprised they leave counter spells at Negate + Essence Scatter, will be interesting how decks with permission develop around them.
Jace's Phantasm is going to be pretty broken if a proper mill deck exists. I don't know that much about older formats but there especially.
Duress reprint is cool.
Murder... making Doom Blade unconditional but 3 mana and not splashable is weird. Control decks will basically have to be built around black.
Sign in Blood is a good card, mono black control could be a deck? Hold on to your Lilianas, they will probably get more expensive before they get cheaper.
Vampire Nighthawk is a crazy reprint, not sure what they are thinking.
Red is boring so far. Smelt is quite aggressively costed to compete with Ancient Grudge.

Harbor Bandit and Farseek are clearly there with the new Rav shock lands from the next set in mind.

Still holding out for Cruel Ultimatum reprint so I can get my Snapcaster Grixis control on.
 
I'm playing the most amazing mono-red humans deck in draft right now. Had to choose between a Zealous Conscripts and a Thatcher Revolt something like third pick. And then the Thatcher Revolt tabled! No Heinweir Lancers, unfortunately, but I've got 3 Riot Ringleaders.
 
divisionbyzorro said:
Maybe they just want to rebalance the colors? Nerfing Incinerate makes sense if regeneration is going to be a big thing for green in in this next cycle...

But it's not like black is terrible right now either. Blue is really the only color that feels "too strong" to me at the moment (mostly thanks to Snapcaster and Stalker).
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Black's been the worst color in the game for a while now. :( (At least since Lorwyn, probably goes back much further than that, though.) It's a big issue, and they're aware of it.

I'm laughing at the freakout over Arbor Elf, though. I'm surprised some of you guys aren't connecting the dots with Llanowar being removed. Arbor Elf is in because we're about to have some very, very nice toys to play with in the near future, and well, you want the Elf around when they rotate in. :)

edit: Negate/Essence Scatter/Cancel is a perfect baseline for core set countermagic, and I doubt they ever mess around with it again.
 
kirblar said:
Black's been the worst color in the game for a while now. :( (At least since Lorwyn, probably goes back much further than that, though.) It's a big issue, and they're aware of it.

I'm laughing at the freakout over Arbor Elf, though. I'm surprised some of you guys aren't connecting the dots with Llanowar being removed. Arbor Elf is in because we're about to have some very, very nice toys to play with in the near future, and well, you want the Elf around when they rotate in. :)

edit: Negate/Essence Scatter/Cancel is a perfect baseline for core set countermagic, and I doubt they ever mess around with it again.
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Black was fantastic in Zendikar. I am still winning games in Legacy regularly with vamp tribal. Zombies (albeit u/b) were awesome for a while.

It does suck right now though, I agree.
 
kirblar said:
Black's been the worst color in the game for a while now. :( (At least since Lorwyn, probably goes back much further than that, though.) It's a big issue, and they're aware of it.

I'm laughing at the freakout over Arbor Elf, though. I'm surprised some of you guys aren't connecting the dots with Llanowar being removed. Arbor Elf is in because we're about to have some very, very nice toys to play with in the near future, and well, you want the Elf around when they rotate in. :)

edit: Negate/Essence Scatter/Cancel is a perfect baseline for core set countermagic, and I doubt they ever mess around with it again.
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Black certainly got a little worse in AVR, but I guess my opinions probably don't count for too much since I've only been in Magic since Innistrad. :)

And yes, Arbor Elf, Farseek and the like are all very clear foreshadowing for what's to come. I'm a little excited, actually. As a relative newbie, the idea of playing in a set that allows for some creativity in color mixing sounds like a blast.
 
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