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With 5 mana open I'd rather play Swagtusk :x.

She's just in a really awkward spot. 3cc would've been a lot better I think, since you could drop her on turn 2 off any mana dork and then start the value train.

Hah but she plays well with the Tusk both before and after death, if the 3/3 is still bigger than her. I say it's worth a look!
 
My foray into Modern continues! Deck one was Living End, which I quickly determined was crap. Deck two was Burn, which was a lot of fun. You get to force the pace of the game, but you're very reliant on your topdecks, and you always pray for a Goblin Guide in the opener. The deck usually treats you right, but it feels really bad when it doesn't.

Deck three: Tron. I really wanted to play the green Karn version, but I just can't spend $25 each on them. So I'm running this mono-blue iteration I saw on a recent MTGO daily. Counter and bounce spells with value attached (card draw/scrying), then the usual Urzatron package. I've got all sorts of goodies; the usual Wurmcoil Engines, but also a couple of Sundering Titans, a Platinum Angel, and everybody's favorite: the Mindslaver/Academy Ruins lock. So far, the best way to describe the deck is "sweet."

Now I just need to find enough time to actually play in some events and put my decks to good use!
 
Is there any kind of site I can go where I can look up like specific cards to find out how good/bad they are and what kind of decks they should be used in? As well as some info on how to go about building decks in general?
 
My foray into Modern continues! Deck one was Living End, which I quickly determined was crap. Deck two was Burn, which was a lot of fun. You get to force the pace of the game, but you're very reliant on your topdecks, and you always pray for a Goblin Guide in the opener. The deck usually treats you right, but it feels really bad when it doesn't.

Deck three: Tron. I really wanted to play the green Karn version, but I just can't spend $25 each on them. So I'm running this mono-blue iteration I saw on a recent MTGO daily. Counter and bounce spells with value attached (card draw/scrying), then the usual Urzatron package. I've got all sorts of goodies; the usual Wurmcoil Engines, but also a couple of Sundering Titans, a Platinum Angel, and everybody's favorite: the Mindslaver/Academy Ruins lock. So far, the best way to describe the deck is "sweet."

Now I just need to find enough time to actually play in some events and put my decks to good use!
Splash White for revelation? :)
 
So, I think you folks in this thread have more knowledge and experience with Magic than I do (I've played off and on SUPER casually since 3rd edition, but am only playing semi-seriously for the first time now), so I want to run an idea by you.

I'm intrigued by Cubes. They sound like a potentially cheap-ish way to draft (my favorite way to play), as you can use cards from pretty much any set that you've still got lying around to build your Cube.

Unfortunately, the cube I want to build involves a ton of cards I don't own, but I think it sounds fun, so I'm tempted anyway. I've never actually played with a cube though, so it might be shitty. I want to build a cube consisting of cards from the original Ravnica Block, and (once the next two sets drop) the Return to Ravnica block. Does this sound cool to anyone else, or am I off my rocker?
 
So, I think you folks in this thread have more knowledge and experience with Magic than I do (I've played off and on SUPER casually since 3rd edition, but am only playing semi-seriously for the first time now), so I want to run an idea by you.

I'm intrigued by Cubes. They sound like a potentially cheap-ish way to draft (my favorite way to play), as you can use cards from pretty much any set that you've still got lying around to build your Cube.

Unfortunately, the cube I want to build involves a ton of cards I don't own, but I think it sounds fun, so I'm tempted anyway. I've never actually played with a cube though, so it might be shitty. I want to build a cube consisting of cards from the original Ravnica Block, and (once the next two sets drop) the Return to Ravnica block. Does this sound cool to anyone else, or am I off my rocker?

Honestly, Cubing is probably my favorite thing to do in Magic and for a lot of different reasons. I have a 450 Powered Cube and just tinkering and designing a Cube is a lot of fun. I like to have all the best/broken stuff but I like to include a lot of subtle synergies to reward certain strategies. Like since there's a few good zombies like Diregraf, Gravecrawler and Sarcomancy I included Graveborn Muse since even as a 4 drop her body is okay and even with only herself out there she is Phyrexian Arena on a stick. But if you drafted any of the other zombie cards she gets more powerful. For a while Ravenous Baloth was in green because there were a decent amount of beasts but in recent years the green power creep made that card not as good (Thragtusk anyone?).

Also there are different types of Cubes that you can do. I've seen Pauper, Modern, etc types of Cubes. I know one guy at my LGS is doing a Ravinca Cube and I can't wait to try it. A lot of the old Ravinca mechanics play decently with the new ones and even at the worst it's still flavorful.

Finally, like you said, Cubing is a way to draft infinitely once you have one. It really does help you get better at limited since the card pool is so much bigger and you can literally pull anything so decisions can be a lot harder.

I definitely would recommend building one for your group to play with if nobody else has one. And also while the real cards are always the best, don't be afraid to just proxy the expensive stuff. There's no way I'm going to Cube with real duals and Power cards unless I'm rich as hell. The upside to this is you can find really sweet altered art proxies of cards and make them look fancy. I'll post some pictures a bit later.

I think that even if I were to quit playing/buying Magic, I would still keep my Cube since it's pretty easy to update it with new sets and it will never get old to draft it.
 
Okay guys, I have a ton of cards here and I'm trying to make a deck out of them. White/Blue and I got some nice powerful angels but I also want to try some detaining. Here are the cards I'm looking at:

Creatures:

1 Angel of Serenity
1 Archangel
1 Bruna, Light of Alabaster
1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
1 Palisade Giant
3 Isperia's Skywatch
1 Azor's Elocutors
1 Bazaar Krovod
1 Angel of Jubilation
3 Hussar Patrol
1 Azorius Justiciar
2 Runewing
1 Soulsworn Spirit
1 Niblis of the Breath
1 Arctic Aven
1 Latch Seeker
1 Stormbound Geist
2 Lyev Skyknight
4 Tower Drake
1 Stealer of Secrets
1 Hover Barrier
2 Fog Banks
3 Azorius Arrester
3 Keening Apparition
1 Nearheath Pilgrim
2 Faerie Imposter
1 Nephalia Smuggler

Instants:

3 Unsummon
4 Essence Scatter
2 Negate
2 Ghostly Flicker
4 Cloudshift
1 Banishing Stroke
1 Blustersquall
1 Cyclonic Rift
2 Cancel
1 Syncopate
3 Dramatic Rescue
1 Azorius Charm
3 Avenging Arrow
1 Swift Justice

Sorcery:

2 Ghostform
1 Terminus
1 Inaction Injunction
1 Supreme Verdict

Enchantment:

2 Detention Sphere
2 Encrust

Enchantment - Aura:

1 Tricks of the Trade
1 Spirit Away
2 Pacifism
1 Knightly Valor
1 Arrest

Artifacts:

1 Vanguard's Shield
1 Angelic Armaments
1 Conjurer's Closet

Lands:

1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Azorius Guildgate


Sorry, I know that is a ton of cards, I was just trying to cover all my bases with the types of cards I have. I still have a nice amount more White and Blue cards from mostly 2013 with some Innisrad-Avacyn and a couple extra RTRs in case you guys want to make any other suggestions, but I tried to pick out some of what I thought was the best stuff.

Any suggestions of what cards are great and which ones are terrible or just flat out the best deck out of this list would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!


Any suggestions on this?

I'm thinking of something like using the big angels, all the detain creatures, then things like cloudshift and ghostly flicker to retrigger detains, then throwing in some of the cool spells like terminus and supreme verdict and maybe some blue cards that let me draw cards so I can get enough mana...I dunno, I'm terrible at making decks, so any suggestions would be great
 
Honestly, Cubing is probably my favorite thing to do in Magic and for a lot of different reasons. I have a 450 Powered Cube and just tinkering and designing a Cube is a lot of fun. I like to have all the best/broken stuff but I like to include a lot of subtle synergies to reward certain strategies. Like since there's a few good zombies like Diregraf, Gravecrawler and Sarcomancy I included Graveborn Muse since even as a 4 drop her body is okay and even with only herself out there she is Phyrexian Arena on a stick. But if you drafted any of the other zombie cards she gets more powerful. For a while Ravenous Baloth was in green because there were a decent amount of beasts but in recent years the green power creep made that card not as good (Thragtusk anyone?).

Also there are different types of Cubes that you can do. I've seen Pauper, Modern, etc types of Cubes. I know one guy at my LGS is doing a Ravinca Cube and I can't wait to try it. A lot of the old Ravinca mechanics play decently with the new ones and even at the worst it's still flavorful.

Finally, like you said, Cubing is a way to draft infinitely once you have one. It really does help you get better at limited since the card pool is so much bigger and you can literally pull anything so decisions can be a lot harder.

I definitely would recommend building one for your group to play with if nobody else has one. And also while the real cards are always the best, don't be afraid to just proxy the expensive stuff. There's no way I'm going to Cube with real duals and Power cards unless I'm rich as hell. The upside to this is you can find really sweet altered art proxies of cards and make them look fancy. I'll post some pictures a bit later.

I think that even if I were to quit playing/buying Magic, I would still keep my Cube since it's pretty easy to update it with new sets and it will never get old to draft it.
I had to put off the "5 color cube" because of RTR block- gonna put it together after GTC though.
 
Splash White for revelation? :)

I thought about it! Sadly I sold my Revelations to fund my modern manabase. But it is a spicy bit of tech. I also have this desire to add a Phyrexia Core and a Spine of Ish Sah. Maybe a Kozilek? Or an All is Dust? It's such a Timmy deck - the possibilities are endless!
 
New card spoiled as a holiday gift, revealing the Gruul mechanic.

2CSfU.jpg
 
Okay, have no idea what I'm doing but I guess the idea is a burn type deck, If anyone would care to help me out with it:

Creatures:

1 Carnival Hellsteed
2 Liliana's Shade
1 Falkenrath Noble
4 Bloodhunter Bat
3 Lobber Crew
1 Scalding Devil
2 Blood Artist

Instants:

1 Thunderous Wrath
2 Explosive Impact
2 Chandra's Fury
1 Annihilating Fire
1 Brimstone Volley
2 Searing Spear
1 Thunderbolt

Sorceries:

1 Bonfire of the Damned
3 Skull Rend
2 Mental Agony
3 Pillar of Flame

Enchantments:

1 Shrieking Affliction
1 Underworld Connections

Artifacts:

2 Rakdos Keyrune

11 Swamps
12 Mountains


Any suggestions? Any terrible/wasteful cards in there? Anything specific I should add? Anything too redundant? Not enough land? etc. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Merry Christmas!
 
My guess is that it'll be "Discard to add this creature's P/T and any other relevant combat abilities to target creature.", so you can pitch a first striker to give your guy first strike. This is a pretty good mechanic for both limited and constructed, assuming we get some actually good cards with bloodrush.
 
Any suggestions on this?

I'm thinking of something like using the big angels, all the detain creatures, then things like cloudshift and ghostly flicker to retrigger detains, then throwing in some of the cool spells like terminus and supreme verdict and maybe some blue cards that let me draw cards so I can get enough mana...I dunno, I'm terrible at making decks, so any suggestions would be great

You have a fun idea using Detain with Cloudshift (fun for you, not your foe lol) and a good closing idea with the angel plan. Why not brew something specific up and let us pick that apart?
 
My 5 color reanimator deck loves loves loves the Gruul mechanic.

Just not on that particular card. But there is great promise in the mechanic itself.
 
Love the Swanland art, but yeah the creature itself is a bit underwhelming. Versatility is always valued in magic, though, and his ability certainly gives him that.
 
I think it's pretty good in limited where games are more drawn out and you tend to have a ton of lands by the end. So, if it is the prerelease promo (and it probably is) I think it'll be pretty strong in that format.
 
My 5 color reanimator deck loves loves loves the Gruul mechanic.

Just not on that particular card. But there is great promise in the mechanic itself.
That could be a strong interaction but I doubt there will be anything worth reanimating with it compared to Griselbrand or Angel of Serenity.
It is good in limited though, similar to overload where it is useful at more than one stage in the game.
 
You have a fun idea using Detain with Cloudshift (fun for you, not your foe lol) and a good closing idea with the angel plan. Why not brew something specific up and let us pick that apart?

I tried so hard to remove cards from that list, I got it down to 55 cards, i need to remove at least 15-18 I would say, here's what I'm looking at right now (let me know if I removed any cards I should have kept or kept any cards I should have removed; I know mostly my creatures and instants are too bloated)

Creatures:

1 Angel of Serenity
2 Bruna, Light of Alabaster
2 Isperia 's Skywatch (are these any good, they seem expensive for a 3/3 flyer even with the detain)
1 Azor's Elocutors
1 Soulsworn Spirit
1 Angel of Jubilation
1 Azorius Justicar
2 Runewing
1 Hover Barrier (maybe don't need?)
1 Latch Seeker (maybe unnecessary with detains?)
2 Lyev Skyknight
2 Tower Drake (not sure on these)
1 Stealer of Secrets
2 Fog Bank (maybe don't need?)
3 Azorius Arrester
1 Nephalia Smuggler

Instants:

1 Banishing Stroke
1 Azorius Charm
2 Dramatic Rescue (not sure on these with 4 cloudshifts)
1 Syncopate
2 Ghostly Flicker
2 Cancel
1 Cyclonic Rift
4 Cloudshift
1 Swift Justice (maybe unnecessary?)
2 Unsummon
1 Blustersquall

Sorcery:

1 Terminus
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Ghostform
1 Inaction Injunction (maybe I have better ways to detain? but I like the card drawing)

Enchantments:

1 Spirit Away
1 Tricks of the Trade (i like this for stealer of secrets, even though it'll be rare)
1 Arrest
2 Detention Sphere

Artifacts:

1 Conjurer's Closet (I love this idea, I can re-detain at the end of every turn)
1 Angelic Armaments

Lands:

1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Azorius Guildgate


This is sort of the best I can get to at the moment, not really sure what's unnecessary in this list. I got rid of a lot of stuff I thought I'd like (palisade giant, faerie impostor, keening apparition, hussar patrols, counter spells) but I think I did an okay job of what I've taken out so far.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
Creatures:

1 Angel of Serenity
2 Bruna, Light of Alabaster
2 Isperia 's Skywatch (are these any good, they seem expensive for a 3/3 flyer even with the detain)
1 Azor's Elocutors
1 Soulsworn Spirit
1 Angel of Jubilation
1 Azorius Justicar
2 Runewing
1 Hover Barrier (maybe don't need?)
1 Latch Seeker (maybe unnecessary with detains?)
2 Lyev Skyknight
2 Tower Drake (not sure on these)
1 Stealer of Secrets
2 Fog Bank (maybe don't need?)
3 Azorius Arrester
1 Nephalia Smuggler

Instants:

1 Banishing Stroke
1 Azorius Charm
2 Dramatic Rescue (not sure on these with 4 cloudshifts)
1 Syncopate
2 Ghostly Flicker
2 Cancel
1 Cyclonic Rift
4 Cloudshift
1 Swift Justice (maybe unnecessary?)
2 Unsummon
1 Blustersquall

Sorcery:

1 Terminus
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Ghostform
1 Inaction Injunction (maybe I have better ways to detain? but I like the card drawing)

Enchantments:

1 Spirit Away
1 Tricks of the Trade (i like this for stealer of secrets, even though it'll be rare)
1 Arrest
2 Detention Sphere

Artifacts:

1 Conjurer's Closet (I love this idea, I can re-detain at the end of every turn)
1 Angelic Armaments

Lands:

1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Azorius Guildgate

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I'd drop the Bruna, Light of Alabasters. They really aren't doing anything in your deck with so few auras. Right now she's just an expensive Serra Angel.

Since you general plan should be to kill them as quick as possible by detaining blockers and getting your guys in, in Fog Bank and Hover Barrier aren't really what you want. Those are more for staying alive into the late game. Though with the Elocutors, and Angel of Serenity you could certainly take the deck in that direction as well. It might be best to figure out if you want to be an aggressive tempo deck or a more late game focused. Detain and unblockable is generally better in an aggressive deck.

If you are on the detain/unblockable plan finding some more Stealer of Secrets would be a good idea.
 
I'd drop the Bruna, Light of Alabasters. They really aren't doing anything in your deck with so few auras. Right now she's just an expensive Serra Angel.

Since you general plan should be to kill them as quick as possible by detaining blockers and getting your guys in, in Fog Bank and Hover Barrier aren't really what you want. Those are more for staying alive into the late game. Though with the Elocutors, and Angel of Serenity you could certainly take the deck in that direction as well. It might be best to figure out if you want to be an aggressive tempo deck or a more late game focused. Detain and unblockable is generally better in an aggressive deck.

If you are on the detain/unblockable plan finding some more Stealer of Secrets would be a good idea.

Yeah, I should get rid of Bruna, she's kind of just taking up space, I'm trying to force myself to use her just because I got her. I'll get rid of those defensive creatures as well. I did just open a pack and get a Skymark Roc which seems pretty cool, so now I gotta find a space for that. I also picked up a second arrest and a guildgate which are nice...

Any suggestions on which instants or others would be unnecessary?
 
Yes boros is going to make my r/w humans deck incredible again. Hopefully a good 2/1 1cmc white or red human appears cause the only good 1 cmc is champions. (The one that produces ghosts is the second best one, but not really want I want)
 
I'm a little out of it right now so correct me if I'm wrong but if you had three creatures with battalion and they all attacked, each creature would trigger its own battalion ability? So three angels for instance would deal 9 damage and gain you 9 life when they attacked. Seems like you could massacre opponents if you managed to draft a bunch of boros creatures with battalion.
 
I'm a little out of it right now so correct me if I'm wrong but if you had three creatures with battalion and they all attacked, each creature would trigger its own battalion ability? So three angels for instance would deal 9 damage and gain you 9 life when they attacked. Seems like you could massacre opponents if you managed to draft a bunch of boros creatures with battalion.

Oh yeah, I'm betting it has a crazy amount of synergy, and Boros is clearly going to be the most aggressive guild (which makes sense, with Gruul filling the "larger but slightly slower beaters" slot)
 
Yeah. It's not really a mechanic in its own right so much as a reminder that there's an additional effect if you have 3 dudes swing at once.
 
Yeah. It's not really a mechanic in its own right so much as a reminder that there's an additional effect if you have 3 dudes swing at once.

Its very dull in terms of giving the guild identity, but I think its going to be one of the most "fun" (or at least relevant) mechanics in the set. I'm betting we see one or two of those cards make a splash in the competitive scene depending on how aggressively they push it.
 
I think the quality creatures will wind up in aggro/midrange, yeah. It doesn't really require any thought, just a lot of guys to turn sideways.
 
I think the quality creatures will wind up in aggro/midrange, yeah. It doesn't really require any thought, just a lot of guys to turn sideways.

Just turning guys sideways is an under appreciated tactic. It actually takes some intelligence and skill to know when to turn them, how many to turn, how many to hold back in your hand, the best way to take advantage of creature related instants in your hand, how to trick opponents with your creatures by suckering them into situations that will fuck them over. I get far more enjoyment figuring out how to best utilize a creature heavy deck than playing any combo or control deck.
 
Attacking can be extremely involved, I'll agree, but I meant that the mechanic itself doesn't require a lot of thought. You put it in any kind of deck where you will be attacking with 3+ creatures regularly, in any other kind of deck it's a non-factor, barring some amazing stats/abilities/combo potential like:

When THIS enters play, it deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
Battalion - Whenever THIS and at least two other creatures attack, put 2 tokens into play that are copies of THIS.
 
Oh no doubt, I meant that the mechanic itself doesn't require a lot of thought. You put it in any kind of deck where you will be attacking with 3+ creatures regularly.

Ah yeah, like I said, im totally out of it. Yeah the mechanic itself takes very little thought.

edit:That would indeed be neat if battalion did other things besides deal damage, then you could get some very cool things going.
 
Ah yeah, like I said, im totally out of it. Yeah the mechanic itself takes very little thought.

edit:That would indeed be neat if battalion did other things besides deal damage, then you could get some very cool things going.

Oh I expect it totally does. Its just going to be a series of effects based on "When you attack with 3 or more"
 
The boros mechanic is just so uninteractive and just braindead.

Really?

I like the flavor of the gruul and the simic looks bonkers.

Gruul looks very much of I am going to swing through once or twice and deal half your life each time.

Simic just looks fun.
 
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