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Magic: The Gathering |OT|

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kirblar said:
I actually suspect we might be getting a Simic-flavored Spreading Seas given the storyline behind the merfolk.
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Oh man, my best Magic story ever involves Spreading Seas. Back in Zendikar I was drafting with a group of friends, and I had this kind of blue-white aggro-control-thing. My opponent had a green-black midrangeamajig, and we were incredibly evenly matched. The game stalled with us both at 5 or so life for a long time, until we both had less the ten cards left in library. Early on I had tried to use a couple Spreading Seas to disrupt his man abase, which kinda-sorta worked. So we're at an impasse, neither of us can finish the other. His turn, he draws, laughs, and uses the Islands that I gave him to play the only blue card he had run in the entire deck.

Archive Trap.

The entire table looked over and just bust out laughing for like three minutes.
 
So going off that Islandwalk premise, I browsed Gatherer and chose some cards I might use:

River Boa
Thada Ade, Aquisitor
Cold-Eyed Selkie
Spreading Seas
Mind Bend (don't know about this)
Lullmage Mentor
Dissipate
Quest for Renewal


Now I just need some more beefy creatures :P
 
BlackJace said:
So going off that Islandwalk premise, I browsed Gatherer and chose some cards I might use:

River Boa
Thada Ade, Aquisitor
Cold-Eyed Selkie
Spreading Seas
Mind Bend (don't know about this)
Lullmage Mentor
Dissipate
Quest for Renewal


Now I just need some more beefy creatures :P
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So, what you might actually want is a Merfolk deck that runs Lord of Atlantis. For some inspiration.

Modern Merfolk Primer on MTGSalvation

Legacy Merfolk Primer on MTGSalvation

Often these primers get a little out of date, so make sure to read the pages towards the end of the thread too.
 
Anyone else watching the GP Denver coverage? Pat Cox playing Jund just dominated the second game vs RUG. Cox will be playing either Jund or UWB Stoneblade in the finals, whichever wins the match which is now playing.

I'm sitting on the couch with the coverage playing on the big tv and dinner in the oven. Shit's awesome.
 
I assume you're referring to their performance in Legacy with that deck?

If I was to pick, I would say that it's Deathrite Shaman that should go. The card is just too good; it's grave hate, mana acceleration, lifegain, and reach, all in one card.
 
Deathrite? Surely if the other two could be abused they would've been banned by now.
 
I currently have a Ravnica-based green/white deck and a 2013 Core-based blue/red deck. My main playing partner has a really good deck that's black/white that makes FULL use of exalted that always gets the best of me. I've come VERY, VERY close to winning several times with my blue/red deck. Are there any general strategies in dealing with exalted?

I think I just need to get better with the rules and work on beefing up my deck but any advice is appreciated!
 
cam said:
I currently have a Ravnica-based green/white deck and a 2013 Core-based blue/red deck. My main playing partner has a really good deck that's black/white that makes FULL use of exalted that always gets the best of me. I've come VERY, VERY close to winning several times with my blue/red deck. Are there any general strategies in dealing with exalted?

I think I just need to get better with the rules and work on beefing up my deck but any advice is appreciated!
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Exalted is a very all your eggs in one basket strategy. It's usually trying to get in with one really big beater so instant speed removal is hugely effective against them. In blue/red you'll want lots of bounce effects (unsummon and the like). Most of the B/W exalted stuff from 2013 has very low toughness as well, so things like Electrickery, Mizzium Mortars and Street Spasm can really wreak havoc on them.
 
kirblar said:
The deck's legitimate. It just overloads its opponent with brute force card advantage.
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Which one would you ban in Modern? Jund isn't "unbeatable" but the deck is clearly the best choice in the metagame, and it's only gotten miles better post RTR.

cam said:
I currently have a Ravnica-based green/white deck and a 2013 Core-based blue/red deck. My main playing partner has a really good deck that's black/white that makes FULL use of exalted that always gets the best of me. I've come VERY, VERY close to winning several times with my blue/red deck. Are there any general strategies in dealing with exalted?

I think I just need to get better with the rules and work on beefing up my deck but any advice is appreciated!
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Wait for him to attack, put the Exalted triggers on the stack, then kill the guy before he gets the PT buffs. He just lost his entire attack step and a dude.
 
Sinatar said:
Exalted is a very all your eggs in one basket strategy. It's usually trying to get in with one really big beater so instant speed removal is hugely effective against them. In blue/red you'll want lots of bounce effects (unsummon and the like). Most of the B/W exalted stuff from 2013 has very low toughness as well, so things like Electrickery, Mizzium Mortars and Street Spasm can really wreak havoc on them.
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That's great. I have tons of great spells, instants, etc. And exalted-happy has some really good cards that make the ability very effective once they stack it into play (sublime angel, ugghh). I've been getting unlucky in all our matches by muddling up some chances to shut them down early or just not drawing the right cards before they got powered up. Merci.
 
cam said:
I currently have a Ravnica-based green/white deck and a 2013 Core-based blue/red deck. My main playing partner has a really good deck that's black/white that makes FULL use of exalted that always gets the best of me. I've come VERY, VERY close to winning several times with my blue/red deck. Are there any general strategies in dealing with exalted?

I think I just need to get better with the rules and work on beefing up my deck but any advice is appreciated!
Click to expand...

Just remember that with the way Exalted works you can wait till he declares his single attacker and then kill it with a Searing Spear (or other instant burn spell) in response to the Exalted triggers. Your spell resolves and kills the creature before it gets any of the toughness buffs from the Exalted and his whole attack step will be wasted.

Edit: Beaten. :P
 
I think Deathrite Shaman is the real problem. Confidant/BBE are super good, but Shaman is unreal and (imo) does very bad things to the format.
 
kirblar said:
I think Deathrite Shaman is the real problem. Confidant/BBE are super good, but Shaman is unreal and (imo) does very bad things to the format.
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I completely agree. As I noted above: it does way too many things far too efficiently. When it was spoiled, we all were incredulous about the existence of a black mana dork, but it's all of the other things it does on top of ramping you that really pushes this thing to incredible levels.

Leave it in Legacy, but take it out of Modern please.
 
I'll have to disagree. Modern is far too ban heavy as it stands now. Let it play for a while before making any snap judgments.
 
divisionbyzorro said:
I completely agree. As I noted above: it does way too many things far too efficiently. When it was spoiled, we all were incredulous about the existence of a black mana dork, but it's all of the other things it does on top of ramping you that really pushes this thing to incredible levels.

Leave it in Legacy, but take it out of Modern please.
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I don't pay enough attention to Modern, and I was wondering how it was so good when it requires a land exile for the ramp, but then I remembered the sac lands...
 
kirblar said:
I think Deathrite Shaman is the real problem. Confidant/BBE are super good, but Shaman is unreal and (imo) does very bad things to the format.
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Agreed, the card is insane. Is it banworthy in Modern though? I would lean towards unbanning stuff to balance it out first. Jund is excellent, certainly the dtb, but I'm not sure it's hit ban-worthy yet.
 
Prime example. Deathrite did absolutely nothing in that match for Cox. It's a very, very damn good card. You want it if you play G/B for sure, but it's not really banworthy.

Yet.
 
WanderingWind said:
Prime example. Deathrite did absolutely nothing in that match for Cox. It's a very, very damn good card. You want it if you play G/B for sure, but it's not really banworthy.

Yet.
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It only did nothing because the Esper player stabilized. It nearly won Ravitz his game because it's a mana dork that turns into a better Grim Lavamancer.
 
Would you unban anything in Modern?

I feel like Wild Nacatl is poised to get unbanned; it likely shouldn't have been banned in the first place. Ancestral Vision seems fine too. I would like to see Sword of the Meek come off; maybe I'm underestimating the combo, but it seems like enabling an Esper artifact combo finisher would be a good way to get a new type of combo/control archetype into the format.
 
kirblar said:
It only did nothing because the Esper player stabilized. It nearly won Ravitz his game because it's a mana dork that turns into a better Grim Lavamancer.
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He stabilized by ignoring the Shaman until it made sense. A card that should get banned immediately takes over the game, every time or almost every time and one in which every deck in those colors needs to play it to stand a chance. Shaman doesn't fit, IMO
 
divisionbyzorro said:
Would you unban anything in Modern?

I feel like Wild Nacatl is poised to get unbanned; it likely shouldn't have been banned in the first place. Ancestral Vision seems fine too. I would like to see Sword of the Meek come off; maybe I'm underestimating the combo, but it seems like enabling an Esper artifact combo finisher would be a good way to get a new type of combo/control archetype into the format.
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Not right now.

Nacatl needs to stay on because it becomes "the" aggro deck. The problem right now isn't that Nacatl's banned, it's that there's not an aggro deck besides affinity. Sword and P. Fire are never, EVER coming off.
 
kirblar said:
Not right now.

Nacatl needs to stay on because it becomes "the" aggro deck. The problem right now isn't that Nacatl's banned, it's that there's not an aggro deck besides affinity. Sword and P. Fire are never, EVER coming off.
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I haven't actually seen a Sword deck do its thing. I assume the issue is that it makes that style of control deck too good?
 
I think Wild Nacatl, Bitterblossom and Ancestral Visions could be unbanned, not all at once though.
Banning DRS would be good, Jund was already good before it so it won't kill the deck but it will be a "fairer" deck IMO. I doubt that after Legacy Jund WotC will leave Modern as it currently is.
 
Lg9c4.jpg


The abilities are very Boros.
 
Hi Magic-GAF.

I bought the Izzet vs Golgari pack and played Magic with my housemate. Neither of us have played in over a decade. It was incredible. I bought a deckbuilders tool kit just now, but where would you suggest we go from here?

I apologize if this response comes off wrong. I hope to stick around this thread for a while (albeit school may intrude) and look forward to your responses.

Cheers.
 
ngower said:
Hi Magic-GAF.

I bought the Izzet vs Golgari pack and played Magic with my housemate. Neither of us have played in over a decade. It was incredible. I bought a deckbuilders tool kit just now, but where would you suggest we go from here?

I apologize if this response comes off wrong. I hope to stick around this thread for a while (albeit school may intrude) and look forward to your responses.

Cheers.
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Return to Ravnica theme decks are very good places to start with. I bought 4 IvG decks for the singles. :-P
 
ngower said:
Hi Magic-GAF.

I bought the Izzet vs Golgari pack and played Magic with my housemate. Neither of us have played in over a decade. It was incredible. I bought a deckbuilders tool kit just now, but where would you suggest we go from here?

I apologize if this response comes off wrong. I hope to stick around this thread for a while (albeit school may intrude) and look forward to your responses.

Cheers.
Click to expand...

Do you just want to play casually with friends? Here are a few fun ideas:
-As Kirblar says, there are some intro decks that have a fun selection of cards for you to play around with.

-What I personally recommend is scrounging up a total of six people, splitting the cost of a box of cards (around $100 usually) and doing what's called Limited where you open new packs and build decks to play with right there and then. It both expands your collection and is more fun then just opening packs by themselves.
 
kirblar said:
Kiki-Jiki's perfectly fine. He's slower and easier to answer.
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So your goal is to slow down Twin decks, not kill them entirely, which is more what I was driving at. That's what I thought.

kirblar said:
Return to Ravnica theme decks are very good places to start with. I bought 4 IvG decks for the singles. :-P
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Speaking of Duel Decks, when does Sorin vs Tibalt get shown off? I'm very very curious to see what WotC thinks they can do with Tibalt. :)
 
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