Yeah. Whip's lifelink effect is quite good.
Magic: the GAFering |OT2|
- Thread starter The Technomancer
- Start date
Whip + Obzedat is definitely going to be a thing.
I don't think it works the way you guys think? Unless I'm slow...
It says "It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. If it would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery."
I'd figure if it gets exiled by the Whip's effect it's gone. However, it seems I'm wrong based on popular opinion? Is it because of how you order the stack that they would take precedence? I didn't think things could return once they left the battlefield, as per the Whip's wording.
It says "It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. If it would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery."
I'd figure if it gets exiled by the Whip's effect it's gone. However, it seems I'm wrong based on popular opinion? Is it because of how you order the stack that they would take precedence? I didn't think things could return once they left the battlefield, as per the Whip's wording.
It has to do with the way the delayed triggers work. The whip is a replacement effect, it doesn't stop the abilities from resolving, it just replaces leaving the battlefield with going to exile (which is redundant in these particular cases). Since the abilities resolve, they create the delayed triggers that simply check that the card is in exile when they trigger.
platypotamus
Member
Whip singlehandedly won me a few games at prerelease
You choose the order the effects go on the stack on your end step, so you just resolve Obzedat's self exile first, then the whip doesn't have anything to exile. Same with Aetherling, you can blink it in response to the whip exile.
Yup.
Thanks for reminding me about how I won a few games using Naya Charm to hit players for 3 in a standard tournament. I talked about it on a forums and people called me out on doming people with the charm, and only then did I realize what I had done.
I also remember a fellow judge who had that 1/1 crocodile with Shroud that got +1/+1 counters whenever something died (from Alara block, I believe), and won a 2HG game because his opponents didn't bother to read the card and saw what looked like "Vuela" (flying) printed on it from across the table when it was actually "Velo" (Shroud).
Anyone else got any other "reading is tech" anecdotes to share?
EsotericManiac
Banned
at a 2HG prerelease event, a level 1 judge proceeded to activate heroic 3 times off of his partner's spell, draining us for 6 and killing us.
I haven't played standard in 2.5 years and my partner doesn't play, but yea. we just made sure he didnt do it again. he didn't wind up winning so I wasn't too bothered
EsotericManiac
Banned
i didn't specifically like, READ read the text on the card till after the game then realized what happened.
I misread cards during the prerelease too. fucking standard lol
Oh, that reminds me I didn't attack on three or more consecutive turns because I thought Nylea's Bow granted deathtouch to my opponent's creatures all the time, not just when attacking. I had my 10/10 promo Kraken and didn't attack with it because I feared losing it to my opponent's 4/5 hexproof and untapping the creatures it the Kraken had stopped, buying my opponent enough time to turn the tables and win the game...
Keru_Shiri
Member
At an FNM one time, I swung with a fully leveled Kargan Dragonlord. My opponent blocked with a Baneslayer Angel not realizing that Kargan Dragonlord is a Human Warrior. As someone who typically plays RDW-style decks, it was incredibly satisfying to trample over a Baneslayer for once.
Alien Manobo
Member
I ended up 2nd place at the PR that I attended, Chose path of Wisdom, and was able to create a pretty flashy Simic deck.
EoT flashed Horizon Chimera into Bident of Thassa is the shizznit! Last round G3, I got stupid and let my 6/6 Kraken die with 1 mana left before monstrosity activation. Bestowed lifelinker + heliod spear made my opponent win the game. Standing was 3-1 due to my fumble out of 10 participants.
Pretty stoked that I'll be using my prize packs for the Theros draft this Friday.
EoT flashed Horizon Chimera into Bident of Thassa is the shizznit! Last round G3, I got stupid and let my 6/6 Kraken die with 1 mana left before monstrosity activation. Bestowed lifelinker + heliod spear made my opponent win the game. Standing was 3-1 due to my fumble out of 10 participants.
Pretty stoked that I'll be using my prize packs for the Theros draft this Friday.
EsotericManiac
Banned
anyone going to the legacy GP held in DC November?
Oooh. What are you planning to play? I want to go to GP Paris next year which is also legacy. Not too familiar with it though, so I'm trying to build up more experience. Last legacy tournament I played was GP Utrecht a few years ago where I played U/B control. Not sure if I want to play that again. Unless I can borrow a playset of Underground Sea lol. Ridiculous entry prices. Wish I had kept all my eternal cards 15 years ago. 
EsotericManiac
Banned
Oooh. What are you planning to play? I want to go to GP Paris next year which is also legacy. Not too familiar with it though, so I'm trying to build up more experience. Last legacy tournament I played was GP Utrecht a few years ago where I played U/B control. Not sure if I want to play that again. Unless I can borrow a playset of Underground Sea lol. Ridiculous entry prices. Wish I had kept all my eternal cards 15 years ago.
Right now I have RUG Delver (or canadian thresh), U/W miracles. If i get a sword of feast and famine (mine was stolen) and another geist of saint traft (also stolen) I'd have UWR Delver.
I can make U/R delver or U/W stoneblade as well.
I've been playing Rug delver for over 2 years so that's normally what I'd default to but I royally enjoy playing U/W miracles. Deck is so fun to play
Keru_Shiri
Member
It would have been awesome if it at least allowed for allied players to use, for 2-headed giant shenanigans like how Battle Cry did.
SCG does these events because they know the only way to guarantee card availability is to sell the preorders themselves and have people pick 'em up at the event.
It's brilliant. The entire supply of cards has to go through starcity, as no other vendor will have singles on sale in time locally and shipping would take too long. They corner the market by holding major events immediately after sets release.
EsotericManiac
Banned
and they'll still run out of money on Sunday
Well, it's not cornering really. It's just making it much easier. At a price.
Well, it's not cornering really. It's just making it much easier. At a price.
Yeah, cornering isn't the correct term, but it's still pretty damn smart of StarCity to do this. Short of buying the low supply of Theros at local stores (which will likely be at SCG prices), trading, opening your own boxes, or having stuff leftover from the prerelease, there's really no other way to get cards for release weekend events.
Ugh. I hate facing RUG. Mongoose and Goyf are so hard to deal with. I'm also not keen on getting goyfs, fows and wastelands. I played U/R before and I find you can't afford a mistake. All my games were won or lost by the skin of my teeth.
I enjoyed U/B Control because it has favourable matchups against storm, reanimator, stoneblade, which are popular choices in Europe. RUG is rough and Zoo and RDW aren't picnics. Not sure about the metagame now though. Apparently Jund is a big player now.
Legacy is so varied. I like it (except for the entry level).
as in a target of any player's spell? it'd be broken, which would be fun
EsotericManiac
Banned
i just like how your deck is viable for a long time. less people at a tournament with the same payout. i think the best part is that your card values don't tank after 2 years
im not too familiar with blue black control. what are the win conditions besides jace? just the unblockable land and factories?
WoTC is so afraid of mechanics like this, which is odd since they let Hexproof happen. I honestly would've liked a "tragic hero" mechanic that only triggers when an opponent targets the creature. Would've been fun.
and flavorful! yum
There are two versions: one with delver and one without. One is naturally faster than the other. The other win conditions are vendillion clique and tombstalker. The lands help too, though mishra's factory is more used as a blocker.
What I like about the deck is stripping hands with hymns and snapcasters, then cast jace for the lockdown. Limiting myself to two colours means it's not as susceptible to wasteland, blood moon and price of progress as three colours.
I played the version with delver. It presents a great clock against combo, but it's pretty bad against rug and other aggro decks with cheap removal. Not sure if I should play delver or add a third colour.
EsotericManiac
Banned
i was going to guess tombstalker but more used to seeing that in BUG versions. I honestly can't imagine playing that combination with delver and not playing Deathrite Shaman. Seems crazy
Hymm is quite a bitch to deal with. I've been picking up more misdirections specifically with that card in mind
EsotericManiac
Banned
yea, that is pretty nice
i think the addition to gitaxian probe in these decks is huge. im sure it would fit perfectly in the delver version with tomb stalker
EsotericManiac
Banned
i think it takes quite the collection to build something, really (from scratch)
but if someone can top 16 an SCG with Battle of Wits, anything is possible
EsotericManiac
Banned
Right now all but the best heroic creatures are overcosted except when you trigger their heroic ability. Except no one plays combat tricks outside of limited. If heroic worked from both players then it means you'll get just a bit more value out of your disadvantaged creatures. The blue guys all give you a bit more tempo, the red and white guys are a little more resistant to burn, etc. Compare guttersnipe to labyrinth hero. Guttersnipe costs one less, works with all your spells and is uncommon. The other guy is more flexible but it costs 4 for a 2/2 (within shock range) and you still need supporting spells which are nearly all subpar.
A counterpart to heroic called tragic would've been great but they would never have printed tormented hero with heroic if they had such an ability in the works.
I just dislike that almost all the heroic cards are, because of their heroic keyword, unplayable in constructed because there are simply better more reliable more efficient more consistent creatures from RTR block.
Yep, going down with a van of like 6 other people lol. Most likely playing Maverick or Sneak Attack depending on how I do at the tournaments leading up until then.
:smug:
I'm 2-for-3 on this set! Now someone needs to do something with Underworld Cerberus before I look stupid again.
(I don't think this is the right meta for Cerberus, though. With less hasty aggro decks -- and, more importantly, if Soldier of the Pantheon wasn't printed -- he'd be absurdly nuts. There's also the "there's a better 5-drop and he's a dragon" issue.)
Yeah, he's really good and annoying but....yeah.
Am I the only person who's working on BUG in the world? lol
PWs are good and this deck gets to play all the best ones AND play Farseek!
Totally agreed. I can't play it well, but UW Miracles is so much fun. If you're interested in getting more into it, I'd definitely recommend watching Joe Lossett's Twitch streams where he plays in Legacy dailies and 2-mans with miracles, he is impressive to watch.
I'm trying to make sure I can get that weekend off from work, if so I'll be there playing Punishing Jund.
I think everyone's too afraid of creatures to let themselves play a control deck without sweepers.
The thing is... you have creatures available to you, too. Bigger ones. And 0/3 hexproofs to block while you wait. BUx is going to be my favored control build for a while, if only because I get to run some absurd defensive planeswalkers and all the best removal.
It probably punts a lot of the control mirrors -- can't play revs, probably have less permission spells, more removal in main, etc -- but I'm fine with that if it means I get to go superfriends crazy, ramp, and run Reaper of the Wilds. This format isn't going to be slow enough that we'll all be racing to go as big as possible.
I still want a 2-drop removal spell which reliably deals with Firedrinker Satyr, Rakdos Cackler, and Soldier of the Pantheon.
Trying to play a White/Green Humans/Angels deck thinking of something like:
White - 24
Angelic Accord x2
Brave the Elements x2
Capashen Knight x4
Ethereal Armor x4
Pacifism x2
Pay no Heed x2
Setesan Battle Priest x2
Sphere of Safety x2
Syndic of Tithes x4
Green - 12
Bow of Nylea x1
Feral Invocation x2
Karametra's Acolyte x2
Leafcrown Dryad x3
Verdant Haven x4
Artifact - 4
Door to Destinies x2
Staff of the Sun Mage x2
Land - 20
Forest x8
Plains x10
Selesnya Guild Gate x2
This is the base concept. The idea being a bunch of low cost humans that boost each other just by hitting the field by way of Door to Destinies. A lot of healing, which spawns angels at EoT. Enchantments that protect me from being swung at. And ramp to make sure I can cast a lot every turn.
I'm pretty sure this can be improved significantly and am open to suggestions. Not on a super tight budget anymore either.
White - 24
Angelic Accord x2
Brave the Elements x2
Capashen Knight x4
Ethereal Armor x4
Pacifism x2
Pay no Heed x2
Setesan Battle Priest x2
Sphere of Safety x2
Syndic of Tithes x4
Green - 12
Bow of Nylea x1
Feral Invocation x2
Karametra's Acolyte x2
Leafcrown Dryad x3
Verdant Haven x4
Artifact - 4
Door to Destinies x2
Staff of the Sun Mage x2
Land - 20
Forest x8
Plains x10
Selesnya Guild Gate x2
This is the base concept. The idea being a bunch of low cost humans that boost each other just by hitting the field by way of Door to Destinies. A lot of healing, which spawns angels at EoT. Enchantments that protect me from being swung at. And ramp to make sure I can cast a lot every turn.
I'm pretty sure this can be improved significantly and am open to suggestions. Not on a super tight budget anymore either.
BlewHedgehog
Member
There's a lot going on here, and the strategies kinda fight with each other over space in the deck. First thing I notice is that you only have like a dozen humans, which isn't a number that's going to make your Door of Destinies strike fear into anyone. Assuming you draw 5ish of them, you'll probably have to play one or two before your Door just to establish some presence. I would shoot for 20ish humans if you want this to be your game plan. There are a lot of good ones to choose from. Precinct Captain and Soldier of the Pantheon seem like good places to start.
Angelic Accord is cool, but I think the deck needs a more consistent way of triggering it. As it stands, you need multiple enablers on the board in order to gain 4 life in a turn. Unflinching Courage could get you there, although it sadly can never target Soldier of the Pantheon. Gift of Orzhova provides a similar effect, and you could always use the +1/+1 lifelink bestow guy. Too bad he's not a human somehow, because that would be awesome.
I would cut the Pay No Heeds. Gaining life is part of your plan--you're not worried about preventing damage. Let Brave the Elements be your combat trick. The enchantment sub-theme is neat, but ultimately steals a ton of slots from your main strategy of playing dudes, and the defensive nature of sphere of safety contradicts it entirely.
I'm sure some of the regulars are more up to speed and can give better individual card recommendations. Just focus your strategy a little more and you could have something really good on your hands.