"Play Modern, where marginally better Memory Lapses will set you back $10. Enjoy a large cardpool format that's not shackled by the Reserved List!"
Magic: the GAFering |OT2|
- Thread starter The Technomancer
- Start date
"Play Modern, where marginally better Memory Lapses will set you back $10. Enjoy a large cardpool format that's not shackled by the Reserved List!"
Remand is actually an insane tempo card.
Yup, its far, far better than memory lapse.
divisionbyzorro
Member
Huh. I just got an e-mail saying that I have just been invited to the Hearthstone beta test. Apparently I signed up for that at some point. I guess I'll have to give it a try now.
I got in yesterday. I've been having fun. Obviously takes influence from MTG, but the removal of a card-based mana system (you get an additional mana crystal every turn), and the inability to act during your opponent's turn, change the tempo completely. It's been a fun diversion.
One day we'll agree on something, kirblar. One day.
You have clearly never played with the card if you think its a weaker Memory lapse
Im super jealous.
blindrocket
Member
I pretty much hate blue but I may keep the card (Remand) just because it's used in Splinter Twin and I wouldn't mind trying something else out besides Jund.
divisionbyzorro
Member
One of these days I'll actually build that RUG Splinter Twin deck with Mystic Snake I've been dreaming of. And I will put a Splinter Twin on a Mystic Snake. Because I hate my opponents.
No money cards to draft to tonight but wow were the matches close and fun. This one game, my opponent got to ramp up to that defender indestructible guy and got off his monstrosity soon after. So I'm facing down a 20/20 trampler with Nespian Asp and two ground defenders as his back up against 2 of my fliers and a few weenies. I take the hit so I go down from 21 to 1. I have a Heliod's Emmisary at hand and need one more mana to bestow my flier to tap down Nespian Asp. Next turn, I top decked that land, bestowed my flyer, tapped down Nespian and swung with the entire team for exact lethal damage. Feels good man. I almost conceded early that game too because it looked helpless. Glad I played it out!
Another game, my opponent got me down to 10 life with just 2 creatures by T4. I had dropped Agents of the Fates on T3. On my T4, I dropped both the B and W ordeals on my agent, making him sac his two creatures and putting two counters on my guy. Next turn, I was doing 7 dmg while gaining 10 life and making him discard 2 cards. I also had some heroic enablers at hand. I felt dirty afterwards lol.
I still value Emmisaries and Ordeals highly and think you better pick a damn good rare over it. Each of my opponents had Griptides and damn that card was annoying to play against.
Another game, my opponent got me down to 10 life with just 2 creatures by T4. I had dropped Agents of the Fates on T3. On my T4, I dropped both the B and W ordeals on my agent, making him sac his two creatures and putting two counters on my guy. Next turn, I was doing 7 dmg while gaining 10 life and making him discard 2 cards. I also had some heroic enablers at hand. I felt dirty afterwards lol.
I still value Emmisaries and Ordeals highly and think you better pick a damn good rare over it. Each of my opponents had Griptides and damn that card was annoying to play against.
I'm not hugely familiar with EDH, but why is Recurring Nightmare banned? Most of the list is just broken cards or cards unfun for multiplayer, but RN I'm confused with.
We played EDH until nearly 1 am at the store tonight after the legacy event (me using the new Jund commander precon, the others with real decks). Since I've never had easy access to the EDH crew at my main store (since it's an hour away) I've never built a permanent deck before (I built one for a thing at a friend's house once but didn't look at the banned list, so it ended up being 6 combos, 3 of which were banned at the time, and support around that). I dont want to use up any of my duals/fetches that are actively being used, so I'm thinking a mono-black deck so I can play with my Necropotence/Yawg's Win again, or a Naya Uril deck since I never use those fetches and have extras of those duals and I've had fun with Uril when using my friend's.
We played EDH until nearly 1 am at the store tonight after the legacy event (me using the new Jund commander precon, the others with real decks). Since I've never had easy access to the EDH crew at my main store (since it's an hour away) I've never built a permanent deck before (I built one for a thing at a friend's house once but didn't look at the banned list, so it ended up being 6 combos, 3 of which were banned at the time, and support around that). I dont want to use up any of my duals/fetches that are actively being used, so I'm thinking a mono-black deck so I can play with my Necropotence/Yawg's Win again, or a Naya Uril deck since I never use those fetches and have extras of those duals and I've had fun with Uril when using my friend's.
Infinite combos galore. Remember Rec-Sur?
I fondly do. One of the best decks I've played in the history of Magic. At least it made you think what you needed to win and interacted a bit with the opponent. Unlike Tolarian Academy decks that could win on turn one.
I cracked the most insane Gatecrash fatpack this weekend... Out of the 9 packs, 5 of them had value (or close enough). I pulled three shocklands (Breeding Pool, Sacred Foundry, Watery Grave) and two mythics! Sadly, the two mythics were the same junk card...Lazav, Dimir Mastermind. Sucks to get lucky enough to get two mythics and have them both be crap, but that was still a sick fatpack.
Best part is that I didn't even really buy it for cards. I wanted that sweet red fatpack as my deckbox, and my newbie friend was buying packs so I wanted some to open with him just for fun.
Best part is that I didn't even really buy it for cards. I wanted that sweet red fatpack as my deckbox, and my newbie friend was buying packs so I wanted some to open with him just for fun.
divisionbyzorro
Member
It's really interesting to see the design decisions made by the Hearthstone team and contrast them with Magic. Obviously the most fundamental difference is the turn structure; in Magic, you can't do anything unless your opponent says "okay" (sure, they say "okay" 95% of the time), but in Hearthstone you can't do anything at all to interact on your opponent's turn. This has a strong side effect on the mana system; I can't manipulate play order to gain a mana advantage by using it on your turn. Couple that with the fact that you can't (certain keywords notwithstanding) stop your opponent from just choosing to ignore your creatures, and the game ends up with a lot of steamrolls. Once you get going, it's hard to not stay ahead.
I get why Hearthstone did this - allowing interaction on your opponent's turn slows the game down. But I really think it's holding the game back by cutting down on amount of design space they have and the amount of play skill allowed. This is of course my assessment after playing for just a few hours, so take it with a grain of salt. And I'll admit that I wasn't particularly expecting to like it, so perhaps I was carrying some bias in. But, honestly, I don't see myself spending a lot of time with it.
That being said - Wizards could learn a lot of lessons about presentation and user experience from this thing. It's gorgeous, and the game play is silky smooth. Magic honestly deserves an online play experience like that.
I get why Hearthstone did this - allowing interaction on your opponent's turn slows the game down. But I really think it's holding the game back by cutting down on amount of design space they have and the amount of play skill allowed. This is of course my assessment after playing for just a few hours, so take it with a grain of salt. And I'll admit that I wasn't particularly expecting to like it, so perhaps I was carrying some bias in. But, honestly, I don't see myself spending a lot of time with it.
That being said - Wizards could learn a lot of lessons about presentation and user experience from this thing. It's gorgeous, and the game play is silky smooth. Magic honestly deserves an online play experience like that.
Ah yeah, that's true. There's a lot of crazy things in EDH, but that ones probably just a bit too easy to set up.
blindrocket
Member
How did Prossh work for you against custom EDH decks?
He is my Commander and I'm curious how that deck would work against experienced Commander players.
EsotericManiac
Banned
if your deck is setup with a lot of good sac outlets (which it should be) he's very good.
something about having 7 creatures for 6 mana is ridiculous.
i would definitely pick up Attrition for your deck. That card can just lock out decks with yours
blindrocket
Member
You aren't kidding. Super powerful.
My friend and I started playing without knowing the rule about the Commander only having to deal 21 damage. We were just going off of life totals only, and he felt very comfortable using my Eternal Bargain deck with all of its life gain.
But once I learned about the Commander damage rule I couldn't wait to tell him; he was not happy at all. I think he is very afraid of Prossh now.
Prossh itself was fantastic. He hits really hard and was really good with goblin bombardment and all the sac outlets. The problem is that the deck is balanced against the other four pre cons, so while the general was great the deck overall couldn't keep up too well.
The first game we played I quickly got out scarland thrinax and the thing that makes death touch snakes every turn while others were still getting started, that was great.
iOS was planned from day 1. Hence what you see.
memory lapse is still a sweet card though
I did , made it a few months this time eh more than a few...eying a return.
It really sucks when your friends play and your other good friend owns a LGS
It's very non interactive. Each player just does their own thing in a bubble.
divisionbyzorro
Member
The average game of Theros limited is a lot more interactive than you're making it out to be. But yes - the top tier decks in the format are non-interactive; or more specifically, feature very-hard-to-interact-with power plays that just blow out the game.
It's one of the reasons why I got bored with the set so early. Unless the next set is designed in exactly the same way, it should alleviate the issue - simply diluting the draft format with fewer Theros packs should make it harder to draft those decks. And I could be wrong, but I think we'll actually draft BTG first, which means you won't even get to first-pick the degenerate Theros card and build around it.
It's one of the reasons why I got bored with the set so early. Unless the next set is designed in exactly the same way, it should alleviate the issue - simply diluting the draft format with fewer Theros packs should make it harder to draft those decks. And I could be wrong, but I think we'll actually draft BTG first, which means you won't even get to first-pick the degenerate Theros card and build around it.
Appeared in a world championship decklist, even.
(Let's not talk about how many Standard seasons Lapse had to get its first and only.)
"God's Beard!"
Member
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divisionbyzorro
Member
Oh Modern Masters, you are a cruel mistress. Why must I get mana screwed and knocked out in the first round with my sweet Doubling Season Thallid deck? Never seeing a third land in game three was killer.
Remind me to play Swiss next time. The drafts are so expensive, and the EV isn't really all that great (I suppose its the same proportionally as any other 8-4, but the variance swings are much, much greater because of the expense), but the format is so much fun - I honestly just wish I could have done another couple matches with that deck.
EDIT: But I did get to cast Cloudgoat Ranger and Reach of Branches (twice!) in game one with an active Doubling Season, so that was pretty sweet.
Remind me to play Swiss next time. The drafts are so expensive, and the EV isn't really all that great (I suppose its the same proportionally as any other 8-4, but the variance swings are much, much greater because of the expense), but the format is so much fun - I honestly just wish I could have done another couple matches with that deck.
EDIT: But I did get to cast Cloudgoat Ranger and Reach of Branches (twice!) in game one with an active Doubling Season, so that was pretty sweet.
blindrocket
Member
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";92452024].[/QUOTE]
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divisionbyzorro
Member
Holy crap, Modern Masters really hates me today. My second draft was Domain, with Kodama's Reach, Search for Tomorrow, and cards to abuse my mana colors - specifically, two Skyreach Manta and one Etched Oracle, plus Drag Down, Tribal Flames, and the usual green beefy creatures to back it all up.
Match one goes to game three; I mulligan to six with two lands and a landcycler, but never see a fourth land or ramp spell until it's way too late. I accept that the domain deck does this sometimes; you're taking on the risk of some really shitty draws in exchange for raw power. But it was frustrating.
Match two everything goes according to plan. Almost too good, in fact. I draw perfectly in both games and my opponent just folds.
Match three goes to game three. I keep with four lands, one of each basic, and three spells. By turn 10 I haven't drawn anything but lands.
*sigh* C'est la vie. I just wish Modern Masters wasn't so damn expensive on Magic Online, because I'm sorely addicted.
Know this feel. One round last night. My Affinity Cycling against his Drega control. Both games he goes DC - Trapper - Trapper and then just starts retracing plus gas. Ouch!
Just picked up the new deck pack for DotP and the decks are pretty cool! The faerie deck seems absurdly strong, with a focus on cheap creatures with synergistic value abilities (which might be the whole point of faeries? I've never played them before). The kind of deck where you can win without mulling almost every time.
The enchantment deck is quite a bit slower, and as such doesn't stand up as well against the AI, but if it does get going it snowballs like crazy. Pretty fun to see a GW deck have so much card draw that it rivals classic blue, I was drawing 5 cards per turn in this last match!
The enchantment deck is quite a bit slower, and as such doesn't stand up as well against the AI, but if it does get going it snowballs like crazy. Pretty fun to see a GW deck have so much card draw that it rivals classic blue, I was drawing 5 cards per turn in this last match!
divisionbyzorro
Member
Spoiler season officially starts in January, but I wouldn't be surprised if we got early spoilers for Christmas.
Something's going on- multiple people are getting a set of spoilers behind the scenes now for some reason.
blindrocket
Member
I read some spoilers for the new dual lands the other day. I had wondered where they came from.
platypotamus
Member
Last year we definitely got Gatecrash spoilers at christmas. I remember because my family was making fun of my wife and I geeking out over them.
It's hilarious that we're seeing all this mono-Blue, considering that people online have always whined about Blue being terrible. "Caw Blade was a White deck with two Blue cards!"
It's because they want a non-tap-out blue deck to be viable.
That deck was briefly viable last season w/ Rewind/Angel. It was absolutely the most soul-crushing thing ever to do to people.
And then you blink your Augur and draw another counterspell.
divisionbyzorro
Member
It was actually Harvest Pyre. On your own Boros Reckoner, because why not.
divisionbyzorro
Member
I love the Happy Holidays promos. This one might just be the sweetest one yet:
lawlohwhat
Banned
Took down a local tourney 4-0 tonight with the monoblack I listed above. Games were pretty easy, except for the mirror where I just drew the nuts in gm3. There are a lot of aggressive decks in the meta here, and lifebane zombie is great against that as well as all of the mono blue frontrunners out there.
Only changes I might make would be to MAYBE -1 Shrivel in the sideboard and +1 zombie, then remove the maindeck erebos in favor of another devour flesh.
Only changes I might make would be to MAYBE -1 Shrivel in the sideboard and +1 zombie, then remove the maindeck erebos in favor of another devour flesh.
In Kibler's SCG article today (sadly premium) he talks about why you should always use basic lands of the same art in case of Thoughtseize type effects (and other stuff that reveals your hand). I'd never even considered that before.
Admittedly with the 3-color decks I usually play there often aren't enough basics for it to matter.
Admittedly with the 3-color decks I usually play there often aren't enough basics for it to matter.