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[bigkrev]

http://kirblar024.wordpress.com/?p=51&preview=true

Blog post on Modern following GP KC. Probably too long to copy/paste here (lemme know if I should though.) Curious to see what you think.

Great post.

1.) I agree, the commentary is a real problem. I like Marshal alot and think he is a great ambassador (and his podcast helped me a lot when I was getting back into Magic a few years ago), but he doesn't claim to be an expert in any sort of Magic (just a limited "enthusiast"), and was obviously lost in the Modern card pool. They are implementing the best solution possible for the Players Championship (which is have LSV on commentary), but that isn't feasible for most tournaments. I don't know what the fix is, if it involves hiring 2 people and giving them a full time job commentating every tournament or something, but they need to look into it.

2.) Eggs was the worst offender in this catagory (which had one person playing masturbatory Magic for 20 mins while his opponent went to the bathroom), but I feel Combo is an important deck to keep alive. I love watching Storm decks go off- there is a risk it fizzles, it's very thought intensive, but it doesn't take a long time. Living End is another cool deck- It wins by attacking with a bunch of draft chaff commons! But the nearly effortless Scapeshift and Twin based strategies are bad for the format.

3.) My ban list suggestions-
BAN
Kiki Jiki, Mirror Breaker- Stops pod decks from playing it to mise free wins with a Resto, weakens twin decks
Melria, Sylvok Outcast- The Persist interaction can't exist in a healthy format.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn- Just an unfun card

UNBAN
Wild Nacatl - would give straight aggro decks some punch.
Hypergenesis- with Emrakul gone, there isn't anything too broken this card can do, could create a new archtype
Golgari Grave-Troll- there is enough graveyard hate present in sideboards already that I don't think Dredge would be a Tier 1 deck, even if this was unbanned.

 

[Crocodile]

The definition is that fewer of the cards are printed, but it's clearly where the two of the best cards ever printed are going to be placed in a greatest hits set. Again, it's nice to have those dreams of cheap Goyfs, but if you believed that, be angry at yourself for being naive, not WotC for following common sense protocols. And I hate that I'm defending WotC, because a ton of their business practices are garbage, but this one couldn't have gone any other way.

The ONLY reason Goyf + Confidant are mythics is because WOTC is afraid of pissing off the same collectors who flipped out a few years ago and made them double down on the Reserve List. Snapcaster Mage and Stoneforge Mystic are two cards with similar power levels, format impact and notoriety but both were rares printed in sets with mythics.

http://kirblar024.wordpress.com/?p=51&preview=true

Blog post on Modern following GP KC. Probably too long to copy/paste here (lemme know if I should though.) Curious to see what you think.

I know Marshall regularly plays Modern but he didn't come back to the game till I think Shard block? In some of his Modern Masters drafts, there were definitely cards he'd never played with/against.To be fair though, I think he tweeted that they were undermanned this weekend and got few/no breaks so commentary was a probably worse this weekend than it normally is. A pro(s) would be best for commentary but I'm sure they want to actually play in these events more than they want to commentate.

As for the format suggestions, none of the proposed bans seem outrageous. I feel the same thing happened to Extended when it was around: the format marched continuously marched towards combo when given the chance. I enjoy that Modern has SOME combo elements to it, unlike Standard which is near devoid of them, but the ratios between archetype representation is nowhere near diverse as Legacy it seems. Is my understanding of Legacy diversity unfounded? What could Modern take from Legacy (while remaining its own format) to improve diversity in gameplay? Force of Will and Wasteland can't be the two cards that are responsible for the diversity difference can they? Hypothetically adding Wasteland to Modern would probably be more likely to blow up in their faces.

 

[WanderingWind]

The ONLY reason Goyf + Confidant are mythics is because WOTC is afraid of pissing off the same collectors who flipped out a few years ago and made them double down on the Reserve List. Snapcaster Mage and Stoneforge Mystic are two cards with similar power levels, format impact and notoriety but both were rares printed in sets with mythics.

You're proving my point further. You picked two cards that WotC have been on record many times as being mistakes. You best believe if they reprinted those in MM2 they'll be mythics. And WotC cares about collectors who do not channel money into their business except for in a third party, four times removes sense about as much as they care about protecting Legacy as a format. Which is to say not very much.

You guys are getting confused with Magic as the game we all love to play and Magic as a business. What you're saying is great from a fan's perspective, but terrible from a business sense. And there really is no rebuttal you have that can hold up against the success of MMA and GP Vegas being literally the biggest tournament ever based on the back of those business decisions.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

GP Vegas was also in Vegas, which is a draw by itself. On top of that, Modern Masters was an expertly crafted limited format that was a ton of fun to play. And this was the only major tournament that you could play this format in. It was a perfect storm of circumstances that led to the insanity of Vegas, not any one thing.

 

[WanderingWind]

GP Vegas was also in Vegas, which is a draw by itself. On top of that, Modern Masters was an expertly crafted limited format that was a ton of fun to play. And this was the only major tournament that you could play this format in. It was a perfect storm of circumstances that led to the insanity of Vegas, not any one thing.

Again, proving my point further. The format was great fun. Because of the card choices and yes, the chance of opening a Goyf. If you played the format in a store at all, that was the major hope of every player there. Why? Because of the price - and the rarity drove that excitement and the pack sales. I see why as players we hate mythics, but it's clearly been a great business decision.

My question is this, where would you have put those two cards and what cards in the set would you have put at mythic above them? And if those two don't deserve mythic rarity, what on earth does?

 

[An-Det]

Apparently there was a Banned and Restricted update today.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/255

Announcement Date: July 8, 2013

Standard, Modern, Extended, Legacy, Vintage:
No changes

To be honest, they've changed the date for the B&R announcements so many times over the last few years I have no fucking clue exactly when they are anymore.

 

[bigkrev]

Full spoiler is UP. and it's BAD.

-Spell Blast is in as uncommon
-Doom Blade is Uncommon
-Blessing is your "Alpha rare we are now reprinting at uncommon" card
-Congregate is in, making it a first time in Foil

 

[kirblar]

Full spoiler is UP. and it's BAD.

-Spell Blast is in as uncommon
-Doom Blade is Uncommon
-Blessing is your "Alpha rare we are now reprinting at uncommon" card
-Congregate is in, making it a first time in Foil

Spell Blast as uncommon makes absolutely no sense considering that Cancel is better.

 

[Sinatar]

Yea this set is pretty bad. Quicken reprint is kinda neat I guess.

EDIT: Traumatize reprint too? With millstones and tomb scours? Limited is going to be misery.

EDIT:

Is that the first "enchant equipment"?

EDIT:

Aristocrats might like this guy.

 

[WanderingWind]

That Blood Bairn art will give people something to talk about for a week or so

EDIT: Well, removal is super, super weak here. Draft monoblack and laugh at the 2 doom blades you'll encounter.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Again, proving my point further. The format was great fun. Because of the card choices and yes, the chance of opening a Goyf. If you played the format in a store at all, that was the major hope of every player there. Why? Because of the price - and the rarity drove that excitement and the pack sales. I see why as players we hate mythics, but it's clearly been a great business decision.

My question is this, where would you have put those two cards and what cards in the set would you have put at mythic above them? And if those two don't deserve mythic rarity, what on earth does?

There's no real reason to believe that Goyf's rarity had anything to do with the set's success. If Goyf had been rare instead of mythic, there's zero evidence that would lead one to believe that the set would somehow have been less successful in terms of sales or tournament attendance.

Goyf is just an efficient beater that does nothing interesting. He also does nothing particularly interesting in a limited format that's happy to put Imperiosaur at common. He's clearly rare. Dark Confidant a bit more believable at mythic, but it's a stretch. You could argue that the limited format doesn't want that kind of card advantage in the rare slot, so I'll buy it at mythic if you want.

 

[Gatekeeper]

I count maybe 6 cards that have a chance to impact standard. None of them are white or blue.

 

[OnPoint]

Well, here's the red one.

Edit:

Works nice with Domri Rade IMO

Whoa... what?

 

[WanderingWind]

There's no real reason to believe that Goyf's rarity had anything to do with the set's success. If Goyf had been rare instead of mythic, there's zero evidence that would lead one to believe that the set would somehow have been less successful in terms of sales or tournament attendance.

Goyf is just an efficient beater that does nothing interesting. He also does nothing particularly interesting in a limited format that's happy to put Imperiosaur at common. He's clearly rare. Dark Confidant a bit more believable at mythic, but it's a stretch. You could argue that the limited format doesn't want that kind of card advantage in the rare slot, so I'll buy it at mythic if you want.

Chase mythics move product. This is not debatable, it's just straight fact. We can play the what if game all day long on how much the rarity helped sell MMA, but considering I'm basing my position on the verifiable and resonant success of the set, I just don't see us moving anywhere on this. Unless you can show me some evidence that having a massively sought after card as the chase mythic (and lead off card of the entire marketing push) had nothing to do with the success.

Yes, it would've been nice to for us all to be able to buy Goyfs and Bobs at half of their current price. Yes, they will have to address those cards being at those prices eventually. But from WotC standpoint - that of pleasing the customer base and making oodles of cash, they made the right calls. There were a ton of ways they could've screwed the pooch here and they didn't. They've made a lot of shitty business calls, but guys, this simply was not one of them.

 

[darkside31337]

What a terrible core set.

Slivers are stupid. This set is even more vanilla and dry than the average core set. For once I wish they just went all in and embraced something crazy along the lines of Time Spiral. So much vanilla chaff in here, its terrible for both limited and constructed.

 

[WanderingWind]

I'm going to buy 3 Oozes and try Mindsparker. I have the other standard playable cards already.

Man. Theros better have some badass removal/burn or Magic is going to be very fucking boring soon.

 

[Keru_Shiri]

I like the new flavor text for Darksteel Forge.

 

[OnPoint]

I like the new flavor text for Darksteel Forge.

Makes me that much hungrier for a return to that world already.

 

[Crocodile]

I hate to be one of those guys who complain that every Magic set is awful or what not but after seeing the full spoiler I can't remember the last time I've been so underwhelmed in a set. Like I literally don't want to open more than half the rares in the set. Heck, Domestication is now a RARE. If you couldn't print the card as an uncommon in the environment then just don't print the card. It's not like it will see much constructed play anyway. Plus where is our five-color Sliver? Every time Slivers have been around we get a 5 color legend. Now is the time you decide to not do that? Why?

You're proving my point further. You picked two cards that WotC have been on record many times as being mistakes. You best believe if they reprinted those in MM2 they'll be mythics. And WotC cares about collectors who do not channel money into their business except for in a third party, four times removes sense about as much as they care about protecting Legacy as a format. Which is to say not very much.

You guys are getting confused with Magic as the game we all love to play and Magic as a business. What you're saying is great from a fan's perspective, but terrible from a business sense. And there really is no rebuttal you have that can hold up against the success of MMA and GP Vegas being literally the biggest tournament ever based on the back of those business decisions.

Maybe I misunderstood your point? I thought you were saying that they should be a mythic for power level reasons, no? My argument is that they were only at mythic to avoid pissing off collectors. One of the major aims of the product is to make Modern more accessible, as stated by them. However with the release of MMA they didn't actually affect the prices or supply of some key cards in the format by any discernable amount. They failed in that regard with these particular cards. I agree overall that MMA was a successful product but just because it, overall, did well doesn't mean that some aspects of it aren't worth criticizing or disagreeing with.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Chase mythics move product. This is not debatable, it's just straight fact. We can play the what if game all day long on how much the rarity helped sell MMA, but considering I'm basing my position on the verifiable and resonant success of the set, I just don't see us moving anywhere on this. Unless you can show me some evidence that having a massively sought after card as the chase mythic (and lead off card of the entire marketing push) had nothing to do with the success.

Yes, it would've been nice to for us all to be able to buy Goyfs and Bobs at half of their current price. Yes, they will have to address those cards being at those prices eventually. But from WotC standpoint - that of pleasing the customer base and making oodles of cash, they made the right calls. There were a ton of ways they could've screwed the pooch here and they didn't. They've made a lot of shitty business calls, but guys, this simply was not one of them.

You're ignoring that the set was deliberately underprinted, and everybody knew it beforehand, which drove up the hype for the set. There was more demand than supply, and there's no reason whatsoever to believe that demand would have dropped below supply if those rarities had shifted. It would have sold out regardless. Goyf was printed at Mythic not to help sell the set but because Wizards was scared of repeating the mistakes of Chronicles and pissing off collectors (I'm counting vendors as collectors here) - and yet by underprinting the set, they doubled the effect for no good reason.

If it was printed at regular volume, I could understand the rarity. At low printing, I can't.

EDIT: Oh, and on top of that, they gave both Bob and 'Goyf new art, effectively creating split markets for the cards and making it less likely that they would have any effect on the secondary market. It's like they were deliberately trying to make sure that the market wouldn't change when it came to those cards specifically, which I see as a mistake.

 

[Fragamemnon]

http://kirblar024.wordpress.com/?p=51&preview=true

Blog post on Modern following GP KC. Probably too long to copy/paste here (lemme know if I should though.) Curious to see what you think.

Good read. I don't even watch MTG coverage anymore but I do recall the non-PT coverage as being always a bit spotty unless they had someone interesting who got KO'd early in the event come over for guest coverage.

Simian Spirit Guide, Emrakul are pretty easy bans. Emrakul is prehaps the most offensive card Wizards has printed in a modern card frame, with MAYBE the exception of Skullclamp. I feel like the flavor text on Emrakul should just be "Deeerrrrrrpppp did I win?", it's a miserable card to play against and a miserable card to play, should be shitbinned in all formats other than Vintage.

I don't have a problem with the control decks building into a late combo kill for the most part. It just has to be sufficiently late and not save their bacon in the face of a losing game vs. and aggro deck (in which point the aggro decks either need help or the combo kill is coming together too slow).

 

[WanderingWind]

You're ignoring that the set was deliberately underprinted, and everybody knew it beforehand, which drove up the hype for the set. There was more demand than supply, and there's no reason whatsoever to believe that demand would have dropped below supply if those rarities had shifted. It would have sold out regardless. Goyf was printed at Mythic not to help sell the set but because Wizards was scared of repeating the mistakes of Chronicles and pissing off collectors (I'm counting vendors as collectors here) - and yet by underprinting the set, they doubled the effect for no good reason.

If it was printed at regular volume, I could understand the rarity. At low printing, I can't.

At this point we're just going in circles. Agree to disagree? In any event, the set is out and there will be a MM2, so maybe we'll get affordable Goyfs then - if that's a stated goal of theirs and not just fans proclaiming it as a goal for them based on hopes and dreams.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

One thing we can all agree on: M14 looks like garbage. I'll just buy my set of Scavenging Ooze and Mutavault and not even bother drafting this POS.

 

[Hero]

M14 sucks donkey balls for the most part.

Goyf, Bob and Clique should not have been printed at Mythic. The increase in circulation of those cards is a drop in the bucket of the influx of new/returning players ever since they started doing DotP / Innistrad / RTR.

In a year or two Goyf is going to be 200+ each unless they cram him in a supplementary product. It's a bad business move in the long term for Wizards since players will be hesitant to pick up on Modern if a deck costs almost as much as a Legacy deck.

 

[kirblar]

M14 sucks donkey balls for the most part.

Goyf, Bob and Clique should not have been printed at Mythic. The increase in circulation of those cards is a drop in the bucket of the influx of new/returning players ever since they started doing DotP / Innistrad / RTR.

In a year or two Goyf is going to be 200+ each unless they cram him in a supplementary product. It's a bad business move in the long term for Wizards since players will be hesitant to pick up on Modern if a deck costs almost as much as a Legacy deck.

Clique, I don't mind, because it's both Legendary and rarely a card that sees play as a 4x. 1-3 suffices.

 

[siddx]

Everyone said the same thing about M13..and M12...and so on and so on. Not saying it isn't true, just that the core sets have always been boring. Although I do enjoy drafting with them.

 

[Hero]

Clique, I don't mind, because it's both Legendary and rarely a card that sees play as a 4x. 1-3 suffices.

Yeah, it's not as bad as Goyf/Bob but it definitely isn't something that should be mythic either.

Everyone said the same thing about M13..and M12...and so on and so on. Not saying it isn't true, just that the core sets have always been boring. Although I do enjoy drafting with them.

Who said that about M10/11/12? Those were great. Baneslayer/Nocturnus/Titans/Mana Leak/Lightning Bolt was giving the Core Set some power.

 

[siddx]

Yeah, it's not as bad as Goyf/Bob but it definitely isn't something that should be mythic either.



Who said that about M10/11/12? Those were great. Baneslayer/Nocturnus/Titans/Mana Leak/Lightning Bolt was giving the Core Set some power.

People bitched endlessly about the titans. How broken and overpowered they were (while they of course played with them anyway).

 

[Hero]

People bitched endlessly about the titans. How broken and overpowered they were (while they of course played with them anyway).

There are very few sets that people didn't bitch about something if that's the criteria that we're using to determine if a set was good or not.

 

[siddx]

There are very few sets that people didn't bitch about something if that's the criteria that we're using to determine if a set was good or not.

I didn't say they were bad, just boring. Without the flavor in the background and the themes and etc... the core sets are always boring. Even back when I was buying 4th edition boosters, they were boring.

 

[Hero]

I didn't say they were bad, just boring. Without the flavor in the background and the themes and etc... the core sets are always boring. Even back when I was buying 4th edition boosters, they were boring.

What did you mean by this?

Everyone said the same thing about M13..and M12...and so on and so on. Not saying it isn't true, just that the core sets have always been boring. Although I do enjoy drafting with them.

Nobody besides you used the word boring.

 

[siddx]

I also quite like a few of the cards. Witchhunter and the other cards in that series, the new fiendhunter, archangel of thune, liliana's reaver, young pyromancer, kalonian tusker, primevil bounty (I know it's junk but playing with in magic 2014 has been very fun), and savage summoning.

What did you mean by this?



Nobody besides you used the word boring.

Exactly what I said. The core sets are boring. They always have been.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Jumped into an MMA draft since my plans for the evening fell through. The Swiss wasn't firing, so I jumped into the 8-4 spur-of-the-moment. Opened a Bob. I tried to keep the curve low, but I was passed an Oona in pack three. What is it the kids say these days? "Yolo" or some shit like that:

Yeah, I drafted Black/White Faeries. It got weirder. Round one I played against Blue/Black Goblins.

I won game one too quickly to see what he was really doing, so I kept my removal in. Game two I realized that all of his creatures were black goblins and the blue was just for disruption, and I lost behind a Street Wraith I couldn't deal with. So game three I sided in Raven's Crime and Faerie Macabre for my Pact and Capsule. My opponent mulled to six; I opened on the play with Raven's Crime, then cast it twice again on turn two. My opponent discarded Street Wraith the third time. I easily won game three.

Match two was against Rebels. Red/White rebels. I don't know who was responsible for screwing up the colors on the tribes, but it was really weird the whole time. Unfortunately, my luck ended here - game one I lost to a Yosei with Test of Faith backup, and game two I lost to multiple Lightning Helix eating my guys and Sword of Light and Shadow as a follow-up (could there be anything worse).

A very disappointing way to end my Modern Masters run in terms of wins, but I pulled over 25 tickets worth of value from the draft itself, so I guess the consolation prize isn't so bad. Also, that's five Modern Master drafts, and five mythics pulled. So that's cool.

 

[OnPoint]

Clique, I don't mind, because it's both Legendary and rarely a card that sees play as a 4x. 1-3 suffices.

Didn't realize Clique had jumped so high. Ugh.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I really like white/black decks, what are some good modern cards that work well with Rest in Peace or similar cards? I like Grave Betrayal, but it seems way too expensive. Does it even work with Rest in Peace?

One question I have is, does Rest in Peace nullify haunt abilities?

Some of the good white/black cards I have:

But all the really interesting ones are super high cost, and I don't know of many good ways to ramp up with w/b unless I use heartless summoning. Which actually might not be terrible with Deathbringer liege. I have two Godless Shrines from drafting which is nice.

 

[Haly]

3.) My ban list suggestions-
BAN
Kiki Jiki, Mirror Breaker- Stops pod decks from playing it to mise free wins with a Resto, weakens twin decks
Melria, Sylvok Outcast- The Persist interaction can't exist in a healthy format.

What do you have against one of the most interesting combo deck in Magic???

EDIT: Just read Kirblar's blog post. I guess I can acquiesce to these bans.

Would like to see what people do with Pod anyway.

 

[Sinatar]

The only card I'd really want to see banned in Modern atm is Melira, I just don't think her interactions with persist were really intended or thought through when she was designed.

 

[kirblar]

The only card I'd really want to see banned in Modern atm is Melira, I just don't think her interactions with persist were really intended or thought through when she was designed.

They knew about them, but Modern wasn't on the horizon. The ease of infinite life combos right now is just putting a massvie damper on the ability of "fair" decks to succeed.

 

[Fragamemnon]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";68903216]I really like white/black decks, what are some good modern cards that work well with Rest in Peace or similar cards? I like Grave Betrayal, but it seems way too expensive. Does it even work with Rest in Peace?
[/QUOTE]

rest in peace's replacement effect prevents that other card from working since the creatures never hit the graveyard. read dies as "destroys and goes to the graveyard".

good modern BW cards are mostly token makers and are the successor to the old B/W tokens deck from PT years ago (the one with the Nassif called shot). Here's a good link to some lists

http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/tipo.php?archetype=Tokens&format=Modern

Budget things up accordingly, just be sure that if you are running w/ a manabase with a lot of basics that you adjust the cards you play to be less color intensive.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Thanks for that, but tokens don't seem very fun :-(

I like the "wipe everything" cards.

 

[siddx]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";68929686]Thanks for that, but tokens don't seem very fun :-(

I like the "wipe everything" cards.[/QUOTE]

The problem with wipe everything is what becomes your win condition? Just keep killing everything? If you kill everything including your own guys, you are just going to spend the game looking at an empty board.

And you should give tokens a chance, they can be very fun actually.

I had a lot of fun with a B/W deck that used Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Vault of the Archangel, blade splicer, vault skirge, and various token makers. It was like a cross between white weenie, tempered steel, and b/w tokens and it was fun to play and just competitive enough to be (small) tournament playable.

 

[Fragamemnon]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";68929686]I like the "wipe everything" cards.[/QUOTE]

so you want to run some kind of b/w midrange/control strategy? Kill all of their stuff and then kill them with some monster creature?

If you really just want to play expensive wipe everything cards I am pretty sure you can play EDH , where those cards are 1/3 of that format.

I had a lot of fun with a B/W deck that used Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Vault of the Archangel, blade splicer, vault skirge, and various token makers. It was like a cross between white weenie, tempered steel, and b/w tokens and it was fun to play and just competitive enough to be (small) tournament playable.

Blade Splicer is the bees knees. Such a good card.

 

[siddx]

so you want to run some kind of b/w midrange/control strategy? Kill all of their stuff and then kill them with some monster creature?

If you really just want to play expensive wipe everything cards I am pretty sure you can play EDH , where those cards are 1/3 of that format.



Blade Splicer is the bees knees. Such a good card.

Blade Splicer with tempered steel won so many games for me. He would just sit there like a big fuck you to all my opponent's creatures while my vault skirges ate away.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

So I've been testing the all-in Splinter Twin deck that top 8'd the last GP on MTGO. How did nobody else realize that Boomerang is nuts in that deck until now? You can do some degenerate things with that card on the play.

This happened to me last night:

T1: Land, go. He plays fetchland, go.
T2: Land, go. He cracks his fetch, gets a tapped shockland. I Boomerang it. He replays it tapped, says go.
T3: Land, go. On his upkeep, Exarch his land. He plays a fetchland, says go.
T4: Land, Splinter Twin, win the game.

It wasn't even close. The only problem with that play was that I put him on the wrong deck and boarded incorrectly for game two and lost to a million Valakut triggers, but game three a Boomerang on Valakut itself was enough to seal the match.

 

[An-Det]

So I've been testing the all-in Splinter Twin deck that top 8'd the last GP on MTGO. How did nobody else realize that Boomerang is nuts in that deck until now? You can do some degenerate things with that card on the play.

This happened to me last night:

T1: Land, go. He plays fetchland, go.
T2: Land, go. He cracks his fetch, gets a tapped shockland. I Boomerang it. He replays it tapped, says go.
T3: Land, go. On his upkeep, Exarch his land. He plays a fetchland, says go.
T4: Land, Splinter Twin, win the game.

It wasn't even close. The only problem with that play was that I put him on the wrong deck and boarded incorrectly for game two and lost to a million Valakut triggers, but game three a Boomerang on Valakut itself was enough to seal the match.

Reminds me of the old Owling Mine deck from years past, using Boomerang as a huge tempo swing. I wish I had seen that on camera, that seems like great tech.

 

["God's Beard!"]

My girlfriend has slowly been working on a standard golgari deck with random draft cards, so I thought I'd help her out and throw some good cards in with her birthday present. So this is what her deck would look like(* indicates cards she already has):

4x Deathrite Shaman
3x Codex Shredder *
3x Bone Splinters

4x Skylasher *
4x Korozda Guildmage
3x Blood Artist *

4x Vampire Nighthawk *
4x Putrefy *
3x Corpse Traders

2x Savra, Queen of the Golgari

2x Vraska the Unseen *

2x Deadbridge Chant

4x Golgari Guildgate *
4x Rogue's Passage
8x Plains *
8x Swamps *

Any ideas before I order the cards tonight or tomorrow?

 

[divisionbyzorro]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";69019181]My girlfriend has slowly been working on a standard golgari deck with random draft cards, so I thought I'd help her out and throw some good cards in with her birthday present. So this is what her deck would look like(* indicates cards she already has):[/QUOTE]

Since I assume she's milling herself with the Codex Shredder, she'll probably do better with Grisly Salvage instead. Also, Savra isn't Standard legal; you want either Varolz or Jarad.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Since I assume she's milling herself with the Codex Shredder, she'll probably do better with Grisly Salvage instead. Also, Savra isn't Standard legal; you want either Varolz or Jarad.

Excellent catch, I saw Ravnica and didn't see it was the old one. And thanks for the salvage tip. Isn't the Shredder better since I can mill the opponent and exile with the shaman though?

 

[JulianImp]

Deathrite Shaman[/URL]
3x Codex Shredder *
3x Bone Splinters

4x Skylasher *
4x Korozda Guildmage
3x Blood Artist *

4x Vampire Nighthawk *
4x Putrefy *
3x Corpse Traders

2x Savra, Queen of the Golgari

2x Vraska the Unseen *

2x Deadbridge Chant

4x Golgari Guildgate *
4x Rogue's Passage
8x Plains *
8x Swamps *

Any ideas before I order the cards tonight or tomorrow?

I take you want to get her a fun deck to play around, and not a standard deck that only uses the best cards in golgari colors, right? Here're my suggestions:

Cards to remove (17):

• -2 Savra: She's from the older Ravnica expansion, so she isn't even Standard-legal (someone pointed that out before my post, though)
• -3 Bone Splinters: Self-sacrifice to kill a creature isn't worth it, even if you have Blood Artists out to profit from the deaths
• -4 Deathrite Shaman: The card's certainly a powerhouse in Modern, but not that much in Standard decks. It's expensive enough that you could but lots of other cards that'd ultimately work better with the deck for the same price
• -1 or -2 Korozda Guildmage: I like the card, but you don't need too many copies of it. Its abilities sadly cost too much to be of use most of the time, but you could still keep thee or two copies in there
• -3 Corpse Traders: Costs too much, the sacrifices cost quite a bit of mana and the effect isn't even worth it
• -3 Rogue's Passage: Having four copies means you're likely to see them often, but it's the kind of card you only want to draw later on, when the colorless mana doesn't hurt your spellcasting and its ability is actually affordable

Card additions (by theme):
NOTE: I won't list card amounts here, since it's just a list of possible cards you could use

Scavenge critters and enablers:

• Deadbrige Goliath: This card's a personal favorite of mine. It packs a lot of punch for its mana cost, is very cheap money-wise and scavenging it can lead to devastating plays
• Lotleth Troll: A really fun early creature that's hard to kill and quite tricky with its ability to grow on its own. It even has trample to further abuse the +1/+1 counters it gets
• Dreg Reaver: Perhaps a bit too agressive for her deck, but it's still one of the better scavengers
• Grisly Salvage: Card selection that can dump some scavenge critters into your graveyard. This card's worth depends on how many cards you include that use your graveyard
• Down/Dirty: Two moderate effects that are almost well-costed. It's kind of interesting how you can chain two of these forever to discard your opponent's hand every turn, even if it costs you a whole lot of mana
• Varolz, the Scar-Striped: This is one of my favorite golgari cards. It's an awesome scavenge enabler and even sets up your Blood Artists, since its sacrifice ability costs no mana, even if its effect isn't that useful sometimes
• Jarad's Orders: An OK tutor that also lets you dump a scanenge target or other juicy creature straight into your graveyard.
• Sluiceway Scrorpion: Not the best scavenger, but a way better defensive card than Dreg Reaver

Cards that could be used to trigger Blood Artist:

• Desecration Demon: An undercosted beater with a downside, but this deck can turn it into an upside by getting life out of every sacrifice your opponent makes
• Gaze of Granite: Probably a bad choice for this deck, but it could be a one-off to sweep some cheaper creatures

Other cards:

• Scavenging Ooze: This card could be an amazing addition to the deck, and it'll become standard legal in just two weeks. The best part is that it's a two-drop, which could really help the deck's mana curve
• Underworld Connections: Drawing some cards is never bad, and it's a good use for the life she gets out of the Blood Artists and Nighthawks

Hope this helps.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";69027441]Excellent catch, I saw Ravnica and didn't see it was the old one. And thanks for the salvage tip. Isn't the Shredder better since I can mill the opponent and exile with the shaman though?[/QUOTE]

Milling your opponent does nothing unless it's the entire focus of your deck (and even then it's debatable whether that's a good plan for actually winning games). You aren't having any effect on the cards they have in their hand, which is the resource they're actually using to kill you.

Milling yourself puts resources into your graveyard that you can use later (in this case, through Scavenge). Grisly Salvage also replaces itself in your hand, so when you're done you have additional resources in your graveyard, and you have the same amount of cards in your hand.

So to recap:

Codex Shredder: You spend a card from your hand to put cards into their graveyard. They still have just as many cards in their hand to kill you with.
Grisly Salvage: You spend a card from your hand to put cards into your graveyard, then get another card back into your hand. You also got to pick the "best" card from those five to be in your hand right now.