• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Magic: the GAFering |OT2|

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
When mortals sleep and dream on Theros, they are said to "visit Nyx," the proverbial land of night and the home of the gods. Therefore, dreams are seen as gifts from the gods. When the gods appear to mortals, each is "infused" with Nyx itself. Where the god's features or form would be shadowed, instead the night sky is visible, as though the gods occupy the daylit world and the nighttime world at once.

Nyyyyyyx nyx nyx nyx
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";77443829]I think this is gonna be my final composition for my milling deck, which pulls my mana curve down a bit. Any last ideas before I purchase the cards?

4 Codex Shredder
3 Shadow Alley Denizen
4 Death's Approach
4 Tome Scour
4 Deathrite Shaman

4 Wight of Precinct Six
3 Spell Ruptures

4 Crypt Incursion

2 Whispering Madness

3 Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker
3 Jace, Memory Adept

4 Watery Grave
4 Rogue's Passage
14 Swamps/Islands

Sideboard:
4 Lifebane Zombie
4 Traumatize
4 Psychic Strikes[/QUOTE]

Okay, if you really want suggestions.

You have few creatures. Spell Pierce is a very bad card even with a lot of creatures. The odds of you having a giant creature on board, having spell pierce and being able to counter something that your opponent wouldn't be able to pay out of and also would affect the game are pretty astronomical. Like, it's very, very bad in this deck. Super easy cut. Also, not sure what Shadow Denizen does. It's not a terrible card in limited, but there has to be a better option there.

Why not Consuming Aberration or Jace's Mindseeker? Any viable mill strategy needs to have a controlling element (re: counter heavy, low cost creatures that can block) to be able to outlast an opponent. Remember, they're swinging for massive damage at your 20 life. You're milling them out 2-3 cards at a time and they have 60. It's a numbers game. Think on how to get those numbers on your side.

Obviously, Mind Sculpt, Nephalia Drownyard, Jace's Phantasm are all rotating out, but they're very good mill pieces.
 
Or what if the Gods are creatures that, when they die, instead of going to the graveyard, they lose "Creature" and gain "Enchantment." So sorta like Haunt.
 
Or what if the Gods are creatures that, when they die, instead of going to the graveyard, they lose "Creature" and gain "Enchantment." So sorta like Haunt.

Erayo style cards! yey

35a.jpg
 

Exokell

Banned
yeah enchantment creatures is a sure thing, seems like were gonna have legendary equipments too. SIgh Im gonna miss ISD block, so many awesome cards and awesome themes :(.
 
I'm honestly baffled why Innistrad was so successful. It stands shoulder to shoulder with Onslaught and Kamigawa blocks to me; all of them blocks I couldn't give less of a shit about. Theros gives me that Kamigawa feel too in that there are clearly great ideas compromised by flavor. I hope not, but we shall see.
 

kirblar

Member
I'm honestly baffled why Innistrad was so successful. It stands shoulder to shoulder with Onslaught and Kamigawa blocks to me; all of them blocks I couldn't give less of a shit about. Theros gives me that Kamigawa feel too in that there are clearly great ideas compromised by flavor. I hope not, but we shall see.
Uh.....Theros is a top-down flavor driven set. :lol: It's almost impossible for it to be "compromised by flavor."
 
Uh.....Theros is a top-down flavor driven set. :lol: It's almost impossible for it to be "compromised by flavor."

Well, that's what I mean. Enchantment creatures sound awesome. I don't trust them to be as awesome as I'd personally like because they have stories to tell and a world to crate and all that bullshit.

Every time they use flavor to drive the mechanics, I find it to be terribly boring. I'd much rather the mechanics dictate the flavor.
 

kirblar

Member
Well, that's what I mean. Enchantment creatures sound awesome. I don't trust them to be as awesome as I'd personally like because they have stories to tell and a world to crate and all that bullshit.

Every time they use flavor to drive the mechanics, I find it to be terribly boring. I'd much rather the mechanics dictate the flavor.
Innistrad wound up being a Top 10 draft sets ever, and came out very well for constructed (minus the hexproof BS.) What didn't you like about it?
 

gerg

Member
Well, that's what I mean. Enchantment creatures sound awesome. I don't trust them to be as awesome as I'd personally like because they have stories to tell and a world to crate and all that bullshit.

Every time they use flavor to drive the mechanics, I find it to be terribly boring. I'd much rather the mechanics dictate the flavor.

Different segments of the audience have different preferences.

While I was probably falling out of the game in general, I remember in particular disliking the Time Spiral block because it was ultimately just a bunch of mechanics with some vague themes about it. There was nothing to get involved with thematically. Even as a non-player these days, Innistrad was far more interesting to me than Return to Ravnica or Scars of Mirrodin.
 
Innistrad wound up being a Top 10 draft sets ever, and came out very well for constructed (minus the hexproof BS.) What didn't you like about it?

I think the last in-print set I drafted was Time Spiral. I play exclusively online, and I got tired of being bounced in the 1st round of every draft I ever did, so I stopped drafting. And I switched to EDH-only for constructed maybe 4 years ago, so the standard environment meant nothing to me. In that context, INN just seemed really super-boring. Of course there are a few cards here and there, but the set as a whole just didn't grab me. Plus I will always believe that the double faced cards were one of the stupidest things they ever did.

Different segments of the audience have different preferences.

While I was probably falling out of the game in general, I remember in particular disliking the Time Spiral block because it was ultimately just a bunch of mechanics with some vague themes about it. There was nothing to get involved with thematically. Even as a non-player these days, Innistrad was far more interesting to me than Return to Ravnica or Scars of Mirrodin.

You're the opposite type of player than I. If every set was just a random collection of cool cards, I'd be in hog heaven.
 

y2dvd

Member
I think the last in-print set I drafted was Time Spiral. I play exclusively online, and I got tired of being bounced in the 1st round of every draft I ever did, so I stopped drafting. And I switched to EDH-only for constructed maybe 4 years ago, so the standard environment meant nothing to me. In that context, INN just seemed really super-boring. Of course there are a few cards here and there, but the set as a whole just didn't grab me. Plus I will always believe that the double faced cards were one of the stupidest things they ever did.



You're the opposite type of player than I. If every set was just a random collection of cool cards, I'd be in hog heaven.

INN was a blast to draft IMO. So many tribes to draft for that made it hella flavorable. Loved it.
 

rCIZZLE

Member
So to you guys who follow/grind modern, how would you rate the following decks by tier or strength against an open meta.

Goryo's Reanimator
Bogle
GW Hatebears
Twin
Tron

These are all decks that I think I'd enjoy playing and can build with minimal investment due to pieces being in other decks or trade binder. I briefly brought up Reanimator a few pages back but the discussion kind of got sidetracked.
 
So to you guys who follow/grind modern, how would you rate the following decks by tier or strength against an open meta.

Goryo's Reanimator
Bogle
GW Hatebears
Twin

These are all decks that I think I'd enjoy playing and can build with minimal investment due to pieces being in other decks or trade binder. I briefly brought up Reanimator a few pages back but the discussion kind of got sidetracked.

Against an entirely unknown meta I would put Twin and Bogle a tier ahead of the Reanimator and Hatebears. Reanimator is really inconsistent, which is the only thing keeping it down right now (but on the plus side it is really sweet). Hatebears is the most skill-intensive of the bunch to pilot, but never seems to pay off very much. Bogle is kinda boring to play, in my opinion, but quite powerful. If you're playing in paper, it will make you so many enemies. So, so very many enemies.

Twin is the most flexible of the bunch. You can build Twin decks that range from all-in combo to tempo to midrange and control; the shell is powerful enough to let you sculpt your own game plan around it. It's one of the things that's most appealing to me about the deck.
 

Azn_Boy

Neo Member
So to you guys who follow/grind modern, how would you rate the following decks by tier or strength against an open meta.

Goryo's Reanimator
Bogle
GW Hatebears
Twin
Tron

These are all decks that I think I'd enjoy playing and can build with minimal investment due to pieces being in other decks or trade binder. I briefly brought up Reanimator a few pages back but the discussion kind of got sidetracked.

Twin
Tron
Hatebears
Reanimator
Bogle
 

ultron87

Member
I really hope they just do something way more interesting than slapping "enchantment" on a bunch of creature type lines and calling it a day.

That said, it seems fairly obvious that the "tight visual cue" Doug Beyer has talked about on his Tumblr is something along the lines of "enchantment creature = starry night portion on their body".

feat261c_3_za8pq8rajj.jpg


(Edit: Also, the death god being way in the background of this pic is cool.)
 
The art previewed so far has been gorgeous. I would be shocked if Theros didn't see similar levels of popularity like Innistrad. A set based on real-world themes makes it such an easy sell to casuals. Imagine pitching Return to Ravnica or Scars of Mirrodin to a casual person, vs. something like Innistrad or Theros.
 
The art previewed so far has been gorgeous. I would be shocked if Theros didn't see similar levels of popularity like Innistrad. A set based on real-world themes makes it such an easy sell to casuals. Imagine pitching Return to Ravnica or Scars of Mirrodin to a casual person, vs. something like Innistrad or something Theros.

It's like twilight but with real vampires and werewolves!
 

Yeef

Member
Doesn't seem to work in Firefox, but it works in Chrome.

Overall record: 85-40-6
Win percentage ignoring draws: 68.000000
Win percentage including draws: 64.885496

Stats by Event Format
Booster Draft:
Overall record: 33-11-2
Win percentage ignoring draws: 75.000000
Win percentage including draws: 71.739130

Standard:
Overall record: 5-2-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 71.428571
Win percentage including draws: 71.428571

Modern:
Overall record: 8-3-1
Win percentage ignoring draws: 72.727273
Win percentage including draws: 66.666667

Sealed:
Overall record: 21-15-2
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.333333
Win percentage including draws: 55.263158

Casual - Constructed:
Overall record: 3-5-1
Win percentage ignoring draws: 37.500000
Win percentage including draws: 33.333333

Casual - Limited:
Overall record: 13-3-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 81.250000
Win percentage including draws: 81.250000

2 HG Sealed:
Overall record: 2-1-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 66.666667
Win percentage including draws: 66.666667

Stats by Event Type
Friday Night Magic:
Overall record: 38-13-3
Win percentage ignoring draws: 74.509804
Win percentage including draws: 70.370370

Magic Game Day:
Overall record: 5-2-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 71.428571
Win percentage including draws: 71.428571

Magic Prerelease:
Overall record: 21-15-2
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.333333
Win percentage including draws: 55.263158

Magic Casual Event:
Overall record: 16-8-1
Win percentage ignoring draws: 66.666667
Win percentage including draws: 64.000000

Magic Tournament:
Overall record: 5-2-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 71.428571
Win percentage including draws: 71.428571
 

Jaeyden

Member
My FTV 20 arrived. Cards look pretty enough. Venser, Ink Eyes, Impulse,Tangle Wire and Guilded Lotus look the best IMO. Very happy to have a foil Jace but damn if they all don't have massive foil bend. Pressing em all right now.
 

kirblar

Member
My FTV 20 arrived. Cards look pretty enough. Venser, Ink Eyes, Impulse,Tangle Wire and Guilded Lotus look the best IMO. Very happy to have a foil Jace but damn if they all don't have massive foil bend. Pressing em all right now.
FTV always has massive foil bend, lol.
 

rCIZZLE

Member
Overall record: 307-99-23
Win percentage ignoring draws: 75.615764
Win percentage including draws: 71.561772

Not bad since coming back to magic a few years ago.

Against an entirely unknown meta I would put Twin and Bogle a tier ahead of the Reanimator and Hatebears. Reanimator is really inconsistent, which is the only thing keeping it down right now (but on the plus side it is really sweet). Hatebears is the most skill-intensive of the bunch to pilot, but never seems to pay off very much. Bogle is kinda boring to play, in my opinion, but quite powerful. If you're playing in paper, it will make you so many enemies. So, so very many enemies.

Twin is the most flexible of the bunch. You can build Twin decks that range from all-in combo to tempo to midrange and control; the shell is powerful enough to let you sculpt your own game plan around it. It's one of the things that's most appealing to me about the deck.

I'll probably end up going with (all-in) Twin for now. Reanimator is my first choice but I don't have the thoughtseizes so it'd have to be a gimped version. Modern will definitely be my 3rd format in rank of play time (or 4th if you count draft) so having a somewhat linear deck will be nice.

My FTV 20 arrived. Cards look pretty enough. Venser, Ink Eyes, Impulse,Tangle Wire and Guilded Lotus look the best IMO. Very happy to have a foil Jace but damn if they all don't have massive foil bend. Pressing em all right now.

FTV foils have always been bad unfortunately. Was hoping they would have went old border with quality foiling for this one to make it really special.
 
Does anyone have recommendations on good one or two drop creatures to run a play set of in my Standard Black / Red Rakdos deck?

I am thinking of perhaps Ash Zealot or Thrill-Kill Assassin. I already have Rakdos Cackler and Spike Jester in the deck.

Anyone care to give suggestions on this particular question and the deck in general?

Deck: http://deckbox.org/sets/457888?v=v

I physically have everything except for these three cards (and their quantities) so they are most open for change.
Rakdos, Lord of Riots x2
Rakdos's Return x1
Young Pyromancer x4

Everything else in the main deck I have.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
My FTV 20 arrived. Cards look pretty enough. Venser, Ink Eyes, Impulse,Tangle Wire and Guilded Lotus look the best IMO. Very happy to have a foil Jace but damn if they all don't have massive foil bend. Pressing em all right now.

Yeah, there's a reason I keep my copy of Relics mint in the box.
 

ultron87

Member
Anyone care to give suggestions on this particular question and the deck in general?

Deck: http://deckbox.org/sets/457888?v=v

I physically have everything except for these three cards (and their quantities) so they are most open for change.
Rakdos, Lord of Riots x2
Rakdos's Return x1
Young Pyromancer x4

Everything else in the main deck I have.

Foundry Street Denizen would trigger off 12 of your creatures and your Pyromancer tokens. That could be cool.
 
Okay, if you really want suggestions.
Thank you for the response. I do appreciate the help, I'm pretty new to serious deck building.

Okay, if you really want suggestions.

You have few creatures. Spell Pierce is a very bad card even with a lot of creatures. The odds of you having a giant creature on board, having spell pierce and being able to counter something that your opponent wouldn't be able to pay out of and also would affect the game are pretty astronomical. Like, it's very, very bad in this deck. Super easy cut. Also, not sure what Shadow Denizen does. It's not a terrible card in limited, but there has to be a better option there.

So should I just stick to the Psychic Strikes then? I don't know what other counters I should be using in Standard. I've been using the Denizens to give intimidate to my Mirkos and my cipher creatures. I used to have Paranoid Delusions in there which helped justify them but I replaced them with the Tome Scours because it's easy to slip in 5 mill for one mana than maintain the cypher at two. But the Rogue's Passages would be enough if I'm only really needing the Mirko to get through.

Why not Consuming Aberration or Jace's Mindseeker? Any viable mill strategy needs to have a controlling element (re: counter heavy, low cost creatures that can block) to be able to outlast an opponent. Remember, they're swinging for massive damage at your 20 life. You're milling them out 2-3 cards at a time and they have 60. It's a numbers game. Think on how to get those numbers on your side.
I have three Aberrations, but I was scared about half my deck being 5 cost. So far your advice means my configuration now is better than my adjustment, I'm using psychic strikes, abberations and desecration demons.

Something like this, maybe?

4 Codex Shredder
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Death's Approach
4 Tome Scour

4 Wight of Precinct Six

3 Crypt Incursion
3 Psychic Strike

2 Whispering Madness
3 Desecration Demon

2 Consuming Abberation
2 Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker
2 Jace, Memory Adept

4 Watery Grave
4 Rogue's Passage
15 Swamps/Islands

I should swap out the Demons, but I don't know what to put in that isn't rotating out with Theros' arrival. Lifebane Zombies?
 
MTGSalvation is calling this a real leak (apparently it's the release promo?), but this is a really weird ass card:

Bident of Thassa 2UU
Legendary Enchantment Artifact
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card.
2U, Tap: Creatures your opponents control attack this turn if able.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
MTGSalvation is calling this a real leak (apparently it's the release promo?), but this is a really weird ass card:

Bident of Thassa 2UU
Legendary Enchantment Artifact
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card.
2U, Tap: Creatures your opponents control attack this turn if able.

EVERYTHINGS AN ENCHANTMENT!
 

Crocodile

Member
Reads like design masturbation. I'm sure they'll have articles that justify why this make sense but in a vacuum the card feels unnecessary and "doing things just because we can".
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Need March of the Machines on board.

Legendary Enchantment Artifact Creature go.

Dies to nearly every form of removal under the sun short of LD.
 
Reads like design masturbation. I'm sure they'll have articles that justify why this make sense but in a vacuum the card feels unnecessary and "doing things just because we can".

It feels wrong to me. I don't know if it's fake or not (like I said, Salvation believes it's real), but nothing about the card seems right.
 

ultron87

Member
Obviously enchantment creatures will have to tap but a non creature enchantment tapping feels ever so wrong even as an artifact.

But then they said that cards in Theros were doing something only a Future Sight card had done before, and there was a tapping enchantment there.
 

kirblar

Member
Obviously enchantment creatures will have to tap but a non creature enchantment tapping feels ever so wrong even as an artifact.

But then they said that cards in Theros were doing something only a Future Sight card had done before, and there was a tapping enchantment there.
They're artifacts in order to get the tapping on them. Tapping enchantments felt really weird.
 

rCIZZLE

Member
Was about to take the plunge and build maverick on modo until I saw wastelands are ~70 tix. Almost all of the other staples are cheap to dirt cheap except this. I'd no doubt get my money's worth out of many daily events but $280 on a playset of virtual cards is a little steep.
 
Top Bottom