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Magic: the GAFering |OT2|
- Thread starter The Technomancer
- Start date
After attempting to make the BUG deck work, I gave up. Why? Because you need lifegain to beat Mono-Red. (Your midrange matchups are actually fantastic and if Mono-R gets pushed out I'll snap run it.) And Sphinx's Revelation isn't enough of it. And Verdict is bad.
That meant running an Armadillo Cloak deck was the best way to attack the metagame. Doesn't surprise me at all that this happened in response.
blindrocket
Member
Unflinching Courage
EDIT: Actually, I see that they are almost the same, but actually not the same at all.
The Cloak doesn't really give lifelink. Very interesting.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Fleecemane Lion. Holy jeebus is that card good.
divisionbyzorro
Member
So this is a weird one.
Owlowiscious
Member
Oh you mean banned in standard? Is it that game breaking in standard though? It feels like thoughtsieze. A good card in legacy but not that amazing in standard. Then again I haven't really played since gate crash's release. I don't think it's as good as snap caster and that wasn't banned.
"God's Beard!"
Member
So Erebos is better in EDH than Standard and Modern, right? I wanna try making an EDH deck, I've never played it before.
divisionbyzorro
Member
Well, I've been getting my ass kicked repeatedly in Theros draft online. I'd like to blame it all on variance (I've mulliganed to four three times so far tonight, while simultaneously having three games end with me having made all 12 of my first 12 land drops), but it's not just that. My decks just haven't been competitive (which has, in part, contributed to the mulligans).
A couple of thoughts (based on what doesn't work in my experience):
It's a very weird format so far. It's by far the most difficult format for me to get a hold of since DII, and that was the first format I ever drafted.
He means Modern.
A couple of thoughts (based on what doesn't work in my experience):
- Reactive decks are terrible. You need to be proactive. I thought Voyage's End and Griptide were going to be top-tier cards, but often they're just not good enough. Blue decks tend to have a hard time finding threats early enough to protect with those cards.
- The Ordeals are uncommon bombs, even the "bad" ones. You will lose far too many games to these, so consequently, cheap removal is also a very high pick.
- Curve is ridiculously important, and you need to keep it low. Based on the number of crappy mulligans I've had to make tonight, I'm convinced you don't want any more than one 6 drop, and probably not any more than 2-3 five drops unless you're ramping. You need to be hitting drops every turn. Consequently, mulligans really, really suck, but at the same time they're very important - hands that do nothing until turn 4 are probably not keepable, for example.
- I don't know if I would call the format "fast," but it definitely punishes durdling. Hard.
- And I hate to say it, but winning the die roll seems to be very important. :/
It's a very weird format so far. It's by far the most difficult format for me to get a hold of since DII, and that was the first format I ever drafted.
He means Modern.
This card gives me a bad feelingSo this is a weird one.
I played a blue red control last night and the 1/4 tritons were pretty essential in preventing me of dying to weenies. Even then, the format is full of combat tricks so you are not always safe behind wall type creatures ,but still they are a must for any control type deck. Like any weenies, they will run out of gas and by then your creatures should be fat and have flying
And bounce is premium believe me. Not that powerful against weenie decks ,but still essential in this format.
I love how you can combine heroic in control strategies too. Green based ramping seems like the best plan in the format. Fatties are so easy to find that you can and should just force ramping highly.
divisionbyzorro
Member
Final follow-up on my Theros Drafts:
Went 0-3 with a UB tempo deck; either got mana screwed/mulliganed into oblivion, or just straight steamrolled in every game.
Went 2-1 with a GU "value" deck, beating one of the aforementioned UB decks (pretty easily) in the process. Only loss came to a giant mana flood against a RW aggro deck. Simply curving out and getting some nut draws with Aqueous Form (yes, this card is very good) and Ordeals was enough to steal games.
I noticed something about the (good) RW aggro decks. They were actually just RW tempo/curve decks that just had the ability to get the occasional insane nut draw. That is, the RW heroic deck I tried to draft yesterday was just the wrong approach. You just draft a solid RW curve, and jam a few of the right enablers into your deck to give you those insane starts. I was deliberately trying to draft around the nut draw yesterday (essentially drafting a "combo" deck), and the end result was crap.
I mean, yeah - the bounce spells were good. But they weren't amazing. They're at their best when you're pushing through damage with them, and I found half the time I was just preventing damage with them. They were insane against the monster decks, but not so much against everything else. I sadly never saw a single Wavecrash Triton, but gladly would have snapped them up.
Heroic is a fantastic "value" ability for creatures. The ones that place counters on the creatures are insane, and honestly can fit just about anywhere in your curve. But building a deck that's reliant on creating heroic triggers is a trap.
And ramp seems to be green's biggest weapon. Nessian Asp and Vulpine Goliath are generally the biggest things on the battlefield, and give your opponent fits. Cheating them in a turn or two sooner just wins games.
Went 0-3 with a UB tempo deck; either got mana screwed/mulliganed into oblivion, or just straight steamrolled in every game.
Went 2-1 with a GU "value" deck, beating one of the aforementioned UB decks (pretty easily) in the process. Only loss came to a giant mana flood against a RW aggro deck. Simply curving out and getting some nut draws with Aqueous Form (yes, this card is very good) and Ordeals was enough to steal games.
I noticed something about the (good) RW aggro decks. They were actually just RW tempo/curve decks that just had the ability to get the occasional insane nut draw. That is, the RW heroic deck I tried to draft yesterday was just the wrong approach. You just draft a solid RW curve, and jam a few of the right enablers into your deck to give you those insane starts. I was deliberately trying to draft around the nut draw yesterday (essentially drafting a "combo" deck), and the end result was crap.
I played a blue red control last night and the 1/4 tritons were pretty essential in preventing me of dying to weenies. Even then, the format is full of combat tricks so you are not always safe behind wall type creatures ,but still they are a must for any control type deck. Like any weenies, they will run out of gas and by then your creatures should be fat and have flying
And bounce is premium believe me. Not that powerful against weenie decks ,but still essential in this format.
I love how you can combine heroic in control strategies too. Green based ramping seems like the best plan in the format. Fatties are so easy to find that you can and should just force ramping highly.
I mean, yeah - the bounce spells were good. But they weren't amazing. They're at their best when you're pushing through damage with them, and I found half the time I was just preventing damage with them. They were insane against the monster decks, but not so much against everything else. I sadly never saw a single Wavecrash Triton, but gladly would have snapped them up.
Heroic is a fantastic "value" ability for creatures. The ones that place counters on the creatures are insane, and honestly can fit just about anywhere in your curve. But building a deck that's reliant on creating heroic triggers is a trap.
And ramp seems to be green's biggest weapon. Nessian Asp and Vulpine Goliath are generally the biggest things on the battlefield, and give your opponent fits. Cheating them in a turn or two sooner just wins games.
On release around lunchtime I believe.
Info dump:
Set Name Theros
Block Set 1 of 3 in the Theros block
Number of Cards 249
Prerelease Events September 21-22, 2013
Release Date September 27, 2013
Magic Online Prerelease Date October 4, 2013
Magic Online Release Date October 7, 2013
Launch Weekend September 27-29, 2013
Pro Tour Theros Dates October 11-13, 2013
Game Day October 19-20, 2013
Pro Tour Theros Formats Swiss:
Standard Constructed
Theros Booster Draft
Top 8:
Standard Constructed
Official Three-Letter Code THS
Twitter Hashtag #MTGTHS
Initial Concept and Game Design Mark Rosewater (lead), Ethan Fleischer, Ken Nagle, Zac Hill, and Jenna Helland
Final Game Design and Development Erik Lauer (lead), Zac Hill, Dave Humpherys, Doug Beyer, Shawn Main, and Tom LaPille
Languages English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish
Available in Booster Packs, Intro Packs*, Event Deck*, Fat Pack*
(Not available in all languages)
Ah ok, I was confused because it's still pre-release pricing today, but I guess us europeans need to wait longer
Yesterday at approx 1:00pm CST I saw an ORC in the events channel say it would be prerelease for another ~22 hours.
Now that's my kind of General
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BV_EYmzCIAEqePg.jpg
Packaging as a whole looks better than those giant boxes they used last time
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
He means Modern. From what I understand, DRS isn't going to get banned in standard because its not really format altering there. I don't know if DRS is actually format altering in Modern, but from what I can tell, it appears in a lot of decks (but then again, from what I can tell. Legacy and Modern decks are just giant piles of the best cards).
http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27081_2014-Open-Series-In-Store-Programs-Update.html
SCG announcements- they are sticking with Legacy for another year on Sundays (and doing it every time instead of mixing in other formats), they are going to run Team Limited events as separate stand alone 5K events, and they will be holding State Championship events twice a year
SCG announcements- they are sticking with Legacy for another year on Sundays (and doing it every time instead of mixing in other formats), they are going to run Team Limited events as separate stand alone 5K events, and they will be holding State Championship events twice a year
EsotericManiac
Banned
Keru_Shiri
Member
That's hilarious. There's already a huge amount of bickering between the LGSes in my area between the Sun Mesa tournaments and tcgplayer calling their events State Championships, now there's going to be a 3rd group tossing their hat in the ring.
EsotericManiac
Banned
the variety is legacy is just amazing IMO
standard control mirrors are on par with watching sealed decks on the SCG stream
standard control mirrors are on par with watching sealed decks on the SCG stream
naw
sealed way more exciting
I do like the standard environment, though. Worcester had what, four control decks in the top 8? And Cleveland had 0-1, with both top 8 lists having a healthy mix of aggro and midrange as well?
I'm not worried about the standard meta right now. Unflinching Courage attempts to keep RDW in check, control keeps Unflinching Courage in check pretty insanely well, etc.
troof
I don't think that second assertation is true.
I don't think that second assertation is true.
You don't think G/W/x aggro lists running Unflinching Courage are having trouble with verdict, spot removal, last gasp for voice, etc?
I suppose SCG cleveland (and my testing with variants of domri naya) say otherwise, it just seems like devoting 3-4 slots in the main to that card is making a calculated decision -- I want to beat RDW, I'm fine with occasionally being blown out by Azorius Charm.
They have problems with heavy spot removal. They have about 5 billion ways of dealing with Verdict. (I do not like the card in Standard right now.)
Was inevitable i think. Attendance of non-legacy events was abysmal compared to Legacy events. And Legacy is the most varied format right now , if only SGC stopped featuring only BUG mirrors on stream...
CriginsMcJuggs
Member
So this is a weird one.
Second ability just feels wrong to me. EDH started as a kitchen table format, with the commander tax as a rule outside of the rules of magic. Just feels dirty having wizards start to bend format rules.
I'd like that ability more if there was some reason to cast it the normal way as well. If it had an ability that looks at the commander tax you paid for it like some of the other new ones it'd be a nice trade off between "get big effect" or "get it for cheap at uncounterable flash speed".
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Its far too small of a loss to justify not sending it since you'd hit him with a neg.
The shipping probably costs 80 cents. He's only undercutting "value" by ~8 bucks.
blindrocket
Member
So this is a weird one.
I love the artwork.
I've never played Commander so I hope to pick up one of these packs and get into it. Should be easier and perhaps cheaper than actually building a deck from scratch. I hope these pre-con Commander decks are decently good.
Nice to hear they're keeping legacy on Sundays, but we really don't need another "states". It's already a mess as is, dont need yet another in the mix confusing people.
EDH is a love/hate thing. I personally can't stand the format, despite trying to like it.
"Social" aspects of the game aren't for me. I want my opponent to be trying to kill me.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
If they're anything like the last Commander decks they'll be worth it
Owlowiscious
Member
Odds of WOTC banking on this assumption and selling all crap cards?
blindrocket
Member
Very good. I assume the decks will be fully spoiled before release day, that way I know which one(s) to hunt down.
There is consistency.
Why do you think Personal Tutor, Cruel Tutor, Grim Tutor and Imperial Seal are so expensive? :lol
It's as format warping as brainstorm is in legacy so let's ban brainstorm there. Yeah?
Come on, you have to draw a line somewhere. DRS is not Jund's wincon. DRS is not Melira's wincon. It's just hyper efficient and enables a lot of stuff. Can you really justify banning for being hyper efficient? Fine then ban Tarmogoyf, ban fetchlands....blah blah blah.
Sorry, I'm of the school that says unban bitterblossom and visions. Let's play that game. PLEASE. Let's enable all the non GB/X decks instead of banning everything we've spent our hard earned money on. Every deck I've built in Modern has had cards banned. I didn't "net deck" my stuff. I made them because they made sense and were super great for my meta. If it happens again (another ban), I'm fucking done. Will happily cash out a few grand on my paper and this game can fuck off.
blindrocket
Member
I really do plan on getting into Modern whenever I have that extra huge chunk of money. I suppose that getting into it online would pay off better than paper, simply due to the availability of games and access to cheaper cards. But there's something about having a real deck all sleeved up. Mmmmm....
Here are the "expensive" cards that I already have...
2x Verdant Catacombs
3x Marsh Flats
1x Deathrite Shaman
LOL
Here are the "expensive" cards that I already have...
2x Verdant Catacombs
3x Marsh Flats
1x Deathrite Shaman
LOL
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