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[AlteredBeast]

like I said about a month ago or whatever, I hadn't played Magic for a while. I was going through some of my boxes and found a few cards of note, but got bored going through 2000+ cards so I skipped the last skinny box of cards. While looking for a red/blue creature I stuck back into a random box, I accidentally started with the box of cards I hadn't gone through before. To my surprise, I found these:

LOL.

 

[blindrocket]

Jund for Modern Season?

Yeah.
But not necessarily for Modern season, really for any season. I'm trying to get one of the LGS to run Modern.

I've never even piloted the deck before so I also need to purchase it on MTGO to get a lot of experience if I ever hope to take it to a real event.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Man, Pithing Needle is super annoying. I don't think I can do anything about it if I play second. Otherwise I think my list can challenge a lot of the decks people are playing in standard now. Just double and triple checking everything before I spend the last hundred dollars or so I need to finish it up.

Creatures (11)
4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Desecration Demon
3x Consuming Aberration

Other Spells (25)
4x Thoughtseize
4x Dimir Charm
3x Far // Away
3x Read the Bones
3x Psychic Strike
3x Crypt Incursion
2x Traumatize
2x Jace, Memory Adept
1x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

Land (24)
4x Watery Grave
4x Temple of Deceit
2x Rogue's Passage
8x Swamp
6x Island

Sideboard (15)
4x Lifebane Zombie
2x Whispering Madness
2x Pithing Needle
2x Ratchet Bomb
3x Negate
2x Whip of Erebos

If I'm playing against decks that are vulnerable to the zombies, I'll pull them in with the madness. Against controll I'll pull in the negates and pithing needles and against other slow decks I might pull in the whips for massive lifegain off the abberations. I've never played in a real tournament before so I don't really know what to expect though.

 

[f0rk]

More lands

 

["God's Beard!"]

More lands

Better? I feel weird taking away a Far // Away and Ashiok, though.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";89307571]Better? I feel weird taking away a Far // Away and Ashiok, though.[/QUOTE]

The worst cards in your list are Crypt Incursion and Traumatize. Start there, not with the Far // Away or Ashiok.

 

[Karakand]

Magic Online is such a poor product that it's incredible people still put up with it. Speaks to how great a game Magic is overall, because otherwise its LJN-NES level crap

I am seriously dreading the amount of time and / or money I will be spending with MODO when Vintage Masters drops.

 

[bigkrev]

Apparently, Today's MTGO PTQ crashed in the 9th round. You can't make this stuff up.

They can't in good faith continue charging money for these big tournaments. Apparently, we are getting some big OP announcement this week from Worth's Twitter

Predicting a round 1 loss with this

 

[divisionbyzorro]

What's funny is that I had been actually planning to reorganize an upcoming weekend to play in a couple of MTGO PTQs (starting with the MM PTQ later this month), but this weekend's shenanigans has completely killed my desire to play in anything other than draft queues for the time being.

 

["God's Beard!"]

The worst cards in your list are Crypt Incursion and Traumatize. Start there, not with the Far // Away or Ashiok.

But how am I supposed to mill people? Just Jace all day? And Crypt Incursion gives me so much life after milling people for a while that I stay in the game.

 

[bigkrev]

My draft: Mulligan to 4 cards game 1, dominate game 2, mulligan to 5 game 3 and never see land 3.

Fun!

 

[blindrocket]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";89338309]But how am I supposed to mill people? Just Jace all day? And Crypt Incursion gives me so much life after milling people for a while that I stay in the game.[/QUOTE]

I've thought of trying to make a deck with Underworld Cerberus and Crypt Incursion.
That way I only get creatures back after the Cerberus dies.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I've thought of trying to make a deck with Underworld Cerberus and Crypt Incursion.
That way I only get creatures back after the Cerberus dies.

How are you feeding creatures into graveyards, though? I mean, I'm milling.

 

[bigkrev]

The total of the entrance fees for the PTQ was $21,000.
Total "Value" of prizes (cost to provide is zero dollars): 3,232, plus airfare for the winner.

The fact that they can't have a stable program shows a sickening amount of greed

 

[divisionbyzorro]

It's not greed. In case you haven't noticed, hiring at Wizards is very much based on the buddy system. They simply just don't have the level of programming/design talent that they need because they hire people they know and like rather than people who have the talents they need. I completely believe that they're correct to keep the development in-house rather than outsourcing it, but they need to bring real talent in to develop MTGO.

 

[kirblar]

It's not greed. In case you haven't noticed, hiring at Wizards is very much based on the buddy system. They simply just don't have the level of programming/design talent that they need because they hire people they know and like rather than people who have the talents they need. I completely believe that they're correct to keep the development in-house rather than outsourcing it, but they need to bring real talent in to develop MTGO.

Think deeper.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Think deeper.

... Not quite sure what you're driving at, to be honest.

 

[crimsonspider89]

Man whoever approved Nykthos needs to be slapped.

That land is just stupid.

Now Modern, time for you to build elves. You got a Cradle and a Glimpse of Nature.

You got everything you need.

 

[kirblar]

... Not quite sure what you're driving at, to be honest.

WotC is not a PC games company. They are a toy company.

Their division does insane numbers off the MTG IP. MTGO is apparently ginormously profitable. Their problem is such: We know they're leaving money on the table. But how do you explain to a toy company that you need a billion % more financing in order to get all that money you can't prove is out there?

 

[blindrocket]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";89340589]How are you feeding creatures into graveyards, though? I mean, I'm milling.[/QUOTE]

A lot of removal. I haven't actually played the deck yet but I have it conceptualized. I called it Removal Jund because it has a lot of removal to give way to Reaper of the Wilds and Underworld Cerberus.

I'm anxious to see if Jund can work in Standard which is what brought me to brew the deck. And I really love the Underworld Cerberus card.

 

[turnbuckle]

I think I'm finally going to be selling my collection of cards

I'm probably just gonna bulk sell them even though I know this isn't maximizing the money I can get. Just a quick example, I have a few barely played Force of Wills in excellent condition. Selling on EBay I could probably get about $45-50 after fees. The site my friend is selling them to (I've "hired" him to organize and sell the cards) offers a maximum of $48 for the same card in mint condition.

It's kind of sad to think I'll be selling 10+ years of cards and will be lucky to have a couple grand to show for it. But keeping these cards around just tempts me to spend more on cards and I gotta kick the habit.

 

[bigkrev]

They are probably in for a rude awakening once Hearthstone, Hex, and Solforge get out of Beta and become real games. This mickey mouse stability issues won't fly.

 

[kirblar]

I think I'm finally going to be selling my collection of cards

I'm probably just gonna bulk sell them even though I know this isn't maximizing the money I can get. Just a quick example, I have a few barely played Force of Wills in excellent condition. Selling on EBay I could probably get about $45-50 after fees. The site my friend is selling them to (I've "hired" him to organize and sell the cards) offers a maximum of $48 for the same card in mint condition.

It's kind of sad to think I'll be selling 10+ years of cards and will be lucky to have a couple grand to show for it. But keeping these cards around just tempts me to spend more on cards and I gotta kick the habit.

Could you post a list here?

 

[divisionbyzorro]

WotC is not a PC games company. They are a toy company.

Their division does insane numbers off the MTG IP. MTGO is apparently ginormously profitable. Their problem is such: We know they're leaving money on the table. But how do you explain to a toy company that you need a billion % more financing in order to get all that money you can't prove is out there?

You would think that the massive success of Duels of the Planeswalkers would have made this clear to them. DotP brought in huge numbers to the paper game, and those players would naturally be in the market for a quality online version of the full experience. I'm genuinely hoping that Hearthstone is a runaway success when it launches for real and gives WotC a giant kick in the ass.

On another note - as much as I hate the beta, they need to bite the bullet and kill V3 sooner rather than later. The sooner they can stop trying to do two things at once, the sooner things can settle down. According to Spain, the architecture for V4 allows them to issue dynamic patches, which is something V3 never let them do. So theoretically they will be able to iterate improvements faster than they could before - which would be great.

 

[OnPoint]

I think I'm finally going to be selling my collection of cards

I'm probably just gonna bulk sell them even though I know this isn't maximizing the money I can get. Just a quick example, I have a few barely played Force of Wills in excellent condition. Selling on EBay I could probably get about $45-50 after fees. The site my friend is selling them to (I've "hired" him to organize and sell the cards) offers a maximum of $48 for the same card in mint condition.

It's kind of sad to think I'll be selling 10+ years of cards and will be lucky to have a couple grand to show for it. But keeping these cards around just tempts me to spend more on cards and I gotta kick the habit.

I would def by a force from you for 50

 

[bigkrev]

You would think that the massive success of Duels of the Planeswalkers would have made this clear to them. DotP brought in huge numbers to the paper game, and those players would naturally be in the market for a quality online version of the full experience. I'm genuinely hoping that Hearthstone is a runaway success when it launches for real and gives WotC a giant kick in the ass.

On another note - as much as I hate the beta, they need to bite the bullet and kill V3 sooner rather than later. The sooner they can stop trying to do two things at once, the sooner things can settle down. According to Spain, the architecture for V4 allows them to issue dynamic patches, which is something V3 never let them do. So theoretically they will be able to iterate improvements faster than they could before - which would be great.

They outsource DotP to Stainless Games, the same people that made the Carmageddon games. They do MTGO in house.

I'd argue for killing V4 and starting over again- it's unplayable for me. I would probably sell my collection and be done if they forced me to start using it.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

They outsource DotP to Stainless Games, the same people that made the Carmageddon games. They do MTGO in house.

I'd argue for killing V4 and starting over again- it's unplayable for me. I would probably sell my collection and be done if they forced me to start using it.

They keep MTGO in house because they guard their new card files like a trade secret. By doing MTGO in house they can iterate on card design with MTGO designers giving their input and getting ahead of the curve on the rules engine. Also, the dirty secret of DotP is that its rules engine is actually complete ass. Yes, MTGO does occasionally have rules issues (the famous Pillar of Flame incident from earlier this year comes to mind), but DotP routinely gets the most common shit completely wrong.

V4 won't die. They've invested far too much into it at this point - they're pot-committed.

 

[blindrocket]

I like the beta, but it's also what I started with.
And... I've never played a tournament.

lulz

 

[kirblar]

They keep MTGO in house because they guard their new card files like a trade secret. By doing MTGO in house they can iterate on card design with MTGO designers giving their input and getting ahead of the curve on the rules engine. Also, the dirty secret of DotP is that its rules engine is actually complete ass. Yes, MTGO does occasionally have rules issues (the famous Pillar of Flame incident from earlier this year comes to mind), but DotP routinely gets the most common shit completely wrong.

V4 won't die. They've invested far too much into it at this point - they're pot-committed.

V4 has outside consultants working on it now.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

V4 has outside consultants working on it now.

I'm certainly glad they've recognized that they need the help.

The funny thing about the beta is that the UI, while being a little weird, generally polls well with new players. Stability is the biggest issue, followed by issues with trade binders.

 

[kirblar]

I'm certainly glad they've recognized that they need the help.

The funny thing about the beta is that the UI, while being a little weird, generally polls well with new players. Stability is the biggest issue, followed by issues with trade binders.

It's a massive upgrade in many ways. But it's just not functional.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

It's a massive upgrade in many ways. But it's just not functional.

I tried using it for a while, just because I felt like having more people try it out and give feedback would help the process.

I got tired of submitting bug reports that said "randomly crashed while [insert seemingly normal task here]."

EDIT: I'm seeing lots of tweets about 8-4s crashing all over the place right now as well. What the actual fuck happened to MTGO over the weekend?

 

[Angry Grimace]

Huh. My best friend has a giant pile of magic cards out in the garage and he has three of the Onslaught fetchlands.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Finally! After a fifth straight miss at the finals in an 8-4, I finally managed to both draft a great deck and not draw like crap at the same time! It feels pretty good when it all comes together.

It also helps to pick up a playset of Gray Merchants during the draft as well...

I ended up sideboarding out God's Willing in just about every single matchup and replacing it with Chosen by Heliod. The second Scholar became a Wingsteed Rider as well. I submitted, looked at it, realized I wanted to change it, and then...too late.

 

[kirblar]

Huh. My best friend has a giant pile of magic cards out in the garage and he has three of the Onslaught fetchlands.

If not playing Legacy, sell those off (before they get reprinted!)

 

[Mindwipe]

Hey everyone. So, I used to play MTG around the time of 4th, 5th ed, but dropped off a decade ago. My wife asked me about it the other day so I bought two core starter decks to help show her how to play but... well, there's a starter sheet in that's okay to get her started but no proper rulebook.

Do they still do those? Has it been replaced by an online version or something?

 

[Haly]

Hey everyone. So, I used to play MTG around the time of 4th, 5th ed, but dropped off a decade ago. My wife asked me about it the other day so I bought two core starter decks to help show her how to play but... well, there's a starter sheet in that's okay to get her started but no proper rulebook.

Do they still do those? Has it been replaced by an online version or something?

I would suggest getting her the DOTP game on Steam. It automagically does a lot of things for you, has a built in tutorial system, and you can play against each other with precons (there's actually no true deckbuilding mode, only precons and precon-specific unlocks). There a little treadmill where you unlock cards for your deck so you can wean her onto card selection and evaluation without overloading her with an entire set.

 

[Yeef]

Hey everyone. So, I used to play MTG around the time of 4th, 5th ed, but dropped off a decade ago. My wife asked me about it the other day so I bought two core starter decks to help show her how to play but... well, there's a starter sheet in that's okay to get her started but no proper rulebook.

Do they still do those? Has it been replaced by an online version or something?

The basic rulebook is generally only handed out to game stores. Otherwise, you can just download it here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Article.aspx?x=magic/rules

 

[ultron87]

Hey everyone. So, I used to play MTG around the time of 4th, 5th ed, but dropped off a decade ago. My wife asked me about it the other day so I bought two core starter decks to help show her how to play but... well, there's a starter sheet in that's okay to get her started but no proper rulebook.

Do they still do those? Has it been replaced by an online version or something?

I think this is what stands for the basic rule book these days: http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/resources/rules/EN_MTGM14_Rulebook_LR.pdf It sadly doesn't have the entertaining "here's two people playing a game" stories that I remember from those itty bitty rule books that used to come in starter decks.

There are also the Comprehensive Rules but no one should ever actually read those.

 

[Angry Grimace]

If not playing Legacy, sell those off (before they get reprinted!)

He's a super casual player, like he doesn't even play at all. He had them in a pile he was calling "fake dual lands."

 

[kirblar]

He's a super casual player, like he doesn't even play at all. He had them in a pile he was calling "fake dual lands."

For as much as (myopic) top level players like to bitch about them, they single-handedly keep Legacy playable.

 

[OnPoint]

For as much as (myopic) top level players like to bitch about them, they single-handedly keep Legacy playable.

I love them and wish I could afford them haha

 

[turnbuckle]

Could you post a list here?

I haven't made a list; I've been just about as hands off on this as I can since every time I look at my cards it makes me second-guess selling them. I'll talk to my friend/roommate about putting together a list. He might have something up already. I guess I just didn't want to make a thread advertising my cards on GAF because that might be against the TOS.

He sold his collection through the same site earlier this year and got back a couple grand, but I know he could have gotten more if he sold individually. I'm guessing, like myself, that the more you focus on trying to sell individual cards, the harder it is to let them go.

 

[OnPoint]

I haven't made a list; I've been just about as hands off on this as I can since every time I look at my cards it makes me second-guess selling them. I'll talk to my friend/roommate about putting together a list. He might have something up already. I guess I just didn't want to make a thread advertising my cards on GAF because that might be against the TOS.

He sold his collection through the same site earlier this year and got back a couple grand, but I know he could have gotten more if he sold individually. I'm guessing, like myself, that the more you focus on trying to sell individual cards, the harder it is to let them go.

I'd still like to buy a Force of Will or two from you if you can knock them loose from the collection.

 

[CorruptShadow]

I haven't made a list; I've been just about as hands off on this as I can since every time I look at my cards it makes me second-guess selling them. I'll talk to my friend/roommate about putting together a list. He might have something up already. I guess I just didn't want to make a thread advertising my cards on GAF because that might be against the TOS.

He sold his collection through the same site earlier this year and got back a couple grand, but I know he could have gotten more if he sold individually. I'm guessing, like myself, that the more you focus on trying to sell individual cards, the harder it is to let them go.

Would love to see a list of what you have. I'm not sure about the posting a sell list in this tread in regards to the TOS. However, on the community page there is a dedicated buy sell trade thread http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=506332 you might have to post it in there and then link to it? Or just ask a mod.

 

[joelseph]

8-4 Round two. I'm playing a Green Devotion deck splash White against a Black Devotion splash green/blue.

Game 1 he has his whip out and has built up 75+ life. I am stalling out with my monsters. Get my bow out and miss the first trigger, click through laziness. Turns out I needed that 3 life. Game ends with opponent having zero cards in his library and a 2/2 intimidate doing lethal. We have less than 10 minutes on our clocks. End up going 2-1. Grrr!

 

[Karakand]

For as much as (myopic) top level players like to bitch about them, they single-handedly keep Legacy playable.

You don't have to expand on this, but I'd be interested to know more because the fetchlands were the worst kind of cards in ODY-ONS / ONS-MIR Standard, rares that pretty much every deck could (had to) use. IIRC, 3 of the 4 decks that played in the final of the World Championship in this era had them and Affinity (the only fetchland-less participant) was problematic for entirely different reasons. In fairness, I believe the Cunning Wake that won ODY-ONS only ran 2x Flooded Strands.

e: I was going through my collection over the weekend and was pretty aghast at how many Standard decks I ran from this period that had fetchlands.

 

[Grecco]

Whats the best and cheapest way to practice theros draft?

 

[kirblar]

You don't have to expand on this, but I'd be interested to know more because the fetchlands were the worst kind of cards in ODY-ONS / ONS-MIR Standard, rares that pretty much every deck could (had to) use. IIRC, 3 of the 4 decks that played in the final of the World Championship in this era had them and Affinity (the only fetchland-less participant) was problematic for entirely different reasons. In fairness, I believe the Cunning Wake that won ODY-ONS only ran 2x Flooded Strands.

e: I was going through my collection over the weekend and was pretty aghast at how many Standard decks I ran from this period that had fetchlands.

They reduce the reliance of Legacy decks on Dual Lands. You would need to run a lot more in order to make decks function.

 

[joelseph]

Karma seems to be in my favor.

Draft 2 game 1 (actually played my flying kitty game 2!)