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Magic: the GAFering |OT2|

If you can get past the initial assembly, you'll beat every deck ever. That's how control works, dude.

"I'll Pithing Needle your Ghor-Clan" is about as good of an argument as "I'll side in Glaring Spotlight against Naya hexproof." Pithing Needle isn't even in most sideboards at all.

I'm just saying that there are so few cards that matter in Brave Naya compared to other aggro decks that it's that much easier to actually control. It's super fragile.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";114465016]I'm just saying that there are so few cards that matter in Brave Naya compared to other aggro decks that it's that much easier to actually control. It's super fragile.[/QUOTE]

I disagree.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";114465613]I can only go by my win percentages.[/QUOTE]

That's called "anecdotal evidence."

I don't think your reasoning is very well explained, to be honest. "I beat my friend when he played a deck like that" isn't really a well-thought out criticism.
 

Jaeyden

Member
It'll only "stop" the permanents that involve voting by countering the ETB ability. The instants/sorceries don't have a trigger since the voting just happens on resolution.

Can we misdirect votes? I think a few vote cards target and doesn't that mean....lol?
 
That's called "anecdotal evidence."

I don't think your reasoning is very well explained, to be honest. "I beat my friend when he played a deck like that" isn't really a well-thought out criticism.

I don't know what else to say.

"Brava Naya is more fragile because you're set up to get 2- or 3- for one'd every game and you play fewer threats making the deck less consistently aggressive along the course of the game"

"I disagree"

...what do you want me to say to that?

If I play against a red deck with a hand full of haste creatures or a guy with two ash zealots and a playset of titan's strength, which deck do I beat more often?

Probably the one that loses to a D-sphere and has a bunch of shit cards in his hand. That's what happens with Brave Naya. Sure, maybe you win on turn 4 if I decide to never interact with you, but I kill your Fabled Hero, exile your voice and now you've got a shit 4/4 trample in your hand and a giant growth. You either wait for your enabler and let me win or you play shit cards and let me win.

It's a great deck, I just think it's easier to beat as a control player than some other decks.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";114466282]I don't know what else to say.

"Brava Naya is more fragile because you're set up to get 2- or 3- for one'd every game and you play fewer threats making the deck less consistently aggressive along the course of the game"

"I disagree"

...what do you want me to say to that?

If I play against a red deck with a hand full of haste creatures or a guy with two ash zealots and a playset of titan's strength, which deck do I beat more often?

Probably the one that loses to a D-sphere and has a bunch of shit cards in his hand. That's what happens with Brave Naya. Sure, maybe you win on turn 4 if I decide to never interact with you, but I kill your Fabled Hero, exile your voice and now you've got a shit 4/4 trample in your hand and a giant growth. You either wait for your enabler and let me win or you play shit cards and let me win.[/QUOTE]

The problem is that you have a tendency to say "Deck is bad," but then it turns out you're just saying it based on the fact that you assume your personal Esper deck always has infinite Detention Sphere on call and that nobody sideboards against control.

To wit: "What happens when I killed your voice, your Fabled Hero and you only have Ghor-Clan and Giant Growth in your hand?!!?" That's not a good criticism, its just a statement about a very specific game-state.
 
The problem is that you have a tendency to say "Deck is bad," but then it turns out you're just saying it based on the fact that you assume your personal Esper deck always has infinite Detention Sphere on call and that nobody sideboards against control.

To wit: "What happens when I killed your voice, your Fabled Hero and you only have Ghor-Clan and Giant Growth in your hand?!!?" That's not a good criticism, its just a statement about a very specific game-state.

I never said that Brave Naya was bad. I said that control has a harder time with other aggro decks. I think Brave Naya is both fun and a good deck.

And even though I brought up a typical game state to illustrate my point, it's not like you've had a counter argument telling me why Naya is so awesome against control. I'd love to know what people aren't doing locally so I can prepare for it.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Why can't I misdirect a split decision? The target is decided by the caster then the council votes. I would think I could misdirect the target.

I don't think the targeting decision goes on the stack. I think the decision and targeting occur as they resolve (assuming it has no target to begin with).
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I don't see why it's any different any other target spell. Why put Misdirection into the set if not?

Oh, I was thinking of the other card. On Split Decision, a new copy of the spell is created and put onto the stack.
 
Man, I really want to run Hero's Downfall in my Esper deck but I don't think I can justify the extra black sources without conceding game one to burn. I like that I have a relatively solid matchup against it.

Currently on:
12 black sources
15 white sources
18 blue sources

12 temples
7 shocks
8 basics

I guess I could run a silence the believers as a catch-all for gods and obzedat, but that card kinda sucks. The other problem is that my mana curve is already mostly 3 and 4-drops. I'm testing the deck without Syncopate so I can run the full playset of Thoughtseize main with 5 O-rings, but I keep going back and forth.
 
I see Spiritmonger and Pernicious Deed are back along with a bunch of other reprinted cards.
Lost to Spiritmonger so much in the past. At least they reprinted Sword to Plowshares. Now I can get a playset for cheap.

Fact or Fiction, Brainstorm and Stifle. Blue is looking good, real good.
 

OnPoint

Member
I see Spiritmonger and Pernicious Deed are back along with a bunch of other reprinted cards.
Lost to Spiritmonger so much in the past. At least they reprinted Sword to Plowshares. Now I can get a playset for cheap.

Fact or Fiction, Brainstorm and Stifle. Blue is looking good, real good.

I had a friend with Spiritmonger. I could not beat that card back then. It was ridiculous. Now it's so outclassed it's hilarious to me. But when I look back at the common removal... it's no surprise.
 
I had a friend with Spiritmonger. I could not beat that card back then. It was ridiculous. Now it's so outclassed it's hilarious to me. But when I look back at the common removal... it's no surprise.

Spiritmonger was one of my favorite cards back when it was in Standard.

I had a BWG deck that loved to put an Armadillo Cloak on that thing after Duress-ing and Gerrard's Verdict-ing the opponent's hand away. A Cloaked Monger is a HOUSE.
 

OnPoint

Member
Spiritmonger was one of my favorite cards back when it was in Standard.

I had a BWG deck that loved to put an Armadillo Cloak on that thing after Duress-ing and Gerrard's Verdict-ing the opponent's hand away. A Cloaked Monger is a HOUSE.

God damn that's powerful.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
What do you guys think about replacing the Soldier of the Pantheon in the Brave Naya list with something like Judge's Familiar? The Soldier kind of sucks since you can't target him with anything.
 

ultron87

Member
He dodges a decent number of relevant multicolor kill spells and gets past some blockers so it might still be worth it for that reason even if you can't combo off with it. And 2 power instead of 1 is certainly relevant.
 
I guess you could use Cackler if you increased the red mana but SotP's abilities are probably more relevant and it makes bte worse.

You could go real deep and use mogis' warhound or everflame eidolon to trigger fabled hero without lowering your creature count lol
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
He dodges a decent number of relevant multicolor kill spells and gets past some blockers so it might still be worth it for that reason even if you can't combo off with it. And 2 power instead of 1 is certainly relevant.

I guess my thought was that if someone really wants to throw removal at my 1-drops, that's not such a bad thing.
 
The old JBT Esper control strategy for maximum comedy

eqmNbj0.jpg


Also, I finally got MODO, god save me. Although the client seems different? Kinda annoying since I always watch videos with the old version so I don't really know what's changed. I played some practice matches in the free area, and everything seems really slow-paced.
 

Wichu

Member
Just bought some cool boosters for my playgroup for Lore Seeker-ing in Conspiracy (one each of Modern Masters, Rise of the Eldrazi, Future Sight, and Unhinged). Basically, I'm charging a little more for each draft to pay for these (between 8 players it adds up), and if anyone opens a Lore Seeker they can use one of these packs instead of providing their own.

This is going to be fun :)
 
Modern Caw-Blade

Main Deck
60 cards

3 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Godless Shrine
3 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
3 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Watery Grave
24 lands

3 Spellskite
4 Squadron Hawk
7 creatures

1 Clutch of the Undercity
2 Detention Sphere
3 Dismember
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
2 Mana Leak
4 Spreading Seas
3 Supreme Verdict
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
26 other spells

3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 planeswalkers

Sideboard
2 Aegis of the Gods
1 Angel's Grace
2 Celestial Purge
1 Disenchant
2 Fracturing Gust
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Mana Leak
1 Mortify
1 Path to Exile
2 Rest in Peace
15 sideboard cards
 

siddx

Magnificent Eager Mighty Brilliantly Erect Registereduser
I'll be back in the US in less than two weeks and have a few weekends to draft and play sealed with Theros block. Worth it? I haven't kept up with the block as closely as I did RTR so I don't know very much about it beyond looking at spoilers. Is it fun to draft?
 
I'll be back in the US in less than two weeks and have a few weekends to draft and play sealed with Theros block. Worth it? I haven't kept up with the block as closely as I did RTR so I don't know very much about it beyond looking at spoilers. Is it fun to draft?

It's extremely fun. I like it a lot better than RTR, there's a lot more layers of interaction with the creature abilities in Theros that make for a great draft.
 

siddx

Magnificent Eager Mighty Brilliantly Erect Registereduser
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";114639184]It's extremely fun. I like it a lot better than RTR, there's a lot more layers of interaction with the creature abilities in Theros that make for a great draft.[/QUOTE]

Nice, looking forward to playing after a year of being away from the game. From what I can tell it seems like strive and heroic are pretty nasty. But I know all to well with mtg that perception and reality are very different things.
 
Nice, looking forward to playing after a year of being away from the game. From what I can tell it seems like strive and heroic are pretty nasty. But I know all to well with mtg that perception and reality are very different things.

Bestow is very good too.

The format is very tempo-focused. It's very much about creating and pressing an advantage; there was recently a limited GP (Atlanta) that had a lot of really good play in the day two draft portion. I'd recommend watching some of the coverage if you're interested in seeing how the games go down.
 

siddx

Magnificent Eager Mighty Brilliantly Erect Registereduser
Bestow is very good too.

The format is very tempo-focused. It's very much about creating and pressing an advantage; there was recently a limited GP (Atlanta) that had a lot of really good play in the day two draft portion. I'd recommend watching some of the coverage if you're interested in seeing how the games go down.

Thanks, I'll definitely check those out. Mid range tempo is somewhat out of my element as I'm more of an aggro player but I can adapt.
 
Thanks, I'll definitely check those out. Mid range tempo is somewhat out of my element as I'm more of an aggro player but I can adapt.

Balls-to-the-wall aggro was definitely an archetype in triple Theros, and R/W decks in JBT are still quite aggressive. When I say "tempo focused" format, I mean that you'll find yourself racing a lot, and it's very easy for a single card (even a common) to completely turn a race on its head. Knowing when to punch the gas and push a race and knowing when to hit the brakes and slow the game down is probably the most important skill in the block.
 
It's funny, I saw the question about the format but didn't have time to post a reply, and thought that I'd be in the minority for liking the draft format. I guess the complaining I've been seeing while skimming the thread was all standard based or something.

I've been having a blast with it though.
 

siddx

Magnificent Eager Mighty Brilliantly Erect Registereduser
Balls-to-the-wall aggro was definitely an archetype in triple Theros, and R/W decks in JBT are still quite aggressive. When I say "tempo focused" format, I mean that you'll find yourself racing a lot, and it's very easy for a single card (even a common) to completely turn a race on its head. Knowing when to punch the gas and push a race and knowing when to hit the brakes and slow the game down is probably the most important skill in the block.

Ah I see, yeah that makes sense. Excellent, thats part of what makes me like limited so much. Having to figure out the best way to use such a wide variety of cards, many of which would never see play in any other format, and how to turn a common overcosted sorcery into a game winner by understanding the best time and situation to use it in, how to control the flow of the match to best use the cards you drafted. Man I miss playing.
 

Crocodile

Member
It's funny, I saw the question about the format but didn't have time to post a reply, and thought that I'd be in the minority for liking the draft format. I guess the complaining I've been seeing while skimming the thread was all standard based or something.

I've been having a blast with it though.

The full block format is MUCH better than Triple Theros or 2x Theros + Born. Triple Theros got old very fast and was pretty uninteractive and Born was a shitty set overall that didn't shake things up enough.
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
I'll be back in the US in less than two weeks and have a few weekends to draft and play sealed with Theros block. Worth it? I haven't kept up with the block as closely as I did RTR so I don't know very much about it beyond looking at spoilers. Is it fun to draft?

For good?
 
Speaking of shaking things up, my girlfriend and I did a double block full RTR-THR sealed draft today. Pretty interesting interactions going on with codex shredder shutting down scry effects and common bond being a solid heroic enabler.

Also, game one she Thoughtseized me when the only card in my hand was a Loxodon Smiter. Godlike.

Armory of Iroas with Selesnya Sentry got pretty dumb fast, as well.
 
The full block format is MUCH better than Triple Theros or 2x Theros + Born. Triple Theros got old very fast and was pretty uninteractive and Born was a shitty set overall that didn't shake things up enough.

Born was a crappy set to draft first because of color balance issues, and Triple Theros just had too many Ordeals floating about. The color balance of Born still rears its head a little bit - drafting red can be tricky in the full block because even if your neighbor to your right cuts it completely in Journey, it can still be correct to move into red just for pack two if you haven't solidified your second color yet.
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Naw, just for the summer, then I head back to Vietnam. Maybe I'll get lucky and they will unban the game here.

Not sick of the moving back and forth yet?

Also, start digging through your Lorwyn boxes when you get back and sell off all your Mutavaults as soon as you get back.
 

siddx

Magnificent Eager Mighty Brilliantly Erect Registereduser
Not sick of the moving back and forth yet?

Also, start digging through your Lorwyn boxes when you get back and sell off all your Mutavaults as soon as you get back.

Naw, I just come to the US for the summers to relax before coming back to Vietnam for the work year. It's a good deal, especially since the school pays for my ticket from now on since I am not a rookie anymore.

No Lorwyn muta's sadly, just m14s.
 
Born was a crappy set to draft first because of color balance issues, and Triple Theros just had too many Ordeals floating about. The color balance of Born still rears its head a little bit - drafting red can be tricky in the full block because even if your neighbor to your right cuts it completely in Journey, it can still be correct to move into red just for pack two if you haven't solidified your second color yet.

monopolizing red can lead to some of the best decks in the draft, too. Especially if the people around you know to fight over the blue/green deck. Red is such a risky color, but it pays off in the right situations.

draft3ufka.png
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";114679633]I know it's dumb but it's so addicting :([/QUOTE]

CubeTutor is better, even if it's not perfect.

On a side note, anybody looking to trade paper for MTGO cards, I'm your man.
 
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