Magic: the GAFering |OT2|

f0rk said:
It should do considering it is played in Legacy.
I hope they get the cantrip 1/1 bird in there as well give Dimir a playable card for once
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Baleful Strix. I love that thing.

Unfortunately, that's a difficult creature to find an appropriate place for. It's so tightly tied to Alara in terms of flavor; it doesn't make sense in the core set (being gold), so it'll have to wait for a while.
 
So for those who didn't watch, a Melira Pod deck just took down GP Portland (modern).

I never clued in to how disgusting voice of resurgence is in a pod deck, craziness.
 
Sinatar said:
So for those who didn't watch, a Melira Pod deck just took down GP Portland (modern).

I never clued in to how disgusting voice of resurgence is in a pod deck, craziness.
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I played against Voice in a GW hatebears deck online last night (I was playing Splinter Twin). That card is the real deal.
 
Grats ultron. Will vote for.

Consuming Contract vs Double Down
I like the flavor of Consuming Contract a lot but Double Down is a much better card overall and seems like it would be a Modern house. Voted Consuming Contract anyway cause it presents some interesting deckbuilding opportunities.

Blood in the Watering Can vs Mass Mummification
They're both boring cards but one is less boring than the other. And again, there's potential deckbuilding shenanigans with Blood in the Watering Can.

Soulfeaster's Rising vs Revenge of Necromancy
Both are interesting cards but I dislike discard. And the flavor of Soulfeaster's Rising is just to good to pass up.

Eldritch Rites vs Demonic Bargain
I would've liked Rites if it wasn't so fucking narrow with all these qualifiers. Sacrifice a nontoken creature to give a black spell flashback what?
 
Thanks guys. The fact that I'm up against a Yawg's Will variant does scare me.

Getting to read the mass Magic internet's criticisms of my card design is pretty fun.
 
ultron87 said:
Thanks guys. The fact that I'm up against a Yawg's Will variant does scare me.

Getting to read the mass Magic internet's criticisms of my card design is pretty fun.
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The Yawg Will variant is really crappy. Your design is good, albeit, I'm not sure it's actually a very good card without some massaging. You basically have to cast it at XB because it's actually just completely terrible at any other CC. :-P Voted for it.
 
Yeah, if I was making it it would definitely cost XB. But I would totally expect them to cost it at XBB.

I feel like pretty much any of these options will get costed to oblivion, but some more so than others.
 
My thoughts on the proposed cards (I will not beforehand that I primarily play Limited and Cube - the later of which will be heavily influencing my opinions):

Consuming Contract vs Double Down
Double Down is a pretty useless card in singleton formats. Easy as pie choice. Not sure if Consuming Contract offers enough upside for a card that reads "Suspend 4 - You lose the game".

Blood in the Watering Can vs Mass Mummification
Few cards in Cube are sweeter than engine cards. Black has so many good cards that already incidentally make you lose life that stapling a free Raise Dead onto those effects is sweet. The thought of turning my fetchlands into free Raise Deads is also sweet. It combos well with Pox like effects (Pox is a sweet Cube archetype). It also works great in races or creature on creature matchups. Every time your opponent hurts you, you're getting a dude back. Over time there is no way for your opponent to profitably trade with you. Plus Black has tons of 187 kill dudes which makes this card even sweeter. I just hope the card costs at most 3 CMC, even if it has to be BBB.

Soulfeaster's Rising vs Revenge of Necromancy
These both kind of suck. Getting a discard deck to work in Cube is though and eventually they just run out of cards. The other card just seems like too much work. I guess I'll vote for the later because I know a friend of mine who loves discard decks and the later card could go into one of his casual decks?

Eldritch Rites vs Demonic Bargain
The way Rites is worded it seems like you have to pay the mana costs of black spells you give flashback to. If so, meh. Saccing dudes, even nontoken dudes, is no problem with Black's recursive dudes and a sac outlet is always nice but I want more upside. As for the other card is it like Mana Bloom with a mana cost of XB? How one gets the counters on there is kind of important. Should be super neat with proliferate cards :P I imagine this would best fit in some B/X or X/b control deck that finds a turn in which it can tap out and then draw cards for a while before have to deal with (Bounce, Sac effects, Exile, etc.) the demon token. Kind of like a cheaper Aeon Chronicler (but is vulnerable to counters, disenchants, and gives them a dude).

ultron87 said:
I feel like pretty much any of these options will get costed to oblivion, but some more so than others.
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Yeah this is even more important than what the card that wins does to be honest. I don't care how sweet the card is, I'm not playing it if it costs a billion mana. Too many games I'll be dead and/or it will be stranded in my hand for it to matter :(
 
ultron87 said:
Yeah, if I was making it it would definitely cost XB. But I would totally expect them to cost it at XBB.

I feel like pretty much any of these options will get costed to oblivion, but some more so than others.
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I'm not seeing a "clean" design like Crucible here, which saddens me.

The design I thought of was "At end of turn, sacrifice a creature. If you do, draw a card." (could also be Upkeep) Thought of it too late. My initial design got blown up by Notion Thief.
 
So did the DMZ draft on Saturday. Out of the whole box we pulled two mythics and one shockland.

First booster I cracked I pulled Deadbridge Chant and ended up running a GWB deck. Went 1-0 with that deck and due to time, drafted a second BWR deck but never had the opportunity to play it.

Drafting is a lot of fun but I think my group will have to hit up our LGS to draft has our $20 buy in on one box was pretty limiting on what we ran with. A three set draft would be great.
 
So I decided to pick up Finkelstorm on MODO since the parts are dirt cheap still. It's as I suspected: there's still power in that list, but you have to work hard to dig it out.
 
As I expected, MTGSalvation is drooling all over the more spike-ish cards like Eldritch Rites, despite obviously knowing deep down that Wizards will be forced to make their mana costs sky-high.

Consuming Contract vs Double Down
I know Wizards is really wary of one-card engines, and it doesn't even look like a fun card to play. Consuming Contract, on the other hand, feels way more black and looks like the effects could fit well into a cheap card mana cost-wise.

Blood in the Watering Can vs Mass Mummification
The Mummification is a bit too clunky, and hte fact that it applies to both players makes it a lot less interesting, as it could've been a fun lich effect otherwise if they fixed the counters and mana cost to make sure it's relatively playable but still doesn't drag games on forever. BitWC has a fun effect that doesn't look overpowered, so I guess it could be priced at 4 or 5 CMC.

Soulfeaster's Rising vs Revenge of Necromancy
Revenge looks as wordy as Deathrite Shaman, but dependant on discard. The Rising reminds me of my Exquisite Corpse concept, though, so I ultimately went for that.

Eldritch Rites vs Demonic Bargain (BTW, congratulations ultron!)
I read spikes' dreams of using Gravecrawlers alongside Eldritch Rites as some sort of awesome engine of doom, but I know it'll cost 5+ mana, so it's going to end up as an unplayable card in most formats. Bargain treads the fine line of seeming powerful but requiring a very low mana cost in order to be playable (XB would be ideal, but I guess they could also go for X1B or XBB). I also like black cards with drawbacks, so DB gets extra points for being one of the two cards in this YMTC that do have a drawback.

Heh... it looks like the people at Salvation got a list of all the designers' names and some of their twitter accounts. That's going to make voting herder for those who know any of the contestants.
 
Split first in the legacy event over the weekend out of 25 people. Only dropped one game with RUG Delver.

I really wanted to play miracles, but was recommended to play RUG. I was glad after my first 2 opponents were on Miracles.
 
I have an idea for a very weird deck I'd like to run in Standard, or Modern for giggles. Anyways, it looks something like this:

4 Maze's End
4 Door To Nothingness
2 of EACH Guildgate, probably one from the original set and one Dragons Maze for flair.
4 Gatecreeper Vines
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And anything else that will let me draw or find lands. I'm thinking maybe even a couple copies of Crucible of Worlds might work well too. Any suggestions or ideas? I dont think I need to explain the win cons, and this is mostly a deck to screw around with for fun, not to compete.
 
Yofaycesux said:
I have an idea for a very weird deck I'd like to run in Standard, or Modern for giggles. Anyways, it looks something like this:



And anything else that will let me draw or find lands. I'm thinking maybe even a couple copies of Crucible of Worlds might work well too. Any suggestions or ideas? I dont think I need to explain the win cons, and this is mostly a deck to screw around with for fun, not to compete.
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The only problem I see is a deck with 100% EBT lands would be quite slow. Let me try and see what happens...

Lands (25)
4 Maze's End
20 Guildgates (2 of each)
1 Forest

Creatures (18)
4 Gatecreeper Vine
4 Fog Bank
3 Ludevic's Test Subject
4 Axebane Guardian
3 Tree of Redemption

Other Spells (17)
4 Mulch
3 Hold the Gates
3 Unexpected Results
3 Urban Evolution
4 Door to Nowhere
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It barely interacts with your opponents, but it mostly has cards to delay your opponent's assault while you assemble your gates. Axebane Guardian can get you lots of mana, Fog Bank slows your opponents down, Ludevic's Test Subject can work as an alternate win-con in case your plans go wrong, and Tree of Redeption stalls both board presence and direct damage decks.

Hold the Gates looks like it gets to shine in this deck, since it makes all your creatures absolutely unkillable via damage, and gives you a nice mini-combo with Tree of Redemption. If your playgroup plays too many fliers, you could consider running One-eyed Scarecrow instead of Fog Bank, for example.

You could also play blinking effects and self-bounce (Saving Grasp, Cloudshift, Angel of Restoration) to repeatedly replay your Gatecreeper Vines and getting more gates, but I guess that strategy isn't nearly as quirky as the one I ended up choosing.
 
JulianImp said:
The only problem I see is a deck with 100% EBT lands would be quite slow. Let me try and see what happens...



It barely interacts with your opponents, but it mostly has cards to delay your opponent's assault while you assemble your gates. Axebane Guardian can get you lots of mana, Fog Bank slows your opponents down, Ludevic's Test Subject can work as an alternate win-con in case your plans go wrong, and Tree of Redeption stalls both board presence and direct damage decks.

Hold the Gates looks like it gets to shine in this deck, since it makes all your creatures absolutely unkillable via damage, and gives you a nice mini-combo with Tree of Redemption. If your playgroup plays too many fliers, you could consider running One-eyed Scarecrow instead of Fog Bank, for example.

You could also play blinking effects and self-bounce (Saving Grasp, Cloudshift, Angel of Restoration) to repeatedly replay your Gatecreeper Vines and getting more gates, but I guess that strategy isn't nearly as quirky as the one I ended up choosing.
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Oh man, This looks so rad. I want it to be really out-there, and I want people to laugh when I pull it out an explain it. I was also thinking pillowforting would hopefully work well, and I realized the Gates would screw me for mana, but I figured it would only set me back a turn, and this deck is going to be a slow one as is. Thank you so much for looking into it.
 
You might want to consider dropping to either 3 or 2 Doors. It's not your only win-con, and you'll be doing a lot of digging, but multiple copies are about as redundant as can be, and those spots might be better served with something like Fog to help buy you time.
 
Keru_Shiri said:
You might want to consider dropping to either 3 or 2 Doors. It's not your only win-con, and you'll be doing a lot of digging, but multiple copies are about as redundant as can be, and those spots might be better served with something like Fog to help buy you time.
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Yeah, I was considering Fogs for a while, but eventually cut them for actual blockers.

If you want stuff like that, I'd much rather run Saruli Gatekeepers (the seven life will often negate more than a single attack) or Opal Lake Gatekeepers (not as exciting, but still digs you deeper). The black, red and white gatekeepers don't look as exciting as these two, so I'd say these are your best bets. I didn't include any in the deck I suggested since they didn't have defender, and I guessed your Axebane Guardians could use all the help they could get.

If you really want to run fogs, I guess Clinging Mists would be the better option of the bunch, since it can tap down attackers with its Fateful Hour effect.
 
JulianImp said:
Yeah, I was considering Fogs for a while, but eventually cut them for actual blockers.

If you want stuff like that, I'd much rather run Saruli Gatekeepers (the seven life will often negate more than a single attack) or Opal Lake Gatekeepers (not as exciting, but still digs you deeper). The black, red and white gatekeepers don't look as exciting as these two, so I'd say these are your best bets. I didn't include any in the deck I suggested since they didn't have defender, and I guessed your Axebane Guardians could use all the help they could get.

If you really want to run fogs, I guess Clinging Mists would be the better option of the bunch, since it can tap down attackers with its Fateful Hour effect.
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Yeah, true. I was mainly think Fog since it costs only G, which is helpful given how much of the mana base ETBs tapped. Help keep from getting blown out earlier by some of the hyper aggro decks out there.
 
I really appreciate the help guys. I was thinking about running those gatekeepers because I should have no problem casting them. I'll probably drop out a door or two and run two green ones, maybe more and a blue or two if I find the right spot.
 
Yofaycesux said:
I really appreciate the help guys. I was thinking about running those gatekeepers because I should have no problem casting them. I'll probably drop out a door or two and run two green ones, maybe more and a blue or two if I find the right spot.
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Yeah, you should experiment and see which cards work well and which ones aren't helping your goal that much.

If you wanted to play a Modern deck, I'd recommend running just two Maze's End and adding nonbasic land fetching such as Expedition Map, Sylvan Scrying or Scapeshift (mostly for when you have duplicate gates out, I guess). You could also add some cards to let you cheat lands into play faster such as Explore, Coiling Oracle or Rites of Flourishing, or Amulet of Vigor to make all your lands enter the battlefield untapped so you activate your Maze's End right away.

That's just off the top of my head, but I'm sure there're many more interesting defenders in Modern. You could theoretically even cut the defender subtheme and build a more streamlined deck that'd probably play more like combo. You could even mill yourself with several cards such as Hedron Crab and bring cards back using Crucible of Worlds, Eternal Witness or other kinds of recursion engines.
 
Thought y'all might enjoy this.

My LGS is the most competitive store in the state. FNM isn't a gleeful romp through the planes, people get serious. By round three, shit gets real and all the casual players are already calling their moms in tears to pick them up.

A friend of mine convinced his girlfriend to give MTG a whirl and she played at the last FNM. He put a really solid Boros Aggro deck together for her and she went 3-0 thanks to a competitive spirit. In round four, the inevitable happened and they got paired together.

It all ended in tears...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjqvOUNiYO8
 
DixieFlatline said:
Thought y'all might enjoy this.

My LGS is the most competitive store in the state. FNM isn't a gleeful romp through the planes, people get serious. By round three, shit gets real and all the casual players are already calling their moms in tears to pick them up.

A friend of mine convinced his girlfriend to give MTG a whirl and she played at the last FNM. He put a really solid Boros Aggro deck together for her and she went 3-0 thanks to a competitive spirit. In round four, the inevitable happened and they got paired together.

It all ended in tears...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjqvOUNiYO8
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You know, this isn't even close to the first time I've seen something like this. Honestly, there isn't that strong of a correlation between time spent playing Magic and your overall skill. You could play for years and years, and never break past several of the deckbuilding habits that hold people back, while a plucky upstart who grinds the big tourneys and invests in reading articles will quickly rise to the top of their local scene.
 
Keru_Shiri said:
You know, this isn't even close to the first time I've seen something like this. Honestly, there isn't that strong of a correlation between time spent playing Magic and your overall skill. You could play for years and years, and never break past several of the deckbuilding habits that hold people back, while a plucky upstart who grinds the big tourneys and invests in reading articles will quickly rise to the top of their local scene.
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I played MTG casually while I played Chess competitively for years. After studying chess for hours a day for several years, I quit and started playing MTG competitively. Once you learn correct MTG decision making and the current meta, dominating locally is a breeze.

That being said, MTG is far more fun than Chess ever was. I constantly felt beat down and bad. At least with MTG, I can get a little lucky and get great results. I don't think that's a bad thing.
 
I'm thinking of going to the local card shop and getting back into Magic. I was always super casual because I didn't really know anyone who played, never went to shops, and couldn't afford cards. It's kind of ironic that the friend I introduced to Magic will be helping me get back into it.
 
Emitan said:
I'm thinking of going to the local card shop and getting back into Magic. I was always super casual because I didn't really know anyone who played, never went to shops, and couldn't afford cards. It's kind of ironic that the friend I introduced to Magic will be helping me get back into it.
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Well I hope you like throwing money at wizards!

Just drop in at fnm, buy an event deck and play. I'm more than positive someone will show you how to play again. The rules have changed a bit over the years so you'll notice things are slightly different.
 
Emitan said:
I'm thinking of going to the local card shop and getting back into Magic. I was always super casual because I didn't really know anyone who played, never went to shops, and couldn't afford cards. It's kind of ironic that the friend I introduced to Magic will be helping me get back into it.
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What was the most recent set you played? If you remember. I'm always curious about this stuff
 
narcosis219 said:
Well I hope you like throwing money at wizards!

Just drop in at fnm, buy an event deck and play. I'm more than positive someone will show you how to play again. The rules have changed a bit over the years so you'll notice things are slightly different.
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We're going on Saturday because he doesn't have a modern deck and I always have work on Friday nights anyway :/

But yeah my plan is to just buy an event deck.

The Technomancer said:
What was the most recent set you played? If you remember. I'm always curious about this stuff
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I think I recall buying a Guildpact event deck. Think it was this
 
Emitan said:
We're going on Saturday because he doesn't have a modern deck and I always have work on Friday nights anyway :/

But yeah my plan is to just buy an event deck.



I think I recall buying a Guildpact event deck. Think it was this
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It just so happens that the newest set takes place in the set you last played! This is destiny lol.

Anyway you might find some of the cards or guilds familiar
 
kirblar said:
The Yawg Will variant is really crappy. Your design is good, albeit, I'm not sure it's actually a very good card without some massaging. You basically have to cast it at XB because it's actually just completely terrible at any other CC. :-P Voted for it.
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I think it's still really weak at XB... compare to Divination or any of the higher CMC variants, it's like 100 times worse (and Divination is not a powerhouse card).

I did vote for it though, because maybe there's a way to make the mana cost work, and the other card is boring :p Plus, GAF :p
 
Pictures from DOTP 14 came out. Anything here catch anyone's eye?

screenlg2.jpg
[
 
Looks like a vanilla core set alright.

(What am I missing?)
 
Probably nothing, I didn't see anything interesting either, but I was just checking that I didn't overlook anything with you guys.
 
Just finished sleeving my RUG Riku Commander deck in Cthulhu sleeves, now I just need to figure out my mana base. I have the guildgates, a Sulfur Falls, Shimmering Grotto, and some of the INN lands tat do fancy things. But I dont have any fetches or Shocks, and for now I dont think I want to include them. Whats a good ratio for Mana to Cards in a commander deck, in three colors?
 
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