• 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 Gathering - Battle for Zendikar |OT| Lands matter (but nothing else does)

Status
Not open for further replies.
What's the big take away so far for constructed after day one?

My take-aways (term explanations provided for newer players):
* Transformative sideboards are huge now. That is to say, decks whose strategies and even colors can greatly change by swapping in cards from the sideboard.
* Aristocrats decks are better than many people expected going in. That is to say, decks that focus on sacrificing a lot of creatures to boost Nantuko Husk and get benefits from your creatures dying such as with Zulaport Cutthroat and Catacomb Sifter.
* Abzan (green-white-black) is still good, but not as good as it used to be. Jeskai (white-blue-red) variations are favored now.
 

f0rk

Member
* Aristocrats decks are better than many people expected going in. That is to say, decks that focus on sacrificing a lot of creatures to boost Nantuko Husk and get benefits from your creatures dying such as with Zulaport Cutthroat and Catacomb Sifter.

Does anyone have a link to the excepted list for this? Might buy in if it's not too much

edit: oh I forgot about Hangarback... I guess I have to buy them at some point
 

bigkrev

Member
Does anyone have a link to the excepted list for this? Might buy in if it's not too much

edit: oh I forgot about Hangarback... I guess I have to buy them at some point

Buy 4 of the event deck, and you basically have Nassifs entire GB Aristocrats deck minus the fetchlands
 

duxstar

Member
Anyone find it funny Maro just said "we didn't want people to play all the best cards"

In a format where people are pretty much doing just that lol
 
Anyone find it funny Maro just said "we didn't want people to play all the best cards"

In a format where people are pretty much doing just that lol

Didn't watch but maybe he meant it in the sense no matter the colour, not just have decks playing all the good cards because they can.


If Dark is Black and Light is White what are the other colours as illumination
Red I'd guess would be warm, Blue cold and Green? Whoever is playing Blue Abzan should immediately rename it to Cold Abzan.
 

kirblar

Member
Anyone find it funny Maro just said "we didn't want people to play all the best cards"

In a format where people are pretty much doing just that lol
Like, for all their talk about not printing "aces", holy shit this format is nothing but aces. The mana is clearly too good, especially since they put in a 5c theme.
 
TBF, with the new rotation schedule, this 4-color good stuff format will only last six months. I imagine they're willing to go to greater extremes with differences between Standard formats now,
 

Firemind

Member
Esper is bonkers.

It even plays Secure the Wastes because it's sick with Gideon.

Relevant burn spells would have been nice right about now. :lol
 
I wonder, would a Rest in Peace reprint see play?

EDIT: Really, you put Juza's name up with a '?' instead of an accented u, when you have that correctly shown on the bottom of the screen?
 
I used to know my DCI # by heart. I think it was 6 digits? I remember they added a couple digits at some point - around '99 or '00?

Fantastic! My handle is CWW. I just need to actually complete a deck first. ^^

I'm Acheron. Feel free to shake me down for a game if you see me online.
 
Some would say BBE wasn't exactly their brightest moment either

Cascade is a horrid mechanic. It gives you free card drawing, it lets you play spells for free, it's random, it pushes people towards a limited deck design... it has every single bad thing a bad mechanic can have.

It's just that I've heard the whole "We changed it last-minute without testing" narrative a bit too often.

We hear it a lot, but in their defense (?), it's not a lie, it's just that they actually screw up by putting stuff out with last-minute changes pretty often.

Regrettably, JTMS made sure we're not going to see a walker with four abilities for quite a while.

We got Garruk!

Anyone find it funny Maro just said "we didn't want people to play all the best cards"

In a format where people are pretty much doing just that lol

Yeah I'm not sure how they screwed this one up exactly but their specific stated goal with this format was to not have people playing 4-color goodstuff decks on a mana base too good to punish people for that, so definitely mistakes were made somewhere.

Speaking of four-color goodstuff decks: I don't understand how people pick the names on these things. If "Jeskai Black" were a Jeskai deck with a splash for one card I'd get it, but it's a legit 4-color deck playing 3-color cards from two clans, so... how are we deciding what to call it? Why isn't it Mardu Blue? That one rhymes!
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Maybe they started with Jeskai and decided to add black and kept adding black until there was as much black as the other colors.

No one starts with Mardu apparently?
 

Ashodin

Member
Seems a C15 card got leaked

dUGyMyM.jpg


Eternal Witness
 

Santiako

Member
I preordered all 5 C15 decks, seems like a good way to start back :p

Happy that Eternal Witness is in at least one of them, it's an old favourite of mine.
 
Other unique cards in black-blue Aristocrats:
4x Whirler Rogue
4x Bloodsoaked Champion
4x Sidisi's Faithful
4x Sultai Emissary
1x Vampiric Rites

Sidisi's Faithful is especially surprising.
 

Yeef

Member
4.where can i learn draft fundamentals. Im sure theres a shit ton of articles videos. So wondering if theres certain ones you guys would pick over others
Most people swear by the Limited Resources podcast, but if you're not into podcasts check out the Level One article as a place to get started. The best way to get good at drafting is to just practice.

5. Vampiric rites? Seems strong? Sac dudes that will die anyways blocking?
It's a very strong card in the right deck. It makes your opponent's removal spells a lot worse. THe ability is a little bit expensive, so it wants a deck with a lower curve. If you end up in the white/black life gain deck or the black/green it does a lot of good work.

9. Can i shuffle my cards after my opponent cuts them/shuffles them on me? My friend told me ots possible bit i have to ask him if he wants to shuffle or cut gain.
Once your opponent cuts or shuffles your deck, you can't shuffle it anymore. If you do it by accident it's not a big deal, but they'll have to cut or shuffle again.
 

Ashodin

Member
Other unique cards in black-blue Aristocrats:
4x Whirler Rogue
4x Bloodsoaked Champion
4x Sidisi's Faithful
4x Sultai Emissary
1x Vampiric Rites

Sidisi's Faithful is especially surprising.

The bounce is crucial to clear the way for Nantuko Husk. It also flips Liliana, Heretical Healer as well and you can immediately -1 her so you get straight value for the husk.
 
Holy shit, Nantuko Husk still seeing play? Did they go back to post-apocalypse Dominaria or was it just a Core Set reprint?

Magic Origins consisted of 5 planeswalkers, the plane they originated from and the plane they first walked to.

Liliana walked to originated from Dominaria, so that's why we got the reprint.
 
Holy shit, Nantuko Husk still seeing play? Did they go back to post-apocalypse Dominaria or was it just a Core Set reprint?

It's from the newest (last) core set, yes.

Magic Origins consisted of 5 planeswalkers, the plane they originated from and the plane they first walked to.

Liliana walked to Dominaria, so that's why we got the reprint.

No, she's from Dominaria (from a previously unseen country) and first planeswalked to Innistrad.
 

Santiako

Member
Magic Origins consisted of 5 planeswalkers, the plane they originated from and the plane they first walked to.

Liliana walked to Dominaria, so that's why we got the reprint.

It's from the newest (last) core set, yes.

No, she's from Dominaria (from a previously unseen country) and first planeswalked to Innistrad.

Cool. I hope they revisit Dominaria at some point. And somehow they make an Urza card (not just blind seer), even an Urza's head card :p
 

Ashodin

Member
I have a theory the Raven Man is a Time Spiral shifted evil Urza.

cardart_vtntRQapZQ.jpg


I mean he looks like Urza. He can planeswalk, and is manipulating Liliana towards an end we have no idea about currently.
 

MjFrancis

Member
I am definitely going to run that U/B Aristocrats list. Everyone trying Mardu, Abzan, B/G variants, and even a few Sulati brews here and there - not once did I see anyone propose a U/B build. That seems like a huge oversight, one that I shared.
 
I will be disappointed if UB Aristocrats pushes out the other Aristocrats variations, though. I really liked the BG one that could splash red post-sideboard.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I will be disappointed if UB Aristocrats pushes out the other Aristocrats variations, though. I really liked the BG one that could splash red post-sideboard.

Its worse, its just a metagame call because nobody knows what it does.
 
Got crushed. I don't know how I could have played differently but I also don't want to blame bad luck. I did get to correct a judge though, so at least I had a highlight for the day.

Holy fuck if atarka red keeps being a thing I'm done with standard until wizards stop's being fucking idiots.
Why do you complain about literally every deck?
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Atarka Red is way more beatable by the average deck than it was for the last entire year. It's not a great deck it is just a metagame call, which is exactly where RDW should be - a deck that can Spike a tournament if people don't think about it enough.
 

duxstar

Member
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";182017745]Got crushed. I don't know how I could have played differently but I also don't want to blame bad luck. I did get to correct a judge though, so at least I had a highlight for the day.


Why do you complain about literally every deck?[/QUOTE]

Not every deck. I see what the u/b aristocrats is doing and is kind of cool; i just hate that decks that require MINIMAL thought process. How much fun is magic when you do nothing but go yep i had these 3 cards and you lose out of nowhere. There is no play there at all to the deck just 1, 2, 3, I win by turn 4 because you didn't draw the sideboard card you needed.t

Also there has never been a point in standard since i've been there that red aggro DOESN'T have a deck meanwhile you can't say that about any of the other archetypes.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom