Magic: the Gathering - Battle for Zendikar |OT| Lands matter (but nothing else does)

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Etrian Oddity said:
At first I got excited, but the deck looks kinda lame.
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I just built it, it's pretty okay. It's basically just gold fishing though. Zero interaction with the opponent until you cast ugin or ulamog. I did get a scenario in which I cast 3 awakened part the waterveils in a row. That's pretty dirty.

This is what the average 1st 5 turns can look like:

T1: Land
T2: Land + play Rattleclaw or Leaf Gilder
T3: Land + play Kiora + Plus 1 + Play Rattleclaw / or Play Explosive Veggies
T4: Land + Nissa's Renewal / Or Cast Ugin
T5: Play awakened waterveil or ugin or ulamog.

Seems OK!
 
I'm pulling my hair out trying to make a kickass deck around Kiora. There's just not enough stompy outside of Woodland Wanderer in Temur colors with her.
 
Etrian Oddity said:
I'm pulling my hair out trying to make a kickass deck around Kiora. There's just not enough stompy outside of Woodland Wanderer in Temur colors with her.
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Wait for Mirrorpool! (and hopefully some other supporting cards in Oath) Then the ramp/Part the waterveil x2 with pool/release the kraken(s) on extra turns deck will can really get going. (And maybe till soi, so the format gets super powered down and 2 enemy color decks end up being the best choice thanks to painlands + manlands being better than battle lands)
 
charlequin said:
He's been forward-pedaling almost as fast on that as he's been backpedaling about Infect making a return. 😂
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Good. Just because a set didn't do well on a downturn in the game in general doesn't mean it can't work when things are great. Additionally, the 2 set blocks let them play around with different settings and plots besides "the world is gonna end" without edgy 14 years getting too upset for long.
 
charlequin said:
He's been forward-pedaling almost as fast on that as he's been backpedaling about Infect making a return. 😂
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If Infect ever came back to Standard I would legit buy boxes upon boxes of whatever set that is.

I was introduced to Magic (or at least I started to pay attention to it) during New Phyrexia. Infect was my jam. But Modern Infect is a little too costly for my tastes.
 
I see a lot of cool decks from the Top 32 at Pittsburgh.

First off, UWR Twin? The internet told me this build sucked, here it is taking down a GP. It uses white about as heavy as Grixis uses black, but the sideboard options really stand out to me. Plus, the one-of Kiki is back.

I really want to see Titan Scapeshift in action. On paper this build looks suboptimal too, but when you Top 8 a 2,500+ person GP, I'm not about to question your results. I've been considering keeping a Scapeshift deck around and I might go for this version over the recently popularized Bring to Light variations. At the very least it looks fun to play, who doesn't want to jam Primeval Titan where possible?

Mardu Burn caught my eye at 11th place. Bump in the Night MB and Crackling Doom SB, both good cards but the splash seems to get overlooked these days in favor of Naya for Atarka's Command MB. Maybe more people will consider the Black splash now.

Another possible unorthodox burn deck - did this Naya Burn list really use Monastery Mentor over Monastery Swiftspear? If that's not a mistake then that is an interesting take. Would love to see how that would play out, I would wonder if that would improve the matches when Burn is pretending to be a control deck instead of chaining together enough burn spells to deal lethal ASAP.
 
Not like it's that big of a thing to grab all the burn spells you can and shove them into a deck, but I've had that Mardu Burn list since Boros Charm came out. Eidolon replaced Skullcrack in my list. Mostly because I loved Bump in the Night in Standard and I didn't want to start playing with it. I really think it's a great casual or FNM hero deck, but honestly, if I'm going to be competitive with a burn deck, I want as few mana issues as possible. O

Oh, and I swapped out Blaze for Searing Blood and I've left some Pillars of Flame and a Pyroclasm or 2 in the SB.
 
I used to play Mardu Burn back when Deathrite Shaman was legal (yes, Deathrite Shaman was played in Burn, which just goes to show how bonkers that card was). I don't think it makes much sense to play Mardu over Naya right now though.
 
divisionbyzorro said:
I used to play Mardu Burn back when Deathrite Shaman was legal (yes, Deathrite Shaman was played in Burn, which just goes to show how bonkers that card was). I don't think it makes much sense to play Mardu over Naya right now though.
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I think I know in my heart that Naya Burn is good, but again, if I'm going burn and trying to win game, I'm doing it old school. Red cards. Burn. The end. I just don't like Naya, and I don't have a good reason why.
 
pelicansurf said:
I just built it, it's pretty okay. It's basically just gold fishing though. Zero interaction with the opponent until you cast ugin or ulamog. I did get a scenario in which I cast 3 awakened part the waterveils in a row. That's pretty dirty.

This is what the average 1st 5 turns can look like:

T1: Land
T2: Land + play Rattleclaw or Leaf Gilder
T3: Land + play Kiora + Plus 1 + Play Rattleclaw / or Play Explosive Veggies
T4: Land + Nissa's Renewal / Or Cast Ugin
T5: Play awakened waterveil or ugin or ulamog.

Seems OK!
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I've been playing it for 2-3 weeks now and the deck is hysterical. 3 Ulamog swings in a row is the lolz. It loses badly to Abzan aggro/RG landfall tho, to the point of wanting to mainboard 4 Jadi Offshots. Ive attactual tried Jadi main and the life gain is absurd. It's a meta call to main tho because the life gain isn't necessary vs control.

Part the Waterviel gives you another win condition against Infinite Obliteration if they manage to strip most of your creatures.
 
WanderingWind said:
I think I know in my heart that Naya Burn is good, but again, if I'm going burn and trying to win game, I'm doing it old school. Red cards. Burn. The end. I just don't like Naya, and I don't have a good reason why.
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Quirks like that are funny - I didn't play with Courser of Kruphix because I never liked the art on the card. It'd be like if a poker player just refused to play a 10 of spades or something.

I have a RWg Burn list but no Atarka's Command and no competitive reason not to run it. The only argument I see against it is that it makes it harder to cast Kor Firewalker when you bring that in, other than that the card leads to some insane blowouts. My mana base isn't optimal either, I'd need to tune that up to make it a full Naya list.

---

I missed the Splinter End deck, or Living Twin. Either way, cool deck, I love the diversity in Modern right now.
 
Hm. I kind of want to playtest Mardu Burn with K-Command in the sideboard.

MjFrancis said:
Quirks like that are funny - I didn't play with Courser of Kruphix because I never liked the art on the card. It'd be like if a poker player just refused to play a 10 of spades or something.

I have a RWg Burn list but no Atarka's Command and no competitive reason not to run it. The only argument I see against it is that it makes it harder to cast Kor Firewalker when you bring that in, other than that the card leads to some insane blowouts. My mana base isn't optimal either, I'd need to tune that up to make it a full Naya list.

---

I missed the Splinter End deck, or Living Twin. Either way, cool deck, I love the diversity in Modern right now.
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I think a part of it is that if I'm playing Naya, I really want to be playing Zoo. When I'm playing burn, I want a no-frills approach to Magic. A-Command is definitely a good card, but in my (admittedly limited) playtesting, I never used it for anything besides choose your own Skullcrack.
 
Mardu Burn with Kolaghan's Command sounds fun. Bringing a Goblin Guide or Swiftspear back and dealing two sounds good for three mana.

You know a great argument for Bump in the Night and the black splash? Dispel is everywhere. At GP Pittsburgh it was the 9th most played card. In addition to the sorcery speed the effect being "loses 3 life" instead of damage has to be an advantage in a few places.

Looking at the Mardu list a little more, I notice zero Skullcrack effects in the 75. No Lavamancers for the long game. Just two Paths for Wurmcoils, Firewalker and Twin. Zero enchantment hate, four copies Destructive Revelry for Affinity. Seems to me it's just hoping to win before your opponent can gain any life or combo off on T4. Seems to have worked. I'd love to read a tournament report from that guy.
 
Abzan Red
Jeskai Black
Four color rally
Esper Dragons
Four color Rally
G/R Eldrazi
Temur Black
4 color rally

Your problem with standard in a nutshell , when Esper is the deck playing conservative mana bases you might've made the color fixing a little too good.

Also for the record hallowed moonlight is a card people it's time to start putting them in your sideboards. It boggles my mind that decks like rally work when there are such clear hate cards for it.

Here's a secret
Infinite obliteration in black
Hallowed moonlight in white
Display of Dominance in green
Rending Volley in red

All good cards to have around in your sideboard for various different matches. I've thought about splashing red in every deck just to have access to rending volley out of the board.

Display is a card that isn't good when crackling doom is running rampant but if more people move to murderous cut and utter end it's a pretty good blowout card and great against people who think their jace is safe at 6 loyalty.
 
WanderingWind said:
I think I know in my heart that Naya Burn is good, but again, if I'm going burn and trying to win game, I'm doing it old school. Red cards. Burn. The end. I just don't like Naya, and I don't have a good reason why.
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My man.

Naya is poop. Always has been. They're like the high elves of aggro. Cocky and rich.

PS. Are you going to play Infect or what? I don't want to spend 20 bucks for a Spellskite. D:
 
I would think at this point the actual plane they're on is mostly irrelevant.

At least that's what I'm guessing will happen once Return to Innistrad crashes and burns.

duxstar said:
Abzan Red
Jeskai Black
Four color rally
Esper Dragons
Four color Rally
G/R Eldrazi
Temur Black
4 color rally

Your problem with standard in a nutshell , when Esper is the deck playing conservative mana bases you might've made the color fixing a little too good.

Also for the record hallowed moonlight is a card people it's time to start putting them in your sideboards. It boggles my mind that decks like rally work when there are such clear hate cards for it.

Here's a secret
Infinite obliteration in black
Hallowed moonlight in white
Display of Dominance in green
Rending Volley in red

All good cards to have around in your sideboard for various different matches. I've thought about splashing red in every deck just to have access to rending volley out of the board.

Display is a card that isn't good when crackling doom is running rampant but if more people move to murderous cut and utter end it's a pretty good blowout card and great against people who think their jace is safe at 6 loyalty.
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I'm just playing TedDiBiase.dek now

Creatures:

4 Dragonlord Ojutai
4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Hangarback Walker

Planeswalkers:

1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Sorcery

1 Crux of Fate
3 Duress

Instant

3 Foul-Tongue Invocation
1 Utter End
1 Secure the Wastes
2 Dig Through Time

Enchantment

3 Silkwrap
1 Stasis Snare

Land

4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
4 Shambling Vent
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Windswept Heath
2 Prairie Stream
2 Sunken Hollow
2 Plains
2 Island
1 Swamp
 
Firemind said:
My man.

Naya is poop. Always has been. They're like the high elves of aggro. Cocky and rich.

PS. Are you going to play Infect or what? I don't want to spend 20 bucks for a Spellskite. D:
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I have 3 modern decks. In order of my preference

1) Infect
2) Grixis Control
3) Burn

I also have everything for Naya Zoo, save for the 3 Goyfs and Fetchlands, which is a fancy way of saying I don't actually have Zoo yet. I'm not going to sell of my singular Spellskite. I don't get to play paper much at the moment, but that's the great part about modern. It'll be there when I move back to an area that isn't 1993.
 
sad_monkey_by_y_me.jpg
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.
 
...is there some reason why Imperial Mask would be in it? Is it because of the supposed 2 headed giant support? Because I tend to doubt it. Imperial Mask isn't worth playing even in limited.
 
Angry Grimace said:
...is there some reason why Imperial Mask would be in it? Is it because of the supposed 2 headed giant support? Because I tend to doubt it. Imperial Mask isn't worth playing even in limited.
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Yeah, I figured that it's the only non-Un card that specifically references a teammate. I suppose the "Future Sight" aspect of it might simply be the teammate thing.
 
shrapnelmagnet said:
Yeah, I figured that it's the only non-Un card that specifically references a teammate. I suppose the "Future Sight" aspect of it might simply be the teammate thing.
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It does reference teammates, but I don't think it would see print for the reason that giving a player hexproof is a constructed sideboard effect (because so few things actually target players to begin with) and at 4W its very overcosted (Orbs of Warding does that for 5 and has a bonus effect of hosing aggro)
 
I'm just getting into Magic, and I was wondering is it worth buying the deck builder sets of Magic Origins and 2015? Or should I just focus on the Battle for Zendikar sets? I bought a couple of the intro decks, but I just wondered if the older sets are worth it?
 
8bitsuperhero said:
I'm just getting into Magic, and I was wondering is it worth buying the deck builder sets of Magic Origins and 2015? Or should I just focus on the Battle for Zendikar sets? I bought a couple of the intro decks, but I just wondered if the older sets are worth it?
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If you're just getting started, Magic Origins is a fine jumping off point. Battle for Zendikar is a strange set to start with, because it does a lot of unorthodox things while also being very synergy-dependent. I'd recommend grabbing the Magic Origins toolkit or a Magic Origins Fat Pack.
 
On the downside, I lost in game three of round two in a Cube 8-4 and didn't get to face Reid Duke in the finals :(. Surrak, the Hunt Caller is really, really good at punishing awkward bounceland filled draws.

On the upside, I did get to copy Cruel Ultimatum with Pyromancer's Goggles. In two different games. So that was freakin' sweet. And you get your entry fee back for winning round one, so I'm putting tonight's cube in the win column.

EDIT: The deck

0ddaHXE.jpg
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So is it time to figure out what the fuck I do with all my extra fetchlands now?
 
Running a single Fetch with 4 targets is a little silly, right? (60 cards)

Also, how much lower do you guys think the Battle Lands will go in the short-mid term?
 
Haines said:
Been so busy with life

Has anything been revealed about the next expansion in this set yet?
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There have been leaks (likely real) that we don't fully understand yet.
wastes.jpg
kozilekthegreatdistortion.jpg
mirrorpool.jpg


The popular theories are:
1. <> is a unique type of mana with no color that only appears in this set. This would be similar to how snow mana was handled in Coldsnap.
2. <> is a replacement for (1), or colorless mana, which would mean that Eldrazi Scions would now read "Sacrifice this creature: Add <> to your mana pool". This would mean that the <> in Kozilek's mana cost can only be paid for by colorless mana. This theory is unusual because of how odd it would be to change the (1) symbol in the second set, but Mark Rosewater did confirm on his blog that new players do get confused about how (1) is both colorless mana and a cost that can be paid for by any color.
 
Just to add more fuel to the fire about those leaked cards, the February promo is Clash of Wills, and feature Kozilek and his new hat in the art:

HLrOewcjMs.png
 
SigmasonicX said:
The popular theories are:
1. <> is a unique type of mana with no color that only appears in this set. This would be similar to how snow mana was handled in Coldsnap.
2. <> is a replacement for (1), or colorless mana, which would mean that Eldrazi Scions would now read "Sacrifice this creature: Add <> to your mana pool". This would mean that the <> in Kozilek's mana cost can only be paid for by colorless mana. This theory is unusual because of how odd it would be to change the (1) symbol in the second set, but Mark Rosewater did confirm on his blog that new players do get confused about how (1) is both colorless mana and a cost that can be paid for by any color.
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Aren't those technically the same thing? I still think there's a possibilty they'll include this in the next sets, with the more connected multiverse.
 
They should have used the Wastes mechanic in BFZ instead of Devoid. Gets the confusion out of the way earlier, and means you don't have to have weird colored creatures that are actually colorless nonsense. That way you can also power up some of the Eldrazi cards since <> is harder to cast than (1).

Nettle Drone 1<>R

T: Nettle Drone deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

Whenever you cast a spell with <> in its mana cost, untap Nettle Drone.
 
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";186628967]They should have used the Wastes mechanic in BFZ instead of Devoid. Gets the confusion out of the way earlier, and means you don't have to have weird colored creatures that are actually colorless nonsense. That way you can also power up some of the Eldrazi cards since <> is harder to cast than (1).

Nettle Drone 1<>R

T: Nettle Drone deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

Whenever you cast a spell with <> in its mana cost, untap Nettle Drone.[/QUOTE]

Image.ashx


You need to account for 1-drops
 
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";186628967]They should have used the Wastes mechanic in BFZ instead of Devoid. Gets the confusion out of the way earlier, and means you don't have to have weird colored creatures that are actually colorless nonsense. That way you can also power up some of the Eldrazi cards since <> is harder to cast than (1).

Nettle Drone 1<>R

T: Nettle Drone deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

Whenever you cast a spell with <> in its mana cost, untap Nettle Drone.[/QUOTE]

Every time I think about this block and its design my right eye starts twitching.
 
Familienoberhauptvogel said:
Oh boy jace on a counter and with a quip in the flavour. The creativity is almost palatable
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Isn't the original Clash the same thing?

I like how strictly-worse-than-Syncopate, and strictly worser than Condescend, and strictly worstest than Power Sink is a staple playable.

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";186629903]Then make it cost <> instead of G, or just bring back Tribal to make it all nice and easy for God's sake. If you can't use Tribal for the Ally vs Eldrazi set then I don't know when you can.[/QUOTE]

Nothing. Tribal is dead.

Maro has even said that that there's a non-zero chance they go back to Lorwyn, but if they do Tribal wouldn't be there waiting.

Also, don't get your hopes up for OGW. It's going to be like BFZ - one cool idea that is executed super poorly and never sees play. /jaded
 
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