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Magic: the Gathering - Oath o/t Gatewatch |OT| Look again, the mana is now diamonds!

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T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Speaking of other TCGs I love the Netrunner card game but I just can't play it without a good multiplayer mode as just the reality of game nights these days. There's very little room for a game that only supports 2 players

Hell, I have the same problem with mahjong as well because we almost always have more than four people

Game nights are hard

kirblar said:
10E allied painlands are going to hold value for casual play since they look awesome.
Click to expand...

Well...most of them

Image.ashx
 
S

shrapnelmagnet

Member
kirblar said:
10E allied painlands are going to hold value for casual play since they look awesome.
Click to expand...

Good thing I like the Ice Age Adarkar Wastes :p I have two 5ED or 6ED ones and meant to get the other two, but forgot. Now the waiting game. I definitely wanna make a casual Colourless Mana deck when things rotate / settle down (unless the deck remains a thing in Modern).

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D

divisionbyzorro

Member
I don't want them to shy away from printing powerful lands just because they get them wrong sometimes. Other times they get them just right (see Nykthos). I think the game is better when they're not super conservative.
 
C

charlequin

Banned
red13th said:
Glad I got mine before the spike. I'm still missing a few enemy coloured duals but I got all the 10E ones for pretty cheap last year!
And yeah they are beautiful!
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The allied ones got really nice new art commissioned in Seventh (unexpected, given how godawful most of the new 7E art is) after a pretty underwhelming set in Fifth, while the enemy ones all just used the hit-and-miss Apocalypse art.
 
E

ElyrionX

Member
Angry Grimace said:
I mean, from a competitive standpoint, I'm sure some players see it this way: if 20% of all Magic games aren't games, that means you win 10% of the time without doing anything. But I play Magic for fun, so all 20% of those games suck.

Am I just being salty and toothlessly whining? Probably. It's just too much of a pain to sell out of this game and it fills a lot of time. Hopefully SOI brings some of the fun back to Standard. I felt like BFZ didn't add anything fun to the Constructed environment, which kind of ruined the fun of rotation, even if OGW added some neat stuff.
Click to expand...

Yeah. These are inherent issues with Magic that gets exacerbated by the competitive environment. I agree with the other poster that what you're really looking for is a less competitive format.

I'd say EDH is the answer but you hate that so.........
 
A

Ashodin

Member
I'm working on a new format called Artificer.

  • 60 card singleton
  • Legendary Artifact you start the game with
  • Artifact can be "upgraded" as the game goes on
  • # of mana in artifact cost = number of colors you can use in your deck (0 = colorless, 5+ = 5)

it's not finished yet, so there will probably be "bans" of what can be used as your legendary artifact.
 
G

Giant Panda

Member
I've been working on a 450 card peasant cube for a while, but I think it's nearly done. Hopefully I can get some feedback from you guys before I try to get my playgroup to try it. I've never done cube with them before, so I don't want to mess up the first impression.
 
S

SigmasonicX

Member
Hmm, I wonder, how much of an effect would the following two rules have?
1. Exile three nonland cards from your hand: Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a land card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. Activate this ability only during your draw step.
2. Exile three land cards from your hand: Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a nonland card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. Activate this ability only during your draw step.

Like, would this
a. Actually help someone experiencing mana flood/short?
b. Not be strong enough to actually make certain strategies stronger?

I restricted the number of cards you can look at to prevent you from making a deck with no nonlands but Emrakul or something, but I'm not sure if that's enough. I also restricted it to your draw step, so you don't do this in response to a discard spell so you can get a madness spell or something.
 
R

Remembrance

Member
charlequin said:
The allied ones got really nice new art commissioned in Seventh (unexpected, given how godawful most of the new 7E art is) after a pretty underwhelming set in Fifth, while the enemy ones all just used the hit-and-miss Apocalypse art.
Click to expand...

Well, except for Karplusan Forest looking so weird in 7E that it got new art again in 9E.
 
B

bigkrev

Member
Watch game 2 of Efro-Bob from VSL this week to see the most savage beat- Play Necro at 13 life, need to find a black source to win the game, Necro for 8, hit no lands, next turn Necro for 4, the last card hit is a Scalding Tarn which can't be cracked.

Just brutal luck.
 
P

pigeon

Banned
I mean, make no mistake, no matter what MaRo says, land is a bad design. It's such a bad design that it warps almost every aspect of competitive -- best of threes, constant revisions to mulligan rules, etc. Everything has to be built around the 10% chance that your hand is dead when you draw it.

There are lots of possibilities for improving it, too, it's just that Magic more or less came first and everybody else was just iterating on land.

* Let players start with a strong land in play (L5R)
* Let players tutor up lands in turn one (L5R again)
* Let players convert cards in their hand into land (that one Marvel Heroes game)
* etc.

But I don't think they'll actually fix lands any time soon because so much is already built around the concept.

SigmasonicX said:
Hmm, I wonder, how much of an effect would the following two rules have?
1. Exile three nonland cards from your hand: Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a land card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. Activate this ability only during your draw step.
2. Exile three land cards from your hand: Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a nonland card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. Activate this ability only during your draw step.

Like, would this
a. Actually help someone experiencing mana flood/short?
b. Not be strong enough to actually make certain strategies stronger?

I restricted the number of cards you can look at to prevent you from making a deck with no nonlands but Emrakul or something, but I'm not sure if that's enough. I also restricted it to your draw step, so you don't do this in response to a discard spell so you can get a madness spell or something.
Click to expand...

You don't actually need both rules -- if you put one of those rules in, people will adjust their land balance to take advantage of it. So I'd just put in the first option and let people run like 12 lands instead. But I think you've tuned it too weak because you made it too general. The big problem with mana isn't the ongoing danger of topdecks, it's the vital importance of getting enough land in the first hand to play the game without getting so much that you can't play the game.

I would basically just print this:

Magical Gift
Land
T: C.
Pay 2 life: If this is your first turn, search your library for ~ and a basic land, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Play this ability only once per game and only if ~ is in your library.

You can probably get away with just running two of these.
 
T

Toxi

Banned
charlequin said:
The allied ones got really nice new art commissioned in Seventh (unexpected, given how godawful most of the new 7E art is) after a pretty underwhelming set in Fifth, while the enemy ones all just used the hit-and-miss Apocalypse art.
Click to expand...
While 7th Edition had some really good new pieces like Wrath of God, those were few and far between, and the bad stuff was baaaaaaaaad

253.jpg

256.jpg

290.jpg

20.jpg

162.jpg

261.jpg

28.jpg
 
A

Ashodin

Member
Toxi said:
While 7th Edition had some really good new pieces like Wrath of God, the bad stuff was baaaaaaaaad
dat fuckn art
Click to expand...

I was going to defend it, but yeah, that's shit art.

Coat of Arms doesn't even exemplify what it does

It's just a generic lady soldier with a symbol on her shield lmao
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
bigkrev said:
Watch game 2 of Efro-Bob from VSL this week to see the most savage beat- Play Necro at 13 life, need to find a black source to win the game, Necro for 8, hit no lands, next turn Necro for 4, the last card hit is a Scalding Tarn which can't be cracked.

Just brutal luck.
Click to expand...

Why Necro for 8 instead of just necro for 11 to begin with
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
This isn't the worst or most degenerate Standard environments ever, but goddamn did it wear its fucking welcome out as fast as I've ever seen. Translation: I got goodstuff'd out 4 times in a row OTL
 
B

bigkrev

Member
divisionbyzorro said:
I just started watching last night's VSL. Holy shit, Pikula should be banned from playing Storm ever again. I'm crying laughing over here.
Click to expand...

I was wondering if Menendian was ghosting in game 2, because the only situation where you would keep a hand with no blue or black Mana like that was if you knew Pikula had a T1 Tinker play
 
T

ThLunarian

Member
I like the feel of cards in my hand, and I like owning physical copies of those cards, but I find the process of sleeving/unsleeving cards, and organizing a collection, and taking cards out of decks to return to their resting places, very tedious, time consuming, and not fun.

If I could just have a personal assistant who could maintain and keep organized my collection. If I were wealthy, that would be one of my assistant's duties.

I actually kind of like taking cards out of my collection to put into decks though, so I'd still do that myself.
 
F

Familienoberhauptvogel

Banned
Just bought 8 become immense and murderous cuts so I don't have to switch them back and forth between decks.

Other than that. I am repeatedly juggling cards between decks which can get annoying but I'd rather build a white base that goes into every white commander deck. Than buy all of the cards 4 times.
 
S

Santiako

Member
Brago got dethroned, the set is now:

en_iSjlNnZkBQ.png


Set Name Conspiracy: The Empty Throne
Number of Cards 221 220
Release Date August 26, 2016

I wonder if they'll keep changing the name until release or this is it.
 
D

divisionbyzorro

Member
Bwa ha ha. It's their Game of Thrones set.

EDIT: Oh man. Complete random speculation here. Didn't Maro once want to build a mechanic where there were cards that were illegal to put in your main deck? Where they had to start in your sideboard and you put them into your deck through other means? What if they do that here, with the spirits of slain kings and wanna-bes?

I.e., what if Brago isn't really gone from the set? CONSPIRACY...
 
K

KingErich

Banned
I went to my first Draft night last night. We had about 10 people but we made it work. There were a few other new players there, so that was cool.

We got our 3 packs and busted em open. All Oath of the Gatewatch. My first rare was Reality Smasher, so I picked him up. I figured I could build around him. After about 3 hand offs I was dedicated to Red/White. I picked up a lot of low Mana cost Red creatures at first. Sprinkled in some low to mid White. Then went with some higher cost Red 4-5. I had a good curve on creatures. Mostly 2-3 Mana cost. I just winged it on Instants and Sorcery. There weren't many good Artifacts being passed. No one wanted Seer Lantern. I somehow ended up with 3 of them. Picked up a few Wastes. Then on the last few draws it was just garbage colors I couldn't use.

I passed on my other Rares; Deceiver of Form and Call of the Gatewatch. I passed up on the one Rare that was handed to me, Fall of the Titans. Which I probably should have kept. But oh well. I built the best deck I could. I laid them all out based on type, color and cost. I feel I had a decently rounded deck. Sure there were some things missing but it was my first time.

I ended up getting paired up with a guy who only has played a handful of times. We were both super slow. I ended up cleaning house on the first game. He won the second and it was a close one on the third but I pulled through with just 1 life to spare. He was playing Blue mostly.

The second game was against a Veteran. He shows up at the store quite a bit to play. I actually beat him the first game! The look on his face. I top decked the Instant 2 damage I needed to beat him! He ended up beating me the next two games with his 4 color deck.

My third round was against another long time player. He had a mostly Green deck. The first game I got pounded. The second game, I made a huge misplay that could have won me the game. I had enough Mana to place a creature at the end of my Second Main Phase or Scry a card. I wasn't thinking and Scry. If I would have placed my creature, I would have blocked 1 of his 9 incoming damage swinging from all 5 of his creatures. I would have had 1HP left and swung in with my creatures to do the 8 damage I needed to win. Oh well. Live and learn.

It was a lot of fun. I learned a lot. I will be there next Tuesday. :)

I should add, Drafting to me seems like the great equalizer. Everyone is on the same footing with card selection. Knowing how to quickly read the cards and build a deck. Then its just a bit of skill and luck of the draw after that. It isn't necessarily who can spend the most money to compete.
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Sorry whoever it is that writes these, they took your jerb (I wrote it up for SA already)

Uncharted Realms: Magic Story

The setting sun glinted redly off a shirtless Gideon Jura’s hairless chest. Red, too, was the glow in Chandra Nalaar’s eyes, though it seemed a little brighter than one would expect from a sunset alone, even on Zendikar, the magical plane with a special kind of mana where the newly-formed Gatewatch, a super-cool team of four planeswalkers, had just defeated the unimaginably fearsome Eldrazi.

“Way to go, Gideon,” said the fire mage (Chandra), resting her staff on a blackened tree stump. “Way to go everyone. At last the multiverse is free of the Eldrazi and I can get back to what I do best – makin’ peppy wisecracks and settin’ stuff on fire!”

Jace Beleren smiled enigmatically. “It is so,” intoned his enigmatic voice. “I realised that there was one thing those plane-devouring beings from the blind eternities hadn’t reckoned on, and that was a team made up of a master telepath, a powerful pyromancer, a mighty soldier, and an elf.” The enigmatic mage smiled again, giving his face a somewhat enigmatic air.

“Iffaith,” agreed Gideon, his muscles rippling where his shirt (or jacket etc) would have been if he was wearing one. “The bards of Zendikar will sing of our deeds for many moons. In time, mayhap, it will be we who are mistaken for gods.”

“And goddesses,” he added ruminatively, his granite brow furrowing and his burly chest muscles moving as one would expect. “I do confess, ’tis passing strange that there should have been two women on our team. One is the usual number, in sooth.”

Chandra Nalaar rolled her reddish-glowing eyes. “Zip it, Giddy. Those rules don’t apply here. The only tokens this multiverse needs are 3/1 elementals.”

Nissa coughed slightly. Jace gave her an enigmatic look.

Ever restless, Chandra stood and stretched herself, as if to planeswalk away in search of her next adventure and a new permutation of direct damage, looting and casting spells for free. She smiled and turned for a parting remark. “You know what’s funny, though? When I cast that final spell to flambé those Eldrazi guys for good?”

Gideon smiled shirtlessly at the memory. Jace’s enigmatic visage took on an aspect of enigmatic curiosity as Chandra winked a fiery eye at each companion in turn.

“I never had time to learn that spell properly, so I just sharpied FALL OF THE TITANS on a Magmatic Chasm. And those world-eating goombas will never know!” As she laughed her carefree, convention defying laugh, she didn’t notice that Nissa’s face, always somewhat ghostly, had turned a shade paler. Veins bulged visibly in Gideon’s neck, abdomen and left biceps, while Jace, ever the enigma, merely looked into the enigmatic distance. Quietly at first, a very low rumble began. A rumble that seemed to stir the bowels of the very plane of Zendikar. The rumble grew louder. Nissa turned colorless.

The Gatewatch’s second challenge was approaching sooner than anyone had expected. And this time, even the combined awesome powers of the four happening and diverse mages would not be enough. They needed to recruit… a sexy necromancer.
Click to expand...

Actual story:

* Gideon wanders around the Ally Encampment going for his new custom: a morning jog without his armor (I swear I am not making this up). He shirtlessly ruminates upon all that happened and is like "fuck yeah we rule." Tazri catches up to him and is like "good job Gideon" and they run together for a while. Tazri's like "with all the people leaving, we're gonna be alone here in a couple of days." Gideon is too dense to get that she's saying she wants to fuck, so he's like "yeah I bet haha" and then Tazri's all sad because Gideon's planning to bounce.

* Chandra's sitting on an uncomfortable chair (they tell you this about a billion times). She's using her pyromancy powers to heat up soup and survey her fellow Planeswalkers. She's hot for Gideon (but she always was) and she's already bosom buddies with Nissa, but Jace is straight up staring off into the distance brooding because he's Jace. They keep going around this chair thing a lot and it turns out to be Ulamog's skull and it turns out that Chandra's paralyzed (temporarily) for using all the world's power to fuel the spell that killed Kozilek and Ulamog.

* Jace is brooding about shit and he straight up starts bemoaning the fact that he's a charisma black hole which isn't nearly as cool as Gideon. This happens.

* Ugin shows up and he's a huge dick. He gets mad at Jace and listens to the Gatewatch explain all the shit that happened, but Ugin isn't having it and he's mad because he wanted to study the Eldrazi and discover their purpose. He didn't actually have an idea something bad would happen if you killed them; he was literally just making that shit up. Jace is like "tell me what you know" but Ugin is a dick and refuses and tells Jace he sucks. Jace lists the remaining threats for the gatewatch: Nicol Bolas, Emrakul (who Ugin confirms left the plane entirely), Ob Nixilis and finding Sorin for whatever reason. Jace confirms he is heading for Innistrad to find Sorin.

* Nissa wanders around the glyph marvelling at how awesome she is and thinking about trees and shit. Chandra walks up with her Ulamog's Skull Cane and they have a Girlz Moment where Nissa's like "but I cannot possibly leave Zendikar" and Chandra goes "well you don't have to" but then gives the Uncle Ben speech about power and responsibility and Nissa instantly changes her mind because it would be too hard for her to leave her friend Chandra behind, despite the fact she met Chandra 2 chapters ago.
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
They keep going around this chair thing a lot and it turns out to be Ulamog's skull and it turns out that Chandra's paralyzed (temporarily) for using all the world's power to fuel the spell that killed Kozilek and Ulamog.
Click to expand...

Goddamnit I hate this trope. I have only ever enjoyed it in Hunter x Hunter where there were actual fucking permanent consequences
 
S

SigmasonicX

Member
Magic Story - Zendikar Resurgent
This story is divided into four sections, each with a different perspective planeswalker and each written by a different author. Presumably the last one, Nissa's, is written by Kreines, since it's the weakest of the lot. It's full of planeswalkers looking into each other's eyes and feeling comfort in each other's presence and such.
* A few days after the titans were defeated, Gideon and Tazri jog together around the campsite. Tazri has fully taken up her leadership role, and she's better at jogging than Gideon.
* For some reason, purple prose is used to describe Chandra using her magic to heat up a pot of broth. Chandra's legs have been injured, but she's expected to recover in a few days. Meantime, she's stuck heating up food and blankets, and she has chosen to make a piece of Ulamog's skull her chair.
* Jace is jealous of how everyone gets along with Gideon.
* Ugin arrives, going, "Jace, did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?!" He was able to sense what was going on through the reverberations through Zendikar, but he wants an explanation from Jace. Jace explains, and Ugin is annoyed but accepts it. Ugin reveals that he had no idea that Kozilek was still on the plane, since his sensor network on the plane was damaged, but he was able to confirm through the aforementioned reverberations that Emrakul has been gone for a long time. He says he doesn't know what will happen now that Ulamog and Kozilek are dead, and it's possible that there won't be any effects until after the other planeswalkers are dead, so they can consider it a victory if they want. Jace offers to help Ugin investigate the titans, but he goes lol no, and then leaves.
* Jace wants to investigate the other threats they know about, and Gideon agrees. Jace is afraid of Bolas and doesn't want to directly search for him until they know more about his plans. He has no clue how to track Emrakul, so he decides to go to Innistrad to track down Sorin.
* While the first three sections all led into each other, Nissa's is disconnected. She goes to the place where the titans were defeated and plants seeds there--the ones she got in an earlier story in case Zendikar was destroyed. Chandra talks to her, with a lot of looking into each other's eyes and such, and Nissa is convinced that she shouldn't just stay on Zendikar for the rest of her life.
* The story appears to end, but then we get two more paragraphs after the ending picture, where Jace asks Nissa about Sorin. Last paragraph is pretty lewd.
Nissa's heart lifted. Yes, she reflected, this was what she was supposed to be doing now, this felt right. She looked into Jace's eyes, smiling. I think it would be easier if I showed you instead. Without hesitation, Jace leapt into her mind.
Click to expand...

EDIT: Beaten. By the way, the story actually does specifically say that Gideon had a shirt on during his jog.
And wasn't that thing Angry Grimace quoted actually made a while ago? It looks familiar.
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
SigmasonicX said:
Magic Story - Zendikar Resurgent
This story is divided into four sections, each with a different perspective planeswalker and each written by a different author. Presumably the last one, Nissa's, is written by Kreines, since it's the weakest of the lot. It's full of planeswalkers looking into each other's eyes and feeling comfort in each other's presence and such.
* A few days after the titans were defeated, Gideon and Tazri jog together around the campsite. Tazri has fully taken up her leadership role, and she's better at jogging than Gideon.
* For some reason, purple prose is used to describe Chandra using her magic to heat up a pot of broth. Chandra's legs have been injured, but she's expected to recover in a few days. Meantime, she's stuck heating up food and blankets, and she has chosen to make a piece of Ulamog's skull her chair.
* Jace is jealous of how everyone gets along with Gideon.
* Ugin arrives, going, "Jace, did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?!" He was able to sense what was going on through the reverberations through Zendikar, but he wants an explanation from Jace. Jace explains, and Ugin is annoyed but accepts it. Ugin reveals that he had no idea that Kozilek was still on the plane, since his sensor network on the plane was damaged, but he was able to confirm through the aforementioned reverberations that Emrakul has been gone for a long time. He says he doesn't know what will happen now that Ulamog and Kozilek are dead, and it's possible that there won't be any effects until after the other planeswalkers are dead, so they can consider it a victory if they want. Jace offers to help Ugin investigate the titans, but he goes lol no, and then leaves.
* Jace wants to investigate the other threats they know about, and Gideon agrees. Jace is afraid of Bolas and doesn't want to directly search for him until they know more about his plans. He has no clue how to track Emrakul, so he decides to go to Innistrad to track down Sorin.
* While the first three sections all led into each other, Nissa's is disconnected. She goes to the place where the titans were defeated and plants seeds there--the ones she got in an earlier story in case Zendikar was destroyed. Chandra talks to her, with a lot of looking into each other's eyes and such, and Nissa is convinced that she shouldn't just stay on Zendikar for the rest of her life.
* The story appears to end, but then we get two more paragraphs after the ending picture, where Jace asks Nissa about Sorin. Last paragraph is pretty lewd.


EDIT: Beaten. By the way, the story actually does specifically say that Gideon had a shirt on during his jog.
And wasn't that thing Angry Grimace quoted actually made a while ago? It looks familiar.
Click to expand...
Yup, but this is the chapter in the actual story where it would go so I posted it again haha.

I can't be the only one who thought Ugin acting like its bullshit that the consequences of killing the Eldrazi will only come up after all of the Planeswalkers are dead, despite the fact that you know, the Eldrazi escaped from Ugin's trap....after he was dead.

Familienoberhauptvogel said:
That's a nice way of saying overstepped the concept of personal space.
Click to expand...

There's a ton of unresolved sexual tension in this chapter.
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
I like the idea of the Eldrazi now incubating inside Zendikar ready to burst out like bugs from a ripe fruit, but Rosewater has also said that he hopes the next Zendikar set is sans Eldrazi so they can get back to "adventure world"
 
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