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

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H

Haines

Banned
I had fun at my second prerelease today.

My promo was thought knot and i got a sphinx, and ob nixilis

I played white blue, with a touch of colorless. I didnt not like my deck but it had the best removal and bombs.

I came home and made a black green deck that could include ob nixilis and catacomb sifter etc and yet another day im pretty sure i built a better deck after prerelease but who knows.

Id like to post my deck photos to see what you guys think but im not sure what website to use to host photos? Just imgur?
 
D

divisionbyzorro

Member
kirblar said:
The reason you didn't see those decks is because playing Twin was strictly superior to not playing Twin inside tempo shells.
Click to expand...

I don't disagree with you. In fact, I'll one up that statement. I think blue tempo shells in Modern are actually just bad if they don't have the Twin combo (tier two on a good day). The difference between us is that I don't see the existence of Twin as being a net negative on the format - I think it kept a check on the absurd number of linear strategies sitting on the fringes of the format that are now ready to pounce on this unknown metagame (and I don't think that Modern is going to be a better format for it).
 
I

ironmang

Member
Lucario said:
3 rounds, only 7 people showed up.

The top 2 talked to the TO after being handed 3 and 2 packs respectively, and his response was "Is this a sanctioned event? No? Okay, that's why!"

I'm guessing he couldn't sanction it because we only got 7 people, and maybe that screws with getting future prize support from Wizards, but at the very least he should've been up front about the fact that prize support was more than cut in half. I mean, there are places around here that charge $30 for prereleases with 1 pack per person in prize support, it wouldn't be a dealbreaker or anything.




Jeez. Did he just decide to change it mid-tournament? That's ridiculous. This event also started around an hour late because the owner took three late registrations.

I'm registering at the good LGS around here from now on, even if it means I'll have to do it a month in advance.
Click to expand...

Damn your local LGSs seem shitty. 1 pack per player for $30? Do they give similarly bad prizes for other events? Around here all the shops give 2 per player or better and charge $20-25 for prereleases.
 
A

Ashodin

Member
Haines said:
I had fun at my second prerelease today.

My promo was thought knot and i got a sphinx, and ob nixilis

I played white blue, with a touch of colorless. I didnt not like my deck but it had the best removal and bombs.

I came home and made a black green deck that could include ob nixilis and catacomb sifter etc and yet another day im pretty sure i built a better deck after prerelease but who knows.

Id like to post my deck photos to see what you guys think but im not sure what website to use to host photos? Just imgur?
Click to expand...

Imgur is fine
 
F

f0rk

Member
kirblar said:
The reason you didn't see those decks is because playing Twin was strictly superior to not playing Twin inside tempo shells.

People realizing they can play 3 drops now is hilarious.
Click to expand...
Like what?

I agree with divisionbyzorro, any blue tempo decks people try now are going to be so full of air with no action they won't stand up to the rest of the format which is either too quick or too big. UWR might be OK but that's not a tempo deck.
 
K

kirblar

Member
f0rk said:
Like what?

I agree with divisionbyzorro, any blue tempo decks people try now are going to be so full of air with no action they won't stand up to the rest of the format which is either too quick or too big. UWR might be OK but that's not a tempo deck.
Click to expand...
Literally any 3 drop.

On the draw, you couldn't tap out starting on Turn 3. Completely warped deck design.

Vision will come off. Eldrazi police it well.
 
H

Haines

Banned
Ashodin said:
Imgur is fine
Click to expand...

Alright, ill do it tmrw. Maybe theres a good reddit to post it to get some feedback as well. Maybe the lrcast reddit, it seems fairly active.

I cant decide whether i want to pursue this set in draft or sealed. Im just very much questioning how tough drafting colorless duders will be and than making sure you get sources as well.

Ill prob try and 8 person draft friday and see how it feels,
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
The non-existence of Scars fastlands in enemy colors is weird as fuck for the record.
 
G

Gaming Truth

Member
bigkrev said:
I switched to a store that charges $30 instead of $25, but has good support (18 packs for 4-0, 12 for 3-0-1, 6 for 3-1), has a pity pack if you play all 4 rounds, and you get a free draft the following weekend (with pack per win support) for each prerelease you enter.

Store I had been going to was 1 pack per player prized down pretty deep, to the point where 1st place still got like 10 packs, but 2nd (usually with same record as 1st) would only get 3 packs. They only charged $25 and usually had free food for the noon events though
Click to expand...

This might make me a socialist, but I like my LGS's structure of: Everyone gets min one, 1 pack per win. It's very flat and friendly, unlike some others that reward the ub3rs. Besides, without going six rounds, how can you even determine who's #1?
 
H

Hero

Member
f0rk said:
They don't have the same inevitability required to actually win games. The card advantage available in U/R isn't powerful enough compared to Karn or creatures with good ETB abilities.

They should have unbannned Ancestral Visions straight away. I'm not even convinced it will be enough but it would be much more exciting than just removing two decks straight up then waiting around.
Click to expand...

Ancestral Visions is probably safe to come off.

divisionbyzorro said:
See, I don't buy that. Tempo/Faerie style decks have been in the fomat for a while, and they generally have a positive-to-very-positive matchup against Twin. So if those decks could beat Twin and could succeed against the rest of the field, you would have seen them in greater numbers. But that's not the case. Cards like Remand actually aren't very good (gasp) unless you're stalling to a powerful end game. The blue control cards weren't what was policing the format - it was the fact that the blue deck could also race.

I get why that bothers people - when you describe the deck, it sounds unbeatable and oppressive. But the data just doesn't support that theory. The data shows that it's a pillar of the format, but it doesn't overconvert and its metagame share hasn't become over represented. It's not oppressive, and the format was nigh on the healthiest it's ever been.

The one argument that I've heard that does ring true for me is that a lot of the cards currently banned that might otherwise be of an appropriate power level for Modern (Ancestral Vision, Stoneforge Mystic, maybe even JTMS) would all just slot into Twin and make that deck even better. That is - if Twin is the card that is keeping other cards banned, maybe you should just ban Twin and unban the other stuff. I can definitely get behind that argument, although its not quite enough to convince me that this was the right thing to do.
Click to expand...


Blue cards weren't policing the format, a two card combo was? Don't agree with that statement at all. It also doesn't matter if it happened consistently or not, the fact that Twin combo existed was enough to get people to warp the way they played their game. Like, it's honestly astonishing how you refuse to acknowledge that portion. What do I agree with though is that blue-related cards were not safe to come off with it still around and/or future cards having to be designed around the deck's existence. Just think, we might get better blue cards in modern.
 
I

ironmang

Member
As far as modern goes I think they need to stop doing these small changes and announce that a massive change will be happening at some point like banning entire 8th edition while unbanning some cards like SFM, BBE, and JTMS. Banning twin does basically nothing. You're still going to be fucked on T3 when a Karn or Wurmcoil is cast which is basically game for a huge percentage of the field. Blood Moon isn't even fast enough for the natural tron. The timing of that ban is so bizarre. Tron just got a block full of goodies and twin went from best deck to barely T1 yet the twin players get fucked and the tron players have their deck double in price. /rant

Gaming Truth said:
This might make me a socialist, but I like my LGS's structure of: Everyone gets min one, 1 pack per win. It's very flat and friendly, unlike some others that reward the ub3rs. Besides, without going six rounds, how can you even determine who's #1?
Click to expand...

The shop I went to friday night did 4 rounds and paid out for 2-2 or better. Probably the best "friendly" way of doing it without making prizes at the top garbage. Everybody already is a winner by getting the cards early and being able to play for packs. I don't think the 1-3s need to get a pity pack as their participation prize. At that point they should just give us 2 packs bonus for the entry and have us play for planeswalker points.

There are a lot of locals who are naturally slow players and it gets even worse for prerelease so it's better to just stop at 4 rounds instead of finding the clear winner.
 
D

divisionbyzorro

Member
Hero said:
Blue cards weren't policing the format, a two card combo was? Don't agree with that statement at all. It also doesn't matter if it happened consistently or not, the fact that Twin combo existed was enough to get people to warp the way they played their game. Like, it's honestly astonishing how you refuse to acknowledge that portion.
Click to expand...

I mean, do I need to explicitly state that I understand that the existence of a tier 1 deck affected how people built their decks and played their games? I get how metagames work. Obviously it changes how you approach the format. So does Affinity. So does Burn. So does Tron. I know exactly what Twin did - you had to hold up your removal. But the data does not show that Twin was overconverting or becoming oppressive. It was a pillar of the format you had to be ready for. That's all.

ReEdit: Dickmann's response is an excellent summary of what I'm saying:

http://www.mtgmintcard.com/articles/writers/patrick-dickmann/why-mistakes-were-made

The site appears to have collapsed under the weight of traffic - the article is transcribed here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/41gn63/why_mistakes_were_made_by_patrick_dickmann/cz2a31t
 
C

Core Zero

Member
Girlfriend and I did the 2HG prerelease today, we're both fairly new to the game and this is the first event of any type either of us has attended. I was just wanting to check it out and play with the new cards, ended up going 1-2 with a bye, and the shop seemed like mostly experienced regulars so I felt pretty good about just getting a win. She played B/G/C I did R/B, just basically throwing good stuff in our decks. We opened a Kozilek and the red Dragon legendary, nothing else too amazing. It was fun except playing 3 games of Magic in 6 hours is kinda rough.

ironmang said:
The shop I went to friday night did 4 rounds and paid out for 2-2 or better. Probably the best "friendly" way of doing it without making prizes at the top garbage. Everybody already is a winner by getting the cards early and being able to play for packs. I don't think the 1-3s need to get a pity pack as their participation prize. At that point they should just give us 2 packs bonus for the entry and have us play for planeswalker points.

There are a lot of locals who are naturally slow players and it gets even worse for prerelease so it's better to just stop at 4 rounds instead of finding the clear winner.
Click to expand...

$25 entry for us, and we still got 2 packs each for placing 8th out of 11 pairs, top I think got 6 each. I wasn't expecting anything for our record so I can't complain, but I wouldn't have been bothered not getting any. 1 pack for anyone not in first sounds awfully stingy though.
 
Y

Yeef

Member
One of our regulars got 2 expeditions in a single pre-release pool (plus a Nissa and a Gideon). It was pretty nuts.
 
U

ultron87

Member
My favorite part of the pre release was my partner casting all five Boulder Salvos we opened in the same game to our opponents increasing annoyance.
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
There were, no joke, three expeditions opened at my event of about 20 people. I saw a Hallowed Fountain, Wasteland and a Mana Confluence around the room
 
U

ultron87

Member
On further thought the best moment was actually beating this team where one guy was salty as hell when we were at one life. The whole match he was trying to get us on trigger minutia and not having perfectly precise play at a damn 2HG prerelease. His partner appeared somewhat mortified at his behavior.
 
N

Neoweee

Member
Angry Grimace said:
9-1 over the last two prereleases. Today's deck was a 3 1/2 color pile that just got there somehow.

Best rare was Thought Knot followed by Eldrazi Edric.
Click to expand...

7-1 across two events here. Thought Knot was nuts, but I lost the finals based on not suicide-ing my Knot earlier to get some of his Allies off the board sooner.
 
S

SigmasonicX

Member
OK, more prerelease details. I went 4-2 with a BW deck with Ayli and Kalitas. The rounds I won were all 2-0, one round I lost was 0-2 due to mana flood and mana screw, and I lost one round 1-2. All rounds were very quick, besides that 1-2 one. With that round, in the last game, my opponent brought in a bunch of repeated lifegain cards and was able to use his own Ayli's exile ability.

Code: 
White cards:
1x Immolating Glare - Instant - 1W - This was dead in my hand a couple of times, due to my opponent choosing to build up creatures before attacking, but it was still good.
1x Ondu Rising - Sorcery - 1W - I only ever cast this for the awaken cost, and it was consistently great.
1x Felidar Cub - Creature - 1W - Only here to have a 2-drop, and I never used its ability.
1x Makindi Aeronaut - Creature - 1W - I only put this in a couple of rounds in after I realized my curve was too high, but it ended up being way better than I expected as a blocker.
1x Eldrazi Displacer - Creature - 2W - When I was able to use the ability, this was great, though I only ever used it as a tapper.
2x Kor Scythemaster - Creature - 2W - The first strike when attacking actually rarely came up. This was just a 3-power attacker.
1x Kor Sky Climber - Creature - 2W - This was really good, especially when it flew over a big Eldrazi.
2x Isolation Zone - Enchantment - 2WW - This was decent removal.
1x Spawnbinder Mage - Creature - 3W - This was mostly just a 2/4, but in one game, it did a great job holding off a big Eldrazi.

Black cards:
1x Oblivion Strike - Sorcery - 3B - Good removal.
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - Creature - 2BB - The lifelink was very useful, and I usually got a zombie from him, once two. I never used the last ability.
1x Mind Raker - Creature - 3B - This was filler. I used the processing ability once, but I was already winning.
1x Null Caller - Creature - 3B - I was able to get a few zombies out of this guy. The first time I used it, I forgot that the zombie came in tapped, so I used it as a blocker, but that didn't affect my winning the match anyway.
1x Zulaport Chainmage - Creature - 3B - I never used the cohort ability, but it was fine as a 4-power attacker.
1x Kozilek's Translator - Creature - 4B - This was good as a 3/5, but I only used the ability once.

Multicolored card:
1x Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim - Creature - WB - I never got to use either of her abilities, but she was great as a 2/3 deathtouch. As I mentioned, an opponent was able to use her abilities against me.

Colorless cards:
1x Hedron Crawler - Artifact Creature - 2 - Alright as mana acceleration. It got hit by a kill spell once.
1x Seer's Lantern - Artifact - 3 - Alright as mana acceleration. I used the scry ability in just one game.
1x Warden of Geometries - Creature - 4 - This guy didn't come out much.
1x Kozilek's Channeler - Creature - 5 - I used this as a 4/4 creature more than as mana acceleration.
1x Breaker of Armies - Creature - 8 - Great when it wasn't destroyed before it could attack.

Lands:
1x Mirrorpool - I only used one of its abilities once, the creature copying, but it was used to copy Kozilek's Channeler when it became the target of a kill spell, and I lost that game.
9x Plains
7x Swamp

The deck basically built itself, since I just put in all of the good white and black cards. The only other color with any good cards was red, but Ayli pushed me toward WB. I got a couple of C cards, but I decided I didn't have enough Wastes for them to be good.
 
J

jph139

Member
Went to one prerelease at midnight on Friday; went 0-4. Part bad card pool, part poor deck construction - I swung into GWb Allies when I should have gone GBu Eldrazi Ramp. No great pulls either.

Did a 2HG one with a friend earlier today, though, and went 3-1. I ran BW Allies, he ran Grixis control. Our last game went to time, went to turns, and finally went to life - we had 74, they had 25. Absolutely crazy. Got a foil General Tazri for my promo, too, which is awesome; heavily considering making an Allies EDH with her.

Overall, I'm a lot more positive about Oath than BFZ. Looking forward to drafting it, unlike BFZ, which I was pretty much done with after prerelease weekend.
 
K

kirblar

Member
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";192531179]Do people really buy these? I've got Treasure Cruise and Seige Rhino ones from GP San Jose as well as the one from Oakland.

I only ever use the gameday M15 one.[/QUOTE]
Vendors buy them onsite, I got like 50 for all my shit at GPNJ. (incl box/sleeves)
 
B

bigkrev

Member
I have a bunch of ones lying around
-Deathrite Shaman (Eternal Weekend 2015)
-Fated Infatuation (Grand Prix Philadelphia 2014)
-Skywise Teachings (Grand Prix Atlantic City 2015)

The playmats I use are Gatecrash Gameday (Mercilous Eviction), and the Ultra Pro Mox playmat (the one that's around $100, not the $300 one)
 
W

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Yeah, this is the first prerelease since RtR that I wish I could've attended. God help me, but I love this stupid Eldrazi deck. I'm going to ride this train for as long as it lasts. I'm glad they were able to right the ship after BfZ. Not ready to make a judgement call on this set, obviously, but it's at first blush really nice.
 
I

ironmang

Member
kirblar said:
Much less product (4 normal vs 6 MM)
Click to expand...

Ya that's what I'm getting at. Absurd that this is acceptable.

y2dvd said:
I taste salt on my tongue. Lots of it.
Click to expand...

You have no idea the butthurt I've been feeling since Battle prerelease. Both me and another degenerate buddy of mine have basically opened 600 packs between us in limited and prizes yet we got 1 expedition total, a Breeding Pool, that I opened and had to split with someone else. I've also yet to pull a Gideon either.

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";192531179]Do people really buy these? I've got Treasure Cruise and Seige Rhino ones from GP San Jose as well as the one from Oakland.

I only ever use the gameday M15 one.[/QUOTE]

Occasionally someone at my shop will want a playmat but usually I've been just selling mine on ebay. Vendors can give good prices if you get to them early but from my experience they lower prices immediately on Saturday so it only works for side event playmats you get Friday.
 
S

SigmasonicX

Member
Ashodin said:
feels weird that blue can ramp with that one eldrazi.
Click to expand...

It typically isn't something they emphasize as much as they did in this block, but blue has had colorless mana acceleration in its wheelhouse for a while.
Image.ashx
Image.ashx
Image.ashx
 
A

AbortedWalrusFetus

Member
I went to my first pre-release event last night. It was a lot of fun, even if I only won a single round. I just play magic casually and don't read any strategy stuff so I feel like that's not terrible. Some really talented deck builders and players out there though.

Oath itself... I dunno, it seems like an eh set.
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Santiako said:
Commander update:

Summary:
·Commander-specific mulligan rules are removed
·Rule 4 (mana generation restriction) is removed
·Prophet of Kruphix is banned
Click to expand...

Hm, I'm okay with that out of all the changes they could make to the identity rules. It always did sort of suck that you couldn't activate abilities on things you'd stolen if they were out of your colors
 
S

Santiako

Member
The Technomancer said:
Hm, I'm okay with that out of all the changes they could make to the identity rules. It always did sort of suck that you couldn't activate abilities on things you'd stolen if they were out of your colors
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a fine change. Using Birds of Paradise to cast colorless Eldrazi made less sense than the rule.
 
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