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[Enordash]

Well, technically they had duals for every color pairing in the first three core sets, and enemy painlands in 10th Edition, so it's not out of the question.

I just remember when M10 came out they were all about focusing on flavor. Who knows though, they've done crazier things. They should do an experiment and only allow basic lands for a constructed Pro Tour. I hate the fact that you need all the duals and fetchs and whatnot (just because of expense) so everything flows easier.

 

[OnPoint]

Went in the garage and busted out the old cards. Probably was not a smart move, because now I'm hopelessly addicted again.

Been thinking about building a new sliver deck, and I see there are a TON of options out there now.

What advice do you guys have for a sliver deck in the modern era?

 

[OneEightZero]

Rofellos is banned, not the lord of leaves.

here the ban list

Balance
Biorhythm
Braids, Cabal Minion
Channel
Coalition Victory
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Fastbond
Gifts Ungiven
Karakas
Kokusho, the Evening Star
Library of Alexandria
Limited Resources
Lion's Eye Diamond
Metalworker
Painter's Servant
Panoptic Mirror
Protean Hulk
Recurring Nightmare
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Staff of Domination
Sway of the Stars
Time Vault
Tinker
Tolarian Academy
Upheaval
Worldgorger Dragon


Give Azusa a try, the ability seems neat but not overwhelming at first, but in the right deck it is absolutely insane. You can have so much goddamn mana online so quickly you'll be dropping monsters before you opponents can even get up and running.

Commander isn't a tournament format yet, so that ban list is "at the discretion of your fellow players." ^_^

 

[The Technomancer]

Went in the garage and busted out the old cards. Probably was not a smart move, because now I'm hopelessly addicted again.

Been thinking about building a new sliver deck, and I see there are a TON of options out there now.

What advice do you guys have for a sliver deck in the modern era?

Check out the three sets in the Time Spiral block (Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, Future Sight)
They brought back Slivers in a huge way. As in...there are now more then twice as many slivers as there were before.

 

[OnPoint]

Check out the three sets in the Time Spiral block (Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, Future Sight)
They brought back Slivers in a huge way. As in...there are now more then twice as many slivers as there were before.

http://static.starcitygames.com/sales/cardscans/MAGTIM/harmonic_sliver.jpg/IMG][/QUOTE]

Interesting that Opaline would not work with Crystaline, despite being the same casting cost aside from the one colorless.

 

[gioGAF]

I personally like the whole Muscle Sliver + Sinew Sliver + Crystalline Sliver combination. Throw in a couple of Winged Slivers for evasion and Plated Slivers as a 1 drop (along with Aether Vial) and you have a good creature base.

 

[ThLunarian]

Rofellos is banned, not the lord of leaves.

here the ban list

Balance
Biorhythm
Braids, Cabal Minion
Channel
Coalition Victory
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Fastbond
Gifts Ungiven
Karakas
Kokusho, the Evening Star
Library of Alexandria
Limited Resources
Lion's Eye Diamond
Metalworker
Painter's Servant
Panoptic Mirror
Protean Hulk
Recurring Nightmare
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Staff of Domination
Sway of the Stars
Time Vault
Tinker
Tolarian Academy
Upheaval
Worldgorger Dragon


Give Azusa a try, the ability seems neat but not overwhelming at first, but in the right deck it is absolutely insane. You can have so much goddamn mana online so quickly you'll be dropping monsters before you opponents can even get up and running.

I've built Azusa, and that deck was nuts. It loves cards like Howling Mine and Font of Mythos, because although everyone is drawing lots of cards, you get way more value because you can play a higher percentage of them.

My crowning moment of awesome with that deck was turn 1 Sol Ring-Divining Top, turn 2 Azusa, turn 3 Mana Reflection, turn 4 hardcast Emrakul (before it got banned). I got immediate concessions all around the table, it was great.

 

[Takuan]

Slivers are just about the strangest creature type in Magic. What's the lore behind them?

 

[An-Det]

My friend and I had the idea of putting together some Type 1 decks to mess around with tonight (we used to exclusively play Type 1, but that was a long time ago), so we agreed to put together modern Dredge and Gush Tendrils. Goldfishing each of them makes me long for the old days a bit, when Type 1 tournaments were common and we were used to these plays. It has been far too long since I've done these, such a shame that the format is basically dead besides Waterburies around here.

 

[Gvaz]

So how do you use planeswalker cards?

 

[An-Det]

So how do you use planeswalker cards?

They come into play as any other permanent, with so many Loyalty counters (same location as Power/Toughness on creatures). Their Loyalty abilities can be used at Sorcery speed and only once on your turn. You can have creatures attack players or planeswalkers (or both in one combat phase) to lower their loyalty, and can also redirect burn in the same manner. At 0 loyalty the card is destroyed.

 

[Takuan]

So how do you use planeswalker cards?

They operate on loyalty counters. The number in the lower right corner is the amount of loyalty counters they have on summoning. Their +/- abilities add or reduce their loyalty. You remove 1 loyalty counter per point of damage done to them. When a planeswalker's loyalty is at 0 or less, it goes to the graveyard. They are not affected by summoning sickness, so you can use an ability immediately after summoning. When attacking, you need to declare whether you're attacking the planeswalker or player.

That's about it, I think.

Derp, too slow.

 

[The Technomancer]

Slivers are just about the strangest creature type in Magic. What's the lore behind them?

They're originally from Rath, the utterly surreal artificial plane that the Phyrexians tried to merge with Dominaria during their invasion.

 

[Gvaz]

So how do you add loyalty, and does p/t factor into damage or does it just take off points of loyalty instead?

 

[ScrabbleDude]

Slivers are just about the strangest creature type in Magic. What's the lore behind them?

They were introduced in Tempest block.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slivers#Sliver

 

[ScrabbleDude]

So how do you add loyalty, and does p/t factor into damage or does it just take off points of loyalty instead?

Loyalty is added with the + loyalty skill. You cannot use more than one skill a turn iirc.

 

[Orayn]

Slivers are just about the strangest creature type in Magic. What's the lore behind them?

Genetically engineered species native to the plane of Rath, used to attack the protagonists of the Weatherlight story arc. They were revived on two occasions - Once when Riptide scientists found sliver remains and cloned them on the continent of Otaria, and again when the Time Spiral caused a negative timespace hullabaloo that brought creatures from all times and places to one location. Here's a Wiki article on them, if you're interested.

So how do you use planeswalker cards?

• You cast them from their hand for their indicated mana cost, just like any other permanent.
• Planeswalkers are subject to the "planeswalker uniqueness rule," which states that if two planeswalkers of the same subtype (Jace, Chandra, etc.) are on the battlefield at the same time, they are all put into their owners' graveyards as a state-based effect. (Read: Pretty much impossible to prevent.)
• Planeswalkers come into play with loyalty counters indicated by the large number in the bottom right. When a planeswalker has no loyalty counters, it is put into its owner's graveyard.
• Once per turn, any time you could cast a sorcery, you may use one of their abilities. The number on the left is the ability's cost, measured in loyalty counters.
• Whenever a source you control would deal damage to a player, you may instead have all of that source's damage go to one planeswalker that player controls. Planeswalkers lose one loyalty counter for every point of damage they're dealt.

 

[WanderingWind]

I am so stoked to be moving into a less Geiger-esque world, you have no idea.

INNISTRAD NOW!

 

[Gvaz]

words

So basically you can use them to attack like any old creature card and they can die that way.

By doing a + ability, you add that amount of loyalty to them, and doing the - ability removes loyalty.

Planeswalkers can also be used as a shield to redirect any damage to the player which removes loyalty, and not based on P/T the card has.

 

[Orayn]

So basically you can use them to attack like any old creature card and they can die that way.

By doing a + ability, you add that amount of loyalty to them, and doing the - ability removes loyalty.

Planeswalkers can also be used as a shield to redirect any damage to the player which removes loyalty, and not based on P/T the card has.

Kind of, yeah. Planeswalkers can't attack because they aren't creatures, and it's up to the person dealing the damage whether you or one of your planeswalkers gets hurt.

 

[The Technomancer]

So basically you can use them to attack like any old creature card and they can die that way.

By doing a + ability, you add that amount of loyalty to them, and doing the - ability removes loyalty.

Planeswalkers can also be used as a shield to redirect any damage to the player which removes loyalty, and not based on P/T the card has.

No, you don't attack with them. They can't do damage (outside of their abilities), they can be attacked like they were another player. Your opponent can attack your planeswalker and you can block with your creatures.
Also they aren't a shield. You don't choose to have them damaged, your opponent can go "I will cast Shock on you, and deal the damage to your planeswalker instead"

 

[ajf009]

God just reading through the last few pages in this thread and i'm so confused about the new shit they've added since i played regularly, i need to catch up quick

 

[The Technomancer]

God just reading through the last few pages in this thread and i'm so confused about the new shit they've added since i played regularly, i need to catch up quick

Ask any questions here. I think you'll be surprised how easily a lot of it comes to you.

 

[Enordash]

Gvaz, Planeswalkers came out in one of my down times. I was also intimidated of them at first. Just pick them up and start playing with them. You will pick them up really fast. They are an amazing addition to the game.

 

[Gvaz]

Yeah I stopped playing (the cards) around the time of that sword icon or the one after that.

The only name I remember is Ice Age because of the icon is a snowflake lol

 

[Enordash]

Yeah I stopped playing (the cards) around the time of that sword icon or the one after that.

The only name I remember is Ice Age because of the icon is a snowflake lol

The only sword icons I can think of are... Arabian Nights and Mirrodin. Nemesis was an axe. One of those maybe?

 

[Gvaz]

Mirrodin. Jesus christ that was the 50th set?

 

[Orayn]

God just reading through the last few pages in this thread and i'm so confused about the new shit they've added since i played regularly, i need to catch up quick

If you've got a few bucks to spare, I can wholeheartedly recommend Duels of the Planeswalkers. It's a great way to learn or re-learn the game, and has a pretty good amount of content for only ten dollars.

And yeah, Gvaz, they've added a lot of stuff, but none of it is too hard to take in.

 

[The Technomancer]

Mirrodin. Jesus christ that was the 50th set?

Man, so many people stopped playing at Mirrodin it seems. They missed out on Ravnica, Time Spiral, and Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, IMO three of the best blocks ever.

 

[Enordash]

Mirrodin. Jesus christ that was the 50th set?

Wow, it seems that way. Mirrodin was actually my most played set. Unfortunately, my friends and I played it so much that we quit when Darksteel came out. I still have boxes and boxes of Mirrodin laying around. It had the wierd looking artifacts that were hard to distinguish from white cards right?

 

[Enordash]

Man, so many people stopped playing at Mirrodin it seems. They missed out on Ravnica, Time Spiral, and Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, IMO three of the best blocks ever.

I started at Mercadian Masques, quit at Mirrodin. Started at Champions of Kamigawa, quit at Ravnica. Started at Eventide, quit at Zendikar. Bought a whole bunch of M11 then quit again. I guess starting again at New Phyrexia is only natural, lol. That means I'll quit again either after Innistrad or "Hook".

 

[ScrabbleDude]

I think I'm going to download Magic Online tonight. Any tips for someone just starting out online? I don't want to put much money into it right now.

 

[Akim]

I think I'm going to download Magic Online tonight. Any tips for someone just starting out online? I don't want to put much money into it right now.

don't draft

 

[Sober]

Check out the three sets in the Time Spiral block (Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, Future Sight)
They brought back Slivers in a huge way. As in...there are now more then twice as many slivers as there were before.

Gemhide Sliver was probably the best thing they printed. Also maybe the one with Slivercycling too.

 

[Gvaz]

I really started at Odyssey but my teacher sold me a ton of cards, mostly older in packs. I think I have at least two Clone cards (unmarked) for example off the top of my head somewhere in that card collection.

 

[Guesong]

Man, so many people stopped playing at Mirrodin it seems. They missed out on Ravnica, Time Spiral, and Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, IMO three of the best blocks ever.

I personally hate Time Spiral and Lorwyn, but I believe Ravnica is the best block ever. So much flavor.

In fact, if I had to rank...

Best
1 : Ravnica
2 : Alara (I love multicolored)
3 : Odyssey (Albeit this choice may well be tainted by nostalgy of the good ol' years in my teens)

Worst
1 : Kamigawa (OMG the torture)

I'd list Time Spiral and Lorwyn in here too, but it's not because I didn't personally like them (hated the theme) that they deserve to be placed on the same wall of shame as Kamigawa. Nobody deserves that!

 

[Chojin]

I think I'm going to download Magic Online tonight. Any tips for someone just starting out online? I don't want to put much money into it right now.

I had a couple tips earlier in a previous page. If you don't want to invest too much buy the Deckbuilders essentials, at least two boxes, they're 5 bucks each and they still net you 4 tickets total. Which basically means they cost 3 dollars each. It'll fill your binder with tons of useful uncommons and commons. Then go to the freebots. Go to Community > Classifieds and search for free or free bot. You'll be able to fill out your binder with more commons.

Build some decks, see what type of deck you like, then research on what to spend those 4 tickets on for filling it out with better cards. You can compare prices of single cards by going to www.mtgotraders.com

Basically the "currency" in the game is event tickets, tickets are used to be able to play in drafts or constructed formats, but since they are tradeable they're the defacto currency for trades. Since 1 ticket = 1 dollar for the official online store, its almost worth that much, but honestly, a ticket is worth slightly less due to mass bulk trades. Since the economy is so well run by the bots (depending on your point of view) its a deckbuilders paradise with rares costing 8 cents, of course tournament playable cards will go for much much more anywhere from 5 dollars to 100. With that said if you're interested in getting your feet wet with tournament play, there's such a critical mass of people getting into constructed with 1 on 1 grinders. They're cheap to get into, and you can win a decent amount of booster packs in the process. Since everyone and their grandma plays them, you won't have to worry about always playing the same old decks over and over.

If you need some good ideas for decks on the cheap. Wizads has a great column called Building on a Budget the decks aren't rareless, but typically you can build the guys decks for less that 10 dollars. Sometimes even for pennies, and depending on how you play, can actually eke out a few wins here and there doing the 1 on 1 grinders.

As for a comprehensive guide on really what to do when you start? Eh.. its really hard to find a good one. There's so many things to do with MTGO that its hard to write an all in one. There's so many changes that can happen with patches.

A good source though would be to read some articles on puremtgo.com but again, there's no real starters guide to MTGO. Every time I've read one or see someone post one, things change so much.

Though one that might help you is Peter Jahn's "Diary of an online N00b" its a 4 article series where he gets his feet wet with MTGO. Its a fun read.

 

[Chojin]

I personally hate Time Spiral and Lorwyn, but I believe Ravnica is the best block ever. So much flavor.

In fact, if I had to rank...

Best
1 : Ravnica
2 : Alara (I love multicolored)
3 : Odyssey (Albeit this choice may well be tainted by nostalgy of the good ol' years in my teens)

Worst
1 : Kamigawa (OMG the torture)

I'd list Time Spiral and Lorwyn in here too, but it's not because I didn't personally like them (hated the theme) that they deserve to be placed on the same wall of shame as Kamigawa. Nobody deserves that!

I quite liked the Kamigawa block. This was even after my japanophile phase petered out But I can see you're a multicolor guy so it make sense But yeah it really wasn't that popular, its hard to gauge based on how many people quit after Mirrodin.

A lot of people hate sets they perceive to be "powered down" from the previous set. But its very important it happens. The pendulum swings. To be honest, after the nuts power that was in Alara and Zendikar blocks, I wouldn't be surprised Innistrad is viewed as a "weak set". Then again last time Garfield was back in design was during Ravnica, so I'm sure we'll all have a blast

 

[Guesong]

I quite liked the Kamigawa block. This was even after my japanophile phase petered out But I can see you're a multicolor guy so it make sense But yeah it really wasn't that popular, its hard to gauge based on how many people quit after Mirrodin.

It's not even about the coloring of the set ; I mean, I found Scars of Mirrodin to be quite good and Zendikar as well.

It's just the general theme it has ; all the Japanese references, the whole "Legendary" focus, broken Ninjutsu and the artwork. Baw god. Great artists and all but get those realistic samurai and ninjas out of here.

 

[The Technomancer]

I personally hate Time Spiral and Lorwyn, but I believe Ravnica is the best block ever. So much flavor.

In fact, if I had to rank...

Best
1 : Ravnica
2 : Alara (I love multicolored)
3 : Odyssey (Albeit this choice may well be tainted by nostalgy of the good ol' years in my teens)

Eh, I'm not a huge fan of Alara. There was nothing wrong with it, but when I think back on it I can barely remember anything about it apart from a few cards like Bloodbraid. I think part of that was that it was trying to have five different identities in one.

 

[Pandaman]

thematically kamigawa was an amazing set, one of the best. cards were pretty boring though. with the mirrodin block being what it was, they weren't taking any risks with new cards.

the dragons are decent, the jitte is good, the divining top is good and blue was actually pretty nice, but the spirit vs nonspirit gimmick was very bland.

 

[Enordash]

It's not even about the coloring of the set ; I mean, I found Scars of Mirrodin to be quite good and Zendikar as well.

It's just the general theme it has ; all the Japanese references, the whole "Legendary" focus, broken Ninjutsu and the artwork. Baw god. Great artists and all but get those realistic samurai and ninjas out of here.

I personally loved Kamigawa, but I was pretty big into Japanese culture back in the day. Why didn't you like realistic depictions of samurai and ninja? (I found it strange how you pluralized those differently, please don't take that as an attack or anything) In terms of mulitcolor, I was a huge fan of Invasion. Thinking about it makes me want to build a rainbow deck...

 

[Enordash]

thematically kamigawa was an amazing set, one of the best. cards were pretty boring though. with the mirrodin block being what it was, they weren't taking any risks with new cards.

the dragons are decent, the jitte is good, the divining top is good and blue was actually pretty nice, but the spirit vs nonspirit gimmick was very bland.

My past will forever be haunted by people saying "jitty". Sigh...

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

Odyssey was tops for me.

 

[The Technomancer]

Odyssey was tops for me.

Yeah my all time favorite is still Ravnica. They nailed it out of the park both in terms of flavor and mechanics IMO

 

[TheSeks]

don't draft

Why? Don't you keep the cards? I understand it's expensive, but isn't that the sure-fire cheap way of getting digital cards on MtG:O?

Anyway, for sets: I liked the Invasion theme.

 

[Guesong]

I personally loved Kamigawa, but I was pretty big into Japanese culture back in the day. Why didn't you like realistic depictions of samurai and ninja? (I found it strange how you pluralized those differently, please don't take that as an attack or anything) In terms of mulitcolor, I was a huge fan of Invasion. Thinking about it makes me want to build a rainbow deck...

Because Magic is a fantasy game where wonderful beasts and powerful sorcery clash.

I don't like the Giant and Kithkin tribes either. Barely tolerate Goblins.

I think it was mostly the drawing style. Give me pseudo-magical samurais and ninjas, with taints of aether of something. Not literally "normal" samurais and ninjas. Found it so bland, all too anchored in our conception of the Edo era.

I liked the Rat tribe it brought. That was good. But also hated its depictions of Demons (again too anchored in Japanese style) and spirits.

 

[pix]

Got a free Planeswalker deck today in MTGO. Logged in and it was there.

 

[TheSeks]

Got a free Planeswalker deck today in MTGO. Logged in and it was there.

Too bad they won't let me waive the $10 entry fee with my old starter kit code. I never even used it, Wizards. WTF.

 

[Chojin]

My past will forever be haunted by people saying "jitty". Sigh...

"Jeet" for me Or "Jittay" like the Titte Bros in Upright Citizens Brigade.

For me my favorite set will always be Tempest. Tempest was when I really wanted to live and breathe and eat Magic for the first time. I had a bunch of buddies who played very well, I was trying to learn the game (and didn't ever really learn how to play until Odyssey), I was subscribing to Scrye and Inquest, having a blast figuring out what all this lore was. Tempest was the first pre-release I played in, first time I got a DCI number, first time trying to build my own decks instead of having my friend build them for me. It was the first time I drafted, first time I understood the role of colors.

Brings back memories

Modernwise, yeah probably Ravnica. Or Time Spiral for the flavor alone. The only time I really bowed out from magic was during Shadowmoor and Alara, life was getting too much in the way at the time, plus I heard I got lucky not having to face Faeries and Jund all day. Zendikar brought me back.

Got a free Planeswalker deck today in MTGO. Logged in and it was there.

Careful opening it unless they fixed it. From what I understand the Planeswalker cards will just sit in your binder, are not tradeable, and can mess up your card count when deckbuilding even if its not legal. I'll look into it.

Oh and Scrabbledude: I found a link that might get you started for MTGO. I glossed over it but it seems pretty solid:

http://www.mtgoacademy.com/in-the-beginning-oh-so-many-choices/