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Magic: the Gathering |OT11| Amonkhet - Have you ever had decks with a Pharaoh?

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jph139

Member
How do you guys organize your cards? I just got my first cards this weekend and have now opened 10 packs of Amonkhet and 10 packs of Kaladesh and have the 10 pack bundle of Aether Revolt coming tomorrow. I have a big stack now. I have them sorted by color/rarity/mana cost at the moment but is there a more accepted way of organizing?

Most people's method is "throw 99% away, put what remains in a binder."

I'm meticulous though, and go by color -> type -> subtype -> mana cost. Lands separated out, foils and rares sleeved. It works well enough. I'd recommend getting one of their Gift Boxes (like THIS ONE), cheap and sturdy with some little organizing dividers in there.
 

DrArchon

Member
Lol. Looks like I'm not making a standard deck until at least BtZ rotates. I want to play white with my two new Gideons, but I ain't spending the scratch to get the other Gideons I'd need to do well. Thanks for saving me the cash, WotC.

Not banning Cat Combo is going to bite them in the ass for sure. The didn't print any real answers for it, so standard will continue to be a tire fire. Fantastic.
 

Maledict

Member
lol that'll learn me, these people have no fucking clue what they're doing

I'm just astonished. What the hell is going on over there? Don't they realise the impact this unbelieveably bad meta is having?

I never thought I'd see the day where wizards was actually *worse* at managing standard than they were during Urza's block, but this wilful denial is certainly coming close.
 

ironmang

Member
I mean I'm not kidding. There are enough things competing for my time and money I don't have any obligation to wait around on Wizards to admit they fucked up.

If optics are what matters then let's see how they like the optics of empty gaming stores.

Pretty much. None of the local stores run standard tournaments now. One basically did standard only between prereleases and now they do drafts to at least have events firing. As much as people hated it, the last update I kind of understand given the long history between bans but going into a new block they needed to at least nail the combo. Gideon I guess can be waited out but the combo is going to be around too much longer and needs to get banned eventually.
 

Lucario

Member
Man, Cycling/Aftermath are making it so I have delirium all the time with pretty much no effort!

Started running Corrupted Grafstone in control to take advantage of it, and I'm slotting Ishkanah into way more decks. It feels so good to have a 2cmc mana rock again...
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
lol that'll learn me, these people have no fucking clue what they're doing
They care about optics. That's it. They are going to hang their hats on some imaginary card fixing their broken shit every time.

"Guys, Manglehorn stops the combo!" (As though it does literally anything else against that deck)
 

An-Det

Member
Miracles finally dead is nuts, should have kicked it in the balls first (ban terminus) instead of straight up killing it. Nothing for standard is crazy, though.
 
They care about optics. That's it. They are going to hang their hats on some imaginary card fixing their broken shit every time.

"Guys, Manglehorn stops the combo!" (As though it does literally anything else against that deck)

It's fine. A 2/2 in green will solve everything!

Listen, there's some great tech, here. Copycat gets that red artifact nuke to... ummm, overpay to kill Heart? And Mardu Vehicles gets another Gideon! The freshest Standard changes!
 

ultron87

Member
Surely, they must have Standard attendance numbers showing the sharp decline.

Miracles finally dead is nuts, should have kicked it in the balls first (ban terminus) instead of straight up killing it. Nothing for standard is crazy, though.

Should've done Terminus first that so we could cheekily call the deck "Miracle". I expect the tournament time issues are what led to them hitting Top directly. My Elves friend is so happy.
 

DrArchon

Member
On a side note, banning Top was the right move. Killing a deck archtype sucks for sure, but Top just forces games to go on for so fucking long. Watching matches with Top is awful for the viewer, and I can't imagine how it feels for the person on the other end of the table.

Sucks for everyone that pulled a Counterbalance invocation though.
 

Lucario

Member
It's fine. A 2/2 in green will solve everything!

Listen, there's some great tech, here. Copycat gets that red artifact nuke to... ummm, overpay to kill Heart? And Mardu Vehicles gets another Gideon! The freshest Standard changes!

Copycat is probably more interested in the new Gideon than Mardu is.

It kind of seems like copycat got more tools from this set than anyone. New Gideon as an obnoxious brick wall against Vehicles, Magma Spray to take out recursive threats, Manglehorn against Vehicles out of the board, a smoother manabase that isn't as prone to flooding, Cast Out, Glorybringer as a curve-topper, Vizier in the 20+ creature builds to go with all of those shuffle effects and new scrylands, Heaven/Earth as a selective boardwipe....

I'm genuinely shocked Cat didn't get banned. It's getting way too many toys.
 
They care about optics.

That doesn't make sense. When you care about optics you do the thing that will produce the least short-term braying even if it's a bad idea in the long run. If your main goal is avoiding public short-term embarrassment then you over-work the ban list and react to stuff that might legitimately not be an issue yet.

Nothing is worse optics than people spending six weeks almost universally agreeing you should take a drastic step to fix a big problem and then not doing that.
 

Firemind

Member
It's pretty funny that not Affinity or Bloodbraid Elf or JTMS managed to destroy Standard attendance but a cat is what broke the camel's back.
 

ajf009

Member
in all my years of playing magic I've only ever played kitchen table or Modern. And I'm a happier person because of it. Come to modern friends, we have a fun meta
 

OnPoint

Member
More than anything it's the lack of removal making this worse in my view. Didn't those other formats have much better options?
 
in all my years of playing magic I've only ever played kitchen table or Modern. And I'm a happier person because of it. Come to modern friends, we have a fun meta

I think half or more of the people here probably play EDH primarily, to be honest. (Though, a lot of them seem to play with tryhard groups, in which case I'll grant you Modern is probably better.)
 
More than anything it's the lack of removal making this worse in my view. Didn't those other formats have much better options?

It's a confluence of issues. They've deliberately nerfed removal, buffed up the threats, and then they printed a set of creatures that can't be hit by sorcery speed removal and an instant-win combo that also can't be hit by sorcery speed removal. Their strategy fucked them, not just the cards they printed.
 

DrArchon

Member
in all my years of playing magic I've only ever played kitchen table or Modern. And I'm a happier person because of it. Come to modern friends, we have a fun meta

Would be glad to if someone donated the necessary funds. Not like Modern's cheap to get into, ya know?
 

OnPoint

Member
I used to like Legacy the best, back when it was the Day 2 of the SCG streams. I miss it a lot. Then the card prices ballooned and they torpedoed the format by taking it off the stream. I still think it's my favorite format.

But Modern is the most playable and accessible tournament format, if you're willing to spend a little bit to get into it. I actually do like it. I just wish Legacy was viable still.
 

Firemind

Member
I used to like Legacy the best, back when it was the Day 2 of the SCG streams. I miss it a lot. Then the card prices ballooned and they torpedoed the format by taking it off the stream. I still think it's my favorite format.

But Modern is the most playable and accessible tournament format, if you're willing to spend a little bit to get into it. I actually do like it. I just wish Legacy was viable still.
There are several Legacy GPs every year and I'm pretty sure local communities have various tournaments and championships over the course of the year.
 

alternade

Member
I mean I'm not kidding. There are enough things competing for my time and money I don't have any obligation to wait around on Wizards to admit they fucked up.

If optics are what matters then let's see how they like the optics of empty gaming stores.

Come play Commander, where the rules don't matter and everyone is a winner!

I have to laugh though at them being this stubborn about not banning cat. I jumped out of standard once I realized that it was who can get out the chase rare/mythic of the set first and there really wasn't any strategy other than bashing in with spells stapled to creatures.

As far as legacy goes, idk isn't that format stagnant in growth so pissing off that pool of players isn't going to hurt anyone I guess. And from what I've seen of miracles matches it wasn't so much the card that took time so much it was the player spinning top 5 times during endstep and looking at the top 3 for up to 30s or more each time.
 

alternade

Member
Dismember was legal during the Splinter Twin era. Just imagine Dismember being standard legal now.

Better removal would be helpful but that kills creatures and give new players the feel bads soooooo...............


Honestly, the only thing that I can think of is that they must know of a deck or better strategy that will push out cat combo at the protour and are just bidding their time.
 

OnPoint

Member
There are several Legacy GPs every year and I'm pretty sure local communities have various tournaments and championships over the course of the year.

I'm aware that there's a community. But nothing beats having a large, streamed tournament on just about every week.

Most of the events you refer to aren't streamed and I can't watch from the comfort of my home.
 

Maledict

Member
Better removal would be helpful but that kills creatures and give new players the feel bads soooooo...............


Honestly, the only thing that I can think of is that they must know of a deck or better strategy that will push out cat combo at the protour and are just bidding their time.

When had wizards ever had a grasp on the meta like that though? They consistently fail to find the best decks in each set, because they rely exclusively on in house testing. I've read so many articles over the years from them which basically boiled down to 'we built this deck, but failed to add in the key cards so didn't think it an issue'.

They are bad at this stuff because of the way they do it, and their current strategy around balancing standard means that the answers which should be available to counteract out of control decks aren't being printed.

(They also need to acknowledge that every time they make an artifact block it's a balancing nightmare and something overpowered and unfun comes out of it. Maybe they should stop pushing artifacts so fucking hard just because amateur players like them so much).
 

Firemind

Member
I'm aware that there's a community. But nothing beats having a large, streamed tournament on just about every week.

Most of the events you refer to aren't streamed and I can't watch from the comfort of my home.
Oh, I thought you liked Legacy as a participation format. My bad.
 

traveler

Not Wario
I mean, I think the lack of standard bans is insane and all, but I can't really bring myself to care when they actually shot top. Legacy is the best format and I've only ever marginally cared about standard, so I'm weirdly pleased with this turn of events. I just thought they'd let top live on forever or at least wait for some major precipitating event to hang the decision on. Never thought they'd hit it right before the big Legacy GP of the year that I actually get to attend! Really looking forward to it now.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
That doesn't make sense. When you care about optics you do the thing that will produce the least short-term braying even if it's a bad idea in the long run. If your main goal is avoiding public short-term embarrassment then you over-work the ban list and react to stuff that might legitimately not be an issue yet.

Nothing is worse optics than people spending six weeks almost universally agreeing you should take a drastic step to fix a big problem and then not doing that.
You're looking at it the wrong way.

When WOTC makes a decision about their product, you have to imagine the absolute dumbest motherfucker imaginable.

That's who they are catering to. They simply don't believe that invested players will quit.
 

Hero

Member
Glad they killed top, if only just for quality of life issues with tournaments.

No standard bans though....what.
 

DrArchon

Member
Better removal would be helpful but that kills creatures and give new players the feel bads soooooo...............


Honestly, the only thing that I can think of is that they must know of a deck or better strategy that will push out cat combo at the protour and are just bidding their time.

Wouldn't the mass of players across the world have also discovered said deck and revealed it by now if it existed? History has shown that the community at large is way better than WotC at discovering broken shit. How likely is it that they really got something underneath everyone's nose that would kill 4c Saheeli effortlessly?
 

Firemind

Member
I only remember because there was a bit of an uproar among the European communities over the lack of Legacy this year.
Yeah, unfortunately Wizards has a US bias which is a shame because Europe has a large Legacy player base. Hell, most of my MTG pals still have old Legacy decks lying around in their moldy attics.
 

y2dvd

Member
I think the logic to the bannings or lack of were sensible.

While I didn't have a major issue with Top, I know it's not fun to watch or play against for most. I rather would've seen it ban in EDH as those games can run long as is. Plus, they just gave us Harsh Mentor, and then they ban Top. -_-

As far as Saheeli combo and Mardu Vehicles goes, it makes sense to see if the new set has what it takes to keep those decks in check.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I think the logic to the bannings or lack of were sensible.

While I didn't have a major issue with Top, I know it's not fun to watch or play against for most. I rather would've seen it ban in EDH as those games can run long as is. Plus, they just gave us Harsh Mentor, and then they ban Top. -_-

As far as Saheeli combo and Mardu Vehicles goes, it makes sense to see if the new set has what it takes to keep those decks in check.
Except every banning occurs when a set comes out
 
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