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Magic: the Gathering |OT12| Hour of Devastation - Hour of Jace getting dunked on

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There has to be a way to make a decent Jund -1/-1 counters standard deck, right? Hapatra, Merciless Javelineer, archfiend, decimator beetle, channeler initiate, scorpion God, and the new black and white split card all seem viable. Maybe even festering maybe mummy?

Probably not a real life thing, but could be fun. lots of synergy. Creates interesting math versus GB Snek. Can't beat a control deck pre-board. Maybe I'll run with it after the full spoiler is out
 

DrArchon

Member
The problem with a standard -1/-1 counters deck is that you're relying almost solely on cards from one block. There's no support for -1/-1 counters anywhere else in standard, and judging from the leaks there won't be any in Ixalan either.

If you want to try and make one, more power to you I guess.
 
Not sure if this is a thing, but Inner Sanctum is Reserved List and has a decent effect. And in the same colours as Solemnity.

http://magiccards.info/query?q=Inner+Sanctum

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yeah but it's niv-mizzet

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aw yiss

I mean, Protean Hulk was banned from EDH for a long time because it was one of the easiest and most pervasive early game combo out win conditions. People sort of have built-in expectations for the level of degeneracy you're going to display when you say you've found a new Protean Hulk "combo".
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Protean Hulk combos generally make you win immediately
 

Zocano

Member
I was really hoping they'd reprint the Zendikar fetches in a standard set but I guess we got fucked out of that. $$$$ modern lands forever.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
I was really hoping they'd reprint the Zendikar fetches in a standard set but I guess we got fucked out of that. $$$$ modern lands forever.
The fetches in masters sets instead of in standard is such a monumental fuck up. That shit need to be depressed to 15 bucks
 

Zocano

Member
Yuuuuup. Honestly baffling that they didn't just reprint them in BFZ block.

At the time it just seemed like whatever, but them going around and reprinting them in this MM17 is fucking what.
 
Any suggestions on my deck? Im thinking of swapping Spire of Industry in for either 4 of my basic lands, or the Aether Hub's. Any other suggestions as far as the vehicles/creatures etc?

Lands (22)
4 Aether Hub
4 Canyon Slough
4 Inspiring Vantage
6 Mountain
4 Plains

Spells (19)
2 Aethersphere Harvester
4 Heart of Kiran
2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4 Harnessed Lightning
4 Unlicensed Disintegration

Creatures (19)
3 Pia Nalaar
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Toolcraft Exemplar
4 Veteran Motorist
 

red13th

Member
Maro in his tumblr.

All our worlds have depth. Each one has a cosmology with different creatures and cultures. A world guide about all the components is crafted for each world.

The people who love calling it a ”World of Hats" are doing the same disservice as the people calling Jace a ”Mary Sue". It's a snarky undermining of the incredible amount of hard work done by our creative team to make cool new worlds.

What our worlds are not are hodgepodge worlds with disparate parts that have no connection with one another.

”But that's the way the real world is." There's a difference between what works in the real world and what works in stories. Real life is often unbelievable through the lens of story. I had umpteen writing classes drive this point home.

And even when our worlds have more distinction between the parts, Alara and Tarkir as examples, there's a relationship between the parts.

There was no reason for Ice Age and Mirage to be on the same plane other than laziness on our part. Them co-existing on the same world did little to enhance one another.

When you have a Multiverse, it's important that you craft your worlds so that the players can remember them, that they have some kind of identity. Star Wars and Star Trek treating their worlds like this was not a fluke but an important means to build a world where the pieces were memorable.

Here's my counter argument to those who feel that worlds with lots of unconnected elements make for better worlds. Imagine we just clumped two consecutive worlds together. Amonkhet and a Kaladesh are one world and Innistrad and Zendikar are one world. And Tarkir and Theros.

Have we just made better worlds? Is part of the world optimistic steam punk with an Indian vibe and the other Bolas-crafted Egyptian inspired world, somehow make the world more sophisticated? Or is it just more cluttered and less distinct?

The reason it took us so long to return to Dominaria is we wanted to do it right. We wanted to be respectful of what the world was but bring to it a modern sensibility of being a world that had a cohesive identity rather than a hodgepodge of unrelated elements.

We did it though and in a way that is both respectful of what came before and productive in moving forward with a world that becomes part of our stable of worlds that doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. Old fans, please have faith. We too love Dominaria.

I'm VERY concerned. I don't trust them doing Dominaria with their "modern sensibilities".
 
Maro in his tumblr.



I'm VERY concerned. I don't trust them doing Dominaria with their "modern sensibilities".

Yeahhhh that sounds like a bad idea.

Fundamentally he's wrong. Sections of worlds built for specific stories need to have singular cohesive themes, but really great worldbuilding is about creating a place that can tell all sorts of different stories in a connected way, which means having a ton of variety. Planet of Hats is a snarky dismissal but that doesn't make it wrong.
 

traveler

Not Wario
I don't really see how his counter argument makes sense. Of course just slapping two random planes together- and only two- would feel unnatural. The real world is incredibly diverse- two completely different halves makes little more sense than one unified whole as neither gets even close to what we see on earth. Additionally, real world cultures have bled into each other in varying degrees of strength. While two places may feel distinct, there are still influences that might connect them. Lastly, all real world cultures must ultimately obey the same rules of reality; there isn't a different conception of the laws of physics in Egypt as there is in Greece in the same way that the rules of magic can differ greatly from plane to plane.
 

OnPoint

Member
RE Maro & Dominaria: After telling us how Kaladesh was "the awesome set" and breaking Standard for the last year, I have no faith left in his "just trust us" pre-set speeches. Sorry Maro, all that goodwill and trust is gone. Prove me wrong, but I am now worried.

RE Cumulative Upkeep cards: I bought four of a few I thought stood out today. Just in case something breaks open. Was worth the several dollars to not regret it later in case something busts loose.
 
... Did anyone actually like that Ice Age and Mirage were the same world? I feel like this is just nostalgia.

At the time I honestly didn't think or care enough about Magic's setting to even realize. Most of the cards back then were super generic anyway, so it was only now and then that I'd even bothered to ask myself, "Who is Urza, anyway?"

And frankly, even when I did, I had enough experience with dumb AD&D spells to just assume he was some god-awful PC from someone's home campaign.
 

OnPoint

Member
My worry is this. You can't just pretend a plane with a diverse group of settings and a decade or so of history has just one identity. You can't retcon them away. So what do you do? Is it going to be some crazy event that realigns the plane or something? There's no clean answer here, and I think they're going to screw up Magic's birthplace. I worry greatly for how they're going to go forward now with the language used in that post.
 

jph139

Member
The problem with "streamlining" Dominaria is that you can't do it.

Like, when I think of Dominaria, I think of my favorite sets that took place there. Mirage block. Odyssey block.
Fallen Empires.
For someone else it's gonna be Ice Age and Urza's block. Their first return - Time Spiral - worked because it was an absolute clusterfuck of a set that filled every card to the brim with weird, obscure references. If you sand off those edges, what are you left with? Urza and the Weatherlight Saga, I guess.

Dominaria is an era of Magic, not a place. Return to Dominaria is like "Return to Mirrodin-Kamigawa-Ravnica-Time Spiral-Lorwyn" - a lot of disparate ideas that are only tied together by the design sensibilities and nostalgia of the people playing during that era.
 

Crocodile

Member
Maro in his tumblr.


I'm VERY concerned. I don't trust them doing Dominaria with their "modern sensibilities".

A big issue with multi-verse narratives and what not is that each universe (or planet or whatever) tend to feel really small and monotone. I don't know how you coalesce Dominaria into one "vision" without making it very generic. Doesn't it just end up like Shandalaar?
 
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