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Magic: the Gathering |OT13| Ixalan - Port to Sideboard

Bandini

Member
Is spell snare even played? Haven't seen it in a while.

It's been gaining some favor again lately. One mana counterspells can be very good. I'm playing 2-of mainboard in Jeskai Geist at the moment.

Even if you're only up against 8 2 drops, those are usually very strong. Nice to be able to hold it up while doing other things on turn 2 or turn 3.
 
There was a Tezzeret deck? How was it?

Pretty simple: play mediocre artifacts that cantrip and don't need to tap, Improvise into more valuable creatures, then drop Tezz and take advantages of the artifacts on the board to do Tezz removal or bump into the emblem for beatdowns. Spice as needed with counters and removal.

It was pretty effective, from what I saw it was out-grinding a God Pharaoh's Gift/Scarab God deck due to emblem.
 

Ashodin

Member
Pretty simple: play mediocre artifacts that cantrip and don't need to tap, Improvise into more valuable creatures, then drop Tezz and take advantages of the artifacts on the board to do Tezz removal or bump into the emblem for beatdowns. Spice as needed with counters and removal.

It was pretty effective, from what I saw it was out-grinding a God Pharaoh's Gift/Scarab God deck due to emblem.

damn Imma need VOD on that one
 
watching a draft is exciting, watching limited decks being played is the most boring shit.

Seriously wouldn't mind if they just prerecorded all the drafts then analysed them for 8 hours instead and made the audience guess the records and such.
Heck I'd be fine if record didn't matter and instead a jury consisting of LSV, Huey Jennsen, Patrick Chapin and Patrick Sullivan rated their drafting skills, form and landing in a demeaning manner.

watching limited would be fine, but it requires a much higher quality of production and commentary than what we're going to get

most of the broadcast would need to be about hypotheticals and risk calculations. and few of the viewers would actually understand it. you'd basically have to watch people talk about magic, because watching people play out games isn't even that important for competitive limited

but if they did do it properly, it would be way more interesting than constructed imo

constructed commentary is dulled by the fact that the decklists are tuned the way they are because of data. the broadcasters have to focus on the play-by-play because it's hard to actually criticize the deckbuilding if someone's just using a list that won last week's tournament
 

y2dvd

Member
Scarab God now at $40 lol. Glad I traded my Hazoret for one a week ago. Now if I could only move my foil copy soon.
 

sgjackson

Member
You might (not) be surprised just how many players absolutely despise draft. The fact it is legitimately hard as hell is probably why, but I know dozens of players and the only one that enjoys both constructed and draft is me.

everyone in my store looks at me like i have two heads when i tell them i only really play limited
 
everyone in my store looks at me like i have two heads when i tell them i only really play limited

I see the opposite happen: if someone asks if anyone has a Standard deck people give them questioning looks, and if someone asks if anyone plays Modern/Legacy they get treated like a scientific curiosity.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Ixilan draft tonight with some of my very close friends, so we did rare redrafting. Came in second and walked away with Huatli, Regisaur Alpha, and Verdant Sun's Avatar

I like this set
 

Copenap

Member
As a new player I find watching limited much more enjoyable as it is not the same powerful combo over and over again plus I also know the cards.

Speaking of powerful. Watched Reid Duke play some vintage yesterday and that was stupid. Really don't see the fun in that but of course to each his or her own.
 

Wulfric

Member
+1 for Lucario, 12/10 would trade again.

In other news, WotC showed some Japanese students around Seattle, along with other tech companies. Here is the cute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7KuPeZ8MVE

Also, the original art for Kird Ape and Noble Hierarch has emerged on the open market. The guy is asking $80,000 and $60,000 respectively. They probably won't go for that much, but they are no doubt six-figure cards. For the budget conscious, Tendrils can be yours for only $18,000.

aGlNfzA.jpg
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Justin

Member
Did a bundle sealed event and surprise surprise 10 packs is much more fun than 6. Could actually make a decent two color deck. Only person I lost to had a hostage taker and captaviting crew. It's not cool to have your Burning Suns Avatar stolen.
 

Justin

Member
Omg this Hostage taker mirror is hillarious. There were three hostage takers cast in a row and they kept stealing each other.
 
Energy's kinda non-interactive at its core I'd say. An additional accumulative resource that just sits there, unaffected by anything bar a few sideboard cards.
 
So apparently Sorcerous Spyglass might actually be insane in Vintage Shops?

Should've listened to So Many Insane Plays, they spent like 45 minutes on this in their set review, heh.

Energy's kinda non-interactive at its core I'd say. An additional accumulative resource that just sits there, unaffected by anything bar a few sideboard cards.

I mean, that's not really that different from mana in the modern era, which is also a resource you accumulate and which usually opponents can't take you back off of. The thing that makes energy feel uninteractive in Kaladesh isn't really that it's a resource you can't directly target, it's a combination of the energy sources adding it in significant quantities right upfront and a lot of the sinks letting you spend it in large quantities quickly. Something like Aether Hub is easy to keep fair even in an energy-rich environment, and in general the stuff that has other restrictions on expenditure (like attack triggers, or additional tap and/or mana costs on top of the energy) are fine unless the effects themselves are innately absurd like Marvel's. Note that the energy decks are heavily defined by creatures that are infinite sinks for turning energy into stats -- Longtusk Cub, Bristling Hydra, and Electrostatic Pummeler all make giant stocks of energy explosive in a way that Aetherstorm Roc or Glint-Sleeve Siphoner don't.
 
I think the key lesson for energy is to be careful about energy sinks that translate directly into power/damage that can be used at any time. And Aetherworks Marvel.

And I like Matthias's dino hand puppet.
 

Farside

Unconfirmed Member
Khaladesh block introduced the energy mechanic. Some cards generate (and use) a new resource called energy. It’s similar to mana but it doesn’t zero out between phases.

Got it. Thanks! And that does seem like a powerful mechanic...
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Should've listened to So Many Insane Plays, they spent like 45 minutes on this in their set review, heh.



I mean, that's not really that different from mana in the modern era, which is also a resource you accumulate and which usually opponents can't take you back off of. The thing that makes energy feel uninteractive in Kaladesh isn't really that it's a resource you can't directly target, it's a combination of the energy sources adding it in significant quantities right upfront and a lot of the sinks letting you spend it in large quantities quickly. Something like Aether Hub is easy to keep fair even in an energy-rich environment, and in general the stuff that has other restrictions on expenditure (like attack triggers, or additional tap and/or mana costs on top of the energy) are fine unless the effects themselves are innately absurd like Marvel's. Note that the energy decks are heavily defined by creatures that are infinite sinks for turning energy into stats -- Longtusk Cub, Bristling Hydra, and Electrostatic Pummeler all make giant stocks of energy explosive in a way that Aetherstorm Roc or Glint-Sleeve Siphoner don't.
That's where I heard about it
 

kirblar

Member
Yeah, things like Longtusk cub being able to burn all the energy in one shot are the problem interaction.

This was an issue across the entire block, Walking Ballista being the most egregious example.
 

Farside

Unconfirmed Member
Looked around a bit, but I can't seem to find a website that gives the compositions and meanings behind a lot of these deck names. Instead of always asking here, does anyone know of a good site for this stuff?
 
Semifinals:
Sultai Energy vs. Sultai Energy
Ramunap Red vs. W/U Approach

Looked around a bit, but I can't seem to find a website that gives the compositions and meanings behind a lot of these deck names. Instead of always asking here, does anyone know of a good site for this stuff?

Typically you can just search for the deck name to get a sample composition.
 

Farside

Unconfirmed Member
Typically you can just search for the deck name to get a sample composition.

Thanks, but it doesn't really explain the names or really discuss what the deck does. I mean I guess if you are looking at it, you should have some idea...

And I found out what Approach decks are... I also got destroyed by that deck today at my LGS.

Any idea what's going on with this foil?

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Time+Spiral:Foil/Gemstone+Caverns#paper

It's the only printing of the card, but is it really that good?

Seems like a good card, but not deserving that crazy swing. Maybe it has a crazy synergy?
 

An-Det

Member
Yesterday didn't go too well for the team, but the dino deck was a ton of fun to play. Turns out mulls to four are the other natural predator of dinosaurs besides meteors.

Code:
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/kUJGCSQ.jpg[/IMG]
 

Firemind

Member
Ixalan sealed is kind of dumb. I've had people concede just because I dropped a Ripjaw Raptor on t4 with nothing else in play. What.
 

OnPoint

Member
Ixalan sealed is kind of dumb. I've had people concede just because I dropped a Ripjaw Raptor on t4 with nothing else in play. What.
Just ran my friends over with RW Vampirates Aggro. Had the RW walker and never cast it -- won every match. Through Carnage Tyrant. Through Reigisaur. It was nuts.
 

traveler

Not Wario
I dunno- Ixalan sealed seems pretty good to me thus far. It's way less bomby than Amonkhet; even Regisaur Alpha and Hostage Taker don't measure up to some of the gods- especially the HoD ones. I find my decks and games to be consistently dominated by commons and uncommons, and very few threats my opponents present feel unreasonable. There's also a very strong synergy driven draft archetypes in UG Merfolk and UR Pirates. I do wish the other color combinations had more synergistic decks to build, though, as RB Pirates- one of the strongest archetypes in my opinion- is basically removal + raid card advantage dorks and BW Vampires doesn't have a ton of rewards for achieving the go wide strat. Definitely going to play the season out some more to get a feel for it, but I'm a fan thus far.
 
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