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[Firemind]

EDIT: My limited rating has jumped up by over 50 points since I've stopped playing Khans and started playing Cube. At this rate, I'll be back to the rating I had during Theros block before Cube is gone. Khans and I really don't get along .

I didn't even know V4 has ratings. Shows how much the UI blows. Also, the new graveyard sucks.

Imperial Recruiter is insane, yeah. It wheels more often than not since no one wants the effect. I've seen Kiki-Jiki wheel too. Gotta force it next time I see it or Splinter Twin.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

I didn't even know V4 has ratings. Shows how much the UI blows. Also, the new graveyard sucks.

Imperial Recruiter is insane, yeah. It wheels more often than not since no one wants the effect. I've seen Kiki-Jiki wheel too. Gotta force it next time I see it or Splinter Twin.

It's in your account under Game History of all places.

I picked up a speculative Pestermite in pack one, then got the Recruiter in pack two (the pack didn't have much else, and I figured it was worth a shot), and lucked into the Kiki-Jiki in pack three. I completely backed into the deck by accident, which helped salvage a draft that was kind of going off the rails before that point. And yes - in most cases I think it's completely correct to pass Recruiter because it's so bad if you're not doing the Kiki-Jiki thing. But it was fantastic for me.

 

[keeblerdrow]

GB, I went with 3-of Hooting Mandrils in an Abzan reanimator package. The card was a delight. I just thought you should know. The only thing I lost to was a boss sligh deck in the last round, and that was partially my mull to 3 in game 1. (Yes, that low.)


I think I want to build a deck that cares about keeping things in the graveyard.

Just off the top of my head:
3x Sylvan Caryatid
3x Courser of Kruphix
4x Siege Rhino
3x Nighthowler
4x Strength From the Fallen
2x Whip
2x Doomwake Giant
2x Eidolon of Blossoms
4x Banishing Light
3x Nyx Weaver
3x Satyr Wayfinder
1x Hornet Queen
1x Pharika, God of Affliction
3x Commune with the Gods

4x Sandsteppe Citadel
2x Temple of Malady
2x Temple of Plenty
4x Windswept Heath
4x Llanowar Wastes
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Swamp
1x Plains
4x Forest


Side:
4x Drown in Sorrow
4x Bile Blight
3x Hero's Downfall
2x Nissa, Worldwaker
2x Elspeth, Sun's Champion

 

[Angry Grimace]

Restriction sucks. It significantly raises variance and leads down a slippery slope where you have to start cracking down on tutors for it to even have a real effect. It works in Vintage because the whole point of Vintage is to play the most powerful cards, the format is okay with turn-one wins, and there are so many different broken restricted cards that building around them doesn't actually lead to a stagnant format. It wouldn't work well in a newer, lower-powered format.

It also works because you can just play a lot of tutors and have spells that will protect the resolution of your wincon.

Would Yawgmoth's Will be better in fours, sure, but you don't need four to have it as a relevant win con.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Man, BBD's new article makes me want to play Gitaxian Probe

GB, I went with 3-of Hooting Mandrils in an Abzan reanimator package. The card was a delight. I just thought you should know.

^_^

Good to hear! One of the guys at my LGS asked for a copy of my list because of the Mandrills. Card is super fun and just matches up so well against other decks.

 

[kirblar]

I was playing 2 in UWR Delver and wished I had room for more. BBD's Pyroblade with 4 is so, so good. I'm probably never going to play "not 4" in Legacy if I can help it.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I was playing 2 in UWR Delver and wished I had room for more. BBD's Pyroblade with 4 is so, so good. I'm probably never going to play "not 4" in Legacy if I can help it.

I'm considering moving to a hybrid of BBD and Michael Major's lists. I looooove Young Pyromancer, he's one of my favorite creatures of all time. At the same time, I can't not play Sensei's Divining Top :-(

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Damn it! :lol Another 2-1 in Cube; this time I lose in game three of the finals because my deck won't cough up a white source.

I did the math (I actually pulled out a calculator and looked at it); with 10 white lands in my deck, on the draw, I'm over 50% to have it by turn 2 and 66% to have it by turn 3. So I kept the three island, three white-spell hand since the white spells were really good for the match up. I drew a Sphere of the Suns (which wasn't even in my original calculation) that got blown up and lost the match because I couldn't cast spells.

It's easy to say that I should have mulled the 7-card hand on the draw, but I don't think that six random pulls from the deck were better than the three off the top considering my hand (Gather the Townsfolk, O-Ring, Resto Angel, and this was against a red deck that, up until that point, had seemed fairly slow). I think the upside of the hand meant that it was correct to keep it instead of shipping for six, but damn it's annoying to lose like that.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Damn it! :lol Another 2-1 in Cube; this time I lose in game three of the finals because my deck won't cough up a white source.

I did the math (I actually pulled out a calculator and looked at it); with 10 white lands in my deck, on the draw, I'm over 50% to have it by turn 2 and 66% to have it by turn 3. So I kept the three island, three white-spell hand since the white spells were really good for the match up. I drew a Sphere of the Suns (which wasn't even in my original calculation) that got blown up and lost the match because I couldn't cast spells.

It's easy to say that I should have mulled the 7-card hand on the draw, but I don't think that six random pulls from the deck were better than the three off the top considering my hand (Gather the Townsfolk, O-Ring, Resto Angel, and this was against a red deck that, up until that point, had seemed fairly slow). I think the upside of the hand meant that it was correct to keep it instead of shipping for six, but damn it's annoying to lose like that.

Three island, three white spells is a classic mulligan situation.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";140900215]Three island, three white spells is a classic mulligan situation.[/QUOTE]

That's very easy to say, but I don't think that it's correct to mulligan here. Or at least, it's not wrong to not mulligan. My opponent's deck was not so fast that I was concerned about getting run over by his 1 and 2 drops. I had a card to put two blockers on the ground, a removal spell, and a blocker that he couldn't punch through without 2-for-1ing himself. My hand had the tools it needed in it already. I think that if you mulligan that to six, you're gambling that you'll not only have the mana you need, but that you'll also have spells that are relevant for the matchup as well. One of the weaknesses of my deck in the matchup was that it was pretty slow; I had boarded in cards like Elite Vanguard just to have more early drops to make sure I was doing thing before turn 3. If I mulligan, there's always the risk that I have the Myr Battlesphere in the opener, or that I have nothing but draw spells, or something equally annoying.

52% of the time, I hit a white source by turn two. 68% of the time, I hit the white source on turn three. If I include the Sphere of the Suns in that calculation (which I hadn't), that ticks up slightly to a 70% chance of getting it on turn 3. I did have it on turn 3 because I drew a turn 2 Sphere. I O-Ringed his Goblin Rabblemaster, and the turn after that the Sphere got blown up. That could have happened even if I mulliganed. For all I know, he might have had Wasteland too and if my white source had been a non-basic I would have been equally screwed.

No, I didn't lose because I didn't mulligan. I lost because my opponent was able to deny my critical resource, and I couldn't find a second as a backup. And I think that if you mulligan that 7-land hand, you lose more games that you win by keeping it.

EDIT: I should also concede the possibility that I lost by not siding in additional plains for islands when I was siding in more early white spells. :/ Thinking back, I should have subbed at least one Island for a Plains given how the rest of the sideboard strategy looked.

 

[Grakl]

Nevermind, your math is correct.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

EDIT, for those curious where I came up with the 52% number, this is how I calculated it:

Odds of not drawing a white source on turn 1: 23/33
Odds of not drawing a white source on turn 2: 22/32

Odds of not having a white source after two draw steps is the product of both of those previous events occurring: (23/33) * (22/32) = 0.48. Thus, 52% of the time, I have a white source by turn 2.

Had I swapped out one more island for plains, the number goes up to 56% on turn 2 and a 72% on turn 3. That's a not-insignificant bump. It makes the Vedalken Shackles that was in the deck slightly worse, but it's probably not that big of a deal in this case.

 

[Grakl]

You're actually right, my bad. There's a difference between only getting one white source and getting at least one white source, and I was being needlessly nitpicky, hah. Sorry bout that!

 

[SigmasonicX]

Played my very first Khans of Tarkir draft last night, going 1-1-2. My conclusion is that Abzan vs. Abzan is the worst, so even if I get Siege Rhino first pack and Abzan is somehow wide open for the rest of the draft, I'm not going to draft Abzan ever. Also, it's really annoying when a "refuge" is coming out every turn and you have to write down the life total change each time. Still, it was fun enough.

My decklist:

White
2x Feat of Resistance - Jeez, I really have a new appreciation of how versatile these protection instants are now. Can't be blocked, prevent damage from blockers, counter targeting spells. It doesn't really feel right for white to have all of these effects with just one ability.
1x Brave the Sands - Really useful when I got this and outlast creatures out.
1x Master of Pearls - In one game, I was at 1 and my opponent was at 13. I won by attacking and flipping this face up.
1x Smite the Monstrous - Useful against enemy outlast creatures when my opponent pumps them up enough.
1x Sage-Eye Harrier - I sided this in to handle all the flying creatures and Abzan Falconers I was seeing. It was never relevant.
Black
1x Despise - Even when this whiffed, it was helpful to see my opponent's hands.
1x Disowned Ancestor - A 0/4 should not be attacking as much as it does.
1x Ruthless Ripper - Great when it trades with a big blocker.
1x Debilitating Injury - Great early on.
1x Mardu Skullhunter - This was a real miss in this deck. I often don't attack until late in, and the discarding rarely seemed to help much.
1x Rakshasa's Secret - I didn't draft much anti-flying, so I sided this in. This probably would have been more useful if I had any delve cards.
1x Bitter Revelation - I realized that I probably didn't have a good deck when every time I cast this, there was never a card I was happy to see.
1x Mer-Ek Nightblade - This combined with Tuskguard Captain, Longshot Squad, and Brave the Sands in one game. I won that game.
Green
1x Archers' Parapet - I kept mispronouncing "parapet" as "paraphet". Anyway, this was a good blocker.
1x Scout the Borders - Same note as Bitter Revelation. Also, jeez, looking back, I really really should have drafted some delve cards.
1x Tuskguard Captain - Pretty good. See Mer-Ek Nightblade.
1x Dragonscale Boon - More useful than it should be at this cost.
1x Longshot Squad - Given all the flying creatures my opponents were running, this turned out to be a hugely important card.
1x Incremental Growth - There were moments were I had less than three creatures and this was effectively dead in my hand, but it was pretty big when I cast it.
Multicolored
1x Kin-Tree Invocation - I would consistently get a 5/5 token from this, but then it would always be destroyed by Suspension Field. By the way, one guy I faced kept on trying to use Suspension Field against my face-down creatures. At least then I knew to hold off on Siege Rhino until he used it.
1x Siege Rhino - This card is pretty decent. I think it may even see Standard play, guys.
1x Abzan Guide - This really gave me a new appreciation for how powerful lifelink is.
Land
2x Blossoming Sands
2x Jungle Hollow
1x Scoured Barrens - Well, at least I never got color screwed. I probably didn't need to draft so many lands.
3x Plains
5x Swamp
4x Forest

 

[Lucario]

Starting today, all packs at walgreens are buy one get one free.

http://imgur.com/LSGLXSV

A lot of stores are already sold out, but still, worth it to try to grab some $72 boxes of Khans.

 

[Firemind]

Well that was a weird draft. There's an elves of deep shadow in my sideboard and I could have taken an arbor elf, but other than those I believe I have them all. I also have a bunch of control magic in my sideboard with zero fixing. First time I drafted mono green. This will be an interesting experience. :lol

 

["God's Beard!"]

Played my very first Khans of Tarkir draft last night, going 1-1-2. My conclusion is that Abzan vs. Abzan is the worst, so even if I get Siege Rhino first pack and Abzan is somehow wide open for the rest of the draft, I'm not going to draft Abzan ever. Also, it's really annoying when a "refuge" is coming out every turn and you have to write down the life total change each time. Still, it was fun enough.

My decklist:

Join the dark side and force UR Tempo.

 

[Firemind]

lol like half my opening hands had zero one drops. got paired to red-based and white-based aggro in the first two rounds, which made me sweat profusely and go into the think tank because of my slow draws. I still managed to prevail by sheer luck. one game I opened with t1 elf, t2 green sun zenith rofellos, t3 garruk wildspeaker, t4 polukranos, t5 craterhoof. speaking of openings, I lost in the final to t3 show and tell emrakul lol. c'est la vie

 

["God's Beard!"]

I think I'm gonna swap out the Resolute Archangels from my sideboard and turn them into Mistcutter Hydras. The angels are super high variance against the decks that they matter, and I'd like something extra against the Temur Aggro and Temur Control decks floating around here.

Zero synergy with the whips suck, but they match up well against the Temur cards.

 

[CeruleanSilver]

Starting today, all packs at walgreens are buy one get one free.

http://imgur.com/LSGLXSV

A lot of stores are already sold out, but still, worth it to try to grab some $72 boxes of Khans.

Dammit! I wish I had checked this thread earlier today, I totally would have gotten some. Thanks all the same.

 

[Lucario]

Dammit! I wish I had checked this thread earlier today, I totally would have gotten some. Thanks all the same.

Deal lasts all week. If they don't have any, you can ask for a raincheck that'll last for 6 months.

 

[Angry Grimace]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";141035497]Join the dark side and force UR Tempo.[/QUOTE]

Tempo is one of those deck descriptors that meant something at some point but doesn't anymore

 

[PaulExcellent]

Hey, everyone.
So, my roommate got one of those double Speed vs. Cunning deck packs and I'm having fun with the game. (Except when I get no land cards and lose in the first 10 turns

For Christmas, I picked up one of the Holiday Gift Boxes for him so he can store all his cards and what not since he keeps getting new cards. Is that a decent present for a Magic player? (One of two gifts, but the only one that is Magic-related.)

Also, is there any strategies I should learn with the Cunning deck? I'm a beginner and want to learn how to go from there.

 

[WanderingWind]

Hey, everyone.
So, my roommate got one of those double Speed vs. Cunning deck packs and I'm having fun with the game. (Except when I get no land cards and lose in the first 10 turns

For Christmas, I picked up one of the Holiday Gift Boxes for him so he can store all his cards and what not since he keeps getting new cards. Is that a decent present for a Magic player? (One of two gifts, but the only one that is Magic-related.)

Also, is there any strategies I should learn with the Cunning deck? I'm a beginner and want to learn how to go from there.

It's absolutely a great gift. You can never have too much card storage and they come with neat little dividers and stickers that you can't get anywhere else.

 

[PaulExcellent]

It's absolutely a great gift. You can never have too much card storage and they come with neat little dividers and stickers that you can't get anywhere else.

Rad. I'm excited to give it to him, then.
The guy at the store was trying to help me pick some packs and some old decks for my roommate, but we kinda gave up since I don't know much about the game. >.>

 

[WanderingWind]

Rad. I'm excited to give it to him, then.
The guy at the store was trying to help me pick some packs and some old decks for my roommate, but we kinda gave up since I don't know much about the game. >.>

The best way to get into it is to show up for game days, (Friday evenings, or whenever your store holds them) and let people know you're new. Most everybody would be happy to run you through a game or ten. If you open packs, don't trade with anybody until you get a feel for the prices - there are some sharks out there who would gladly trade you a totally awesome creature for your crummy land card. With the land being worth 20 bucks and the creature being a penny.

Other than that, the community is normally welcoming to new players. The owner would probably show you how to play too.

You can also pick up the Duels of the Planeswalker game (2014 is the best one and it's like, 5 bucks). Those do a fantastic job of teaching the rules, steps and deck types so you can get a feel for where to go from there.

And of course, we love to talk about Magic ITT. Drop whatever questions you have and we'll be happy to answer them.

 

[f0rk]

Tempo is one of those deck descriptors that meant something at some point but doesn't anymore

It's a fine description for an archetype playing force away and crippling chill

 

[divisionbyzorro]

It's a fine description for an archetype playing force away and crippling chill

Especially one that actively wants both of those cards. EDIT: By that, I just mean that a lot of decks might play Force Away or Crippling Chill just to make playables, but the UR tempo deck picks them pretty highly.

 

[Matriox]

Walmart wouldn't do a match on the walgreens deal near me, but the walgreens ended up having a few packs so meh, can't complain.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I was gonna go to the LGS today,but Dragon Age Inquisition is too fucking good. Holy shit. I played for the first 15 hours and just beat the intro. Goddamn.

 

[kirblar]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";141201667]I was gonna go to the LGS today,but Dragon Age Inquisition is too fucking good. Holy shit. I played for the first 15 hours and just beat the intro. Goddamn.[/QUOTE]
I'm so glad I'm waiting to pick up this timesink, I don't have time for it right now, lol.

 

[blindrocket]

Starting today, all packs at walgreens are buy one get one free.

http://imgur.com/LSGLXSV

A lot of stores are already sold out, but still, worth it to try to grab some $72 boxes of Khans.

Price matched at Walmart, got two packs.

Pulled Sultai Ascendency, some goblin, and a foil Sarkhan.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I'm so glad I'm waiting to pick up this timesink, I don't have time for it right now, lol.

I literally just spent the past two hours in my home base doing optional conversations. Without leaving the room.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";141210766]I literally just spent the past two hours in my home base doing optional conversations. Without leaving the room.[/QUOTE]

So you're saying it's a Bioware game?

 

[ElyrionX]

Tempted to pick up the C14 white deck to build an EDH deck but it's going for $50 now, way above MSRP. Do the price of these things go down over time?

 

["God's Beard!"]

So you're saying it's a Bioware game?

It might be the best one. I liked Mass Effect 2 a lot, though.

 

[ElyrionX]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";141226951]It might be the best one. I liked Mass Effect 2 a lot, though.[/QUOTE]

Better than BG2?

Mass Effect is nice except for the shooting ugh.

 

[ultron87]

Tempted to pick up the C14 white deck to build an EDH deck but it's going for $50 now, way above MSRP. Do the price of these things go down over time?

Yeah, they aren't a limited product so they'll get back down there eventually as they get reprinted to meet demand.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Man, Soul of Theros with Sidisi just sounds like so much fun, but I hate playing cards that die to Lightning Strike.

Better than BG2?

Mass Effect is nice except for the shooting ugh.

I never played Baldur's Gate lol


But here's how I rank the one's I've played:

Dragon Age: Inquisition(potentially)
Mass Effect 2
Jade Empire
Dragon Age: Origins
Mass Effect 1
KOTOR 2
KOTOR
Mass Effect 3

 

[charlequin]

Tempted to pick up the C14 white deck to build an EDH deck but it's going for $50 now, way above MSRP. Do the price of these things go down over time?

Mind Seize from the 2013 set was like $80 early on and you can grab as many as you want for $30 online now. They only send a small number out early on to avoid overprinting so they don't get easy to find until they do the second print run.

 

[shrapnelmagnet]

Anyone order from ChannelFireball recently? I'm trying to use the 5BACK coupon code for the 5% store credit. Always seemed to work before, but it says "You cannot use this coupon at the same time as other coupons." even with no other coupons being used... Is it no longer valid? Just curious

 

[Matriox]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";141201667]I was gonna go to the LGS today,but Dragon Age Inquisition is too fucking good. Holy shit. I played for the first 15 hours and just beat the intro. Goddamn.[/QUOTE]

I have spent 4 or 5 hours playing DA:I, Id say 4 of those hours were spent in the first grass area... Completionist in me is being a dick lol.

 

[OnPoint]

Tempted to pick up the C14 white deck to build an EDH deck but it's going for $50 now, way above MSRP. Do the price of these things go down over time?

Just keep an eye out at your local big box stores? I was finding them no problem the last couple weeks.

 

[Firemind]

Or you can just buy singles. Most of the cards in the deck are 25p. It only demands a high price because of Containment Priest, Nahiri isn't even that good of a commander.

 

[OnPoint]

Or you can just buy singles. Most of the cards in the deck are 25p. It only demands a high price because of Containment Priest, Nahiri isn't even that good of a commander.

Honestly, of the 5 decks, the White one sucks to play. It has no inevitability and ends up just kind of doing nothing or being the fun police. The Red, Green, and Blue decks are probably the most fun to play, in that order, while the Black one at least has an end game. The White one just kind of putters along.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Things that are not fair in Magic: casting Armageddon with an active Sun Titan and a Coalition Relic in play. Tee hee.

EDIT: Other things that are not fair in Magic: not drawing past your second land in game one, and drawing 7 lands in 9 draw steps in game two .

Spoiler

I might be a little salty about that.

 

[Firemind]

I really should not spend so much money on this dragon collection of mine... Foil Scourge of the Throne, foil Japanese Yosei, foil Japanese Ryusei. Even a foil Lotus Guardian, an Invasion card that's been errata'd, demands 5 bucks! Dragons are expensive!

Next on my to-do list:
Foil Japanese Jugan
Foil Japanese Keiga (already own a foil Chinese but want Japanese version for authenticity)
Foil Thundermaw Hellkite (still not going down)
Foil Stormbreath Dragon (will go down eventually)
Foil Sarkhan, Dragonspeaker (will go down eventually)
Foil Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker ($15 for Conflux version are you kidding me?)
Ask my friend to remove my Nicol Bolas FTV: Dragons edition from his EDH deck (thing is worth $20!)

pls for the sake of my wallet don't print too many mythic dragons in Fate Reforged and Dragons of Tarkir wotc

 

[bigkrev]

Fatestitcher in Modern Jeskai Ascendency is a really smart addition. They changed it from a pure combo deck to a control-combo deck that now goes off later in the game with more consistency.

 

[OnPoint]

I really should not spend so much money on this dragon collection of mine... Foil Scourge of the Throne, foil Japanese Yosei, foil Japanese Ryusei. Even a foil Lotus Guardian, an Invasion card that's been errata'd, demands 5 bucks! Dragons are expensive!

Next on my to-do list:
Foil Japanese Jugan
Foil Japanese Keiga (already own a foil Chinese but want Japanese version for authenticity)
Foil Thundermaw Hellkite (still not going down)
Foil Stormbreath Dragon (will go down eventually)
Foil Sarkhan, Dragonspeaker (will go down eventually)
Foil Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker ($15 for Conflux version are you kidding me?)
Ask my friend to remove my Nicol Bolas FTV: Dragons edition from his EDH deck (thing is worth $20!)

pls for the sake of my wallet don't print too many mythic dragons in Fate Reforged and Dragons of Tarkir wotc

I think I have a foil Thundermaw lying around. We may have to talk haha

 

[SigmasonicX]

Anyone order from ChannelFireball recently? I'm trying to use the 5BACK coupon code for the 5% store credit. Always seemed to work before, but it says "You cannot use this coupon at the same time as other coupons." even with no other coupons being used... Is it no longer valid? Just curious

I think it will work.