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[GamerKingFaiz]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";122161513]So what constructed formats does everyone play, and what are your favorite decks?

Standard: Esper Control
Modern: Anything as long as it loses to Blood Moon
Legacy: Miracles/Reanimator
EDH: Erebos/Lord of Tresserhorn[/QUOTE]

Standard: B/G Devotion
Modern: U/R Storm
Legacy: N/A
EDH: Prossh precon

 

[ElyrionX]

I could at least see Confidant as Mythic because its a risky, fun ability. Tarmogoyf basically doesn't do anything beyond being a basic attacker/blocker.

If Snapcaster Mage ever gets reprinted, watch them stick it at Mythic because its worth money. (Snapcaster should have been red)

So if Snapcaster gets reprinted as mythic, would the price even go down? Or would the additional demand generated from Standard cause it to rise?

Actually the main reason I am tempted to go into Modern is because I want to play with awesome control cards like Snapcaster and Cryptic Command.

 

[Angry Grimace]

So if Snapcaster gets reprinted as mythic, would the price even go down? Or would the additional demand generated from Standard cause it to rise?

Actually the main reason I am tempted to go into Modern is because I want to play with awesome control cards like Snapcaster and Cryptic Command.

It wouldn't get reprinted in Standard. It would show up in Modern Masters 2 or 3 or whatever.

Snapcaster is a popular card in Vintage, Legacy and Modern. Its price isn't going to get lower; if you ever had interest in playing with Snapcaster, you should probably buy Snapcaster.

 

["God's Beard!"]

People play snapcaster in vintage?

 

[ElyrionX]

Why wouldn't it get reprinted in Standard? Is it too powerful for the format?

Speaking of Modern Masters, how do these things work? My LGS has individual Modern Masters boosters going for $20 which is absurd. How much is the original price of these boosters at release?

 

[kirblar]

Why wouldn't it get reprinted in Standard? Is it too powerful for the format?

Speaking of Modern Masters, how do these things work? My LGS has individual Modern Masters boosters going for $20 which is absurd. How much is the original price of these boosters at release?

It is.

 

[BlewHedgehog]

Why wouldn't it get reprinted in Standard? Is it too powerful for the format?

Speaking of Modern Masters, how do these things work? My LGS has individual Modern Masters boosters going for $20 which is absurd. How much is the original price of these boosters at release?

Snapcaster is a good card to have had printed, because it slots well into the eternal formats. While it's in standard, the designers have to make instants and sorceries worse to keep from making too powerful a synergy with him.

Buying MM packs is a bad idea at $20, but your store is asking fair market value for them. I think packs were $7 at launch.

 

[Lucario]

Why wouldn't it get reprinted in Standard? Is it too powerful for the format?

Speaking of Modern Masters, how do these things work? My LGS has individual Modern Masters boosters going for $20 which is absurd. How much is the original price of these boosters at release?

When Snapcaster is in a Standard format, you have to pay insanely close attention to the instants and soceries you print.

We were originally going to get Lightning Helix instead of Warleader's Helix, but snapcaster being in the same format would've made it too dominant.

http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/245

 

[Angry Grimace]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";122264797]People play snapcaster in vintage?[/QUOTE]

Yes, but it's not as common as in other formats. It depends on the deck but Snapcaster on Time Walk and/or Ancestral Recall is a fairly good play.

 

[Jaeyden]

Deck Construction: This is because they are allowing for, and expect that a lot of people will manage their deck during the draft itself. You can move all of the cards out of the main deck window by selecting them all and removing them. This is why Sealed does not do that, but Draft does.

This is something I quite like because if you are hiding cards during the draft, they are separated out when you get to construction. You can pretty much build your deck while you draft and have it ready to roll as soon as you pick your last card.

I get some of the complaints but I think once people get used to V4 they won't even think twice about the old client.

 

[OnPoint]

When Snapcaster is in a Standard format, you have to pay insanely close attention to the instants and soceries you print.

We were originally going to get Lightning Helix instead of Warleader's Helix, but snapcaster being in the same format would've made it too dominant.

http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/245

Snapcaster coming behind Mana Leak and Vapor Snag really showed that was the case. I'm sure people playing Modern are in love with Snapcaster + Lightning Bolt or, depending on the deck, Snapcaster + Cryptic Command.

 

[Crocodile]

Should've, could've, would've :/

You guys are too nerf happy. Taking Flash off Snapcaster is a good way to turn an excellent card into a mediocre card with a lot less play to it. Nerfing every card that did good work in one or more formats is a good way to turn Magic into a boring game I'm not arguing for a Standard reprint but I'm glad the card exist as is.

Also there is no "it SHOULD have been Red", just that it could have been since its in color for both colors. There's no problem with it being Blue or Red so people should get over the butthurt

 

[ultron87]

Played in, I think, my 3rd Modern event last night, still piloting Affinity. I went 2-2, though it really should've been 1-3 except for an opponent in the mirror forgetting about the lifelink on my Vault Skirge when attacking for "lethal". I somehow won another absolutely ridiculous game where my Twin opponent resolved 2 Smash to Smithereens, 3 Molten Rain, and a nasty Engineered Explosives on consecutive turns. Thankfully during all of that I got a Spellskite resolved at the proper time that managed to stick so he couldn't combo off.

I'm honestly still playing the deck pretty badly. Still pretty loose on what hands are keepable in matchups and which aren't (I definitely get trapped by the "ooh, I can play everything now!" hand), and what to sideboard. Need to just start going to a Modern event every week to get a better handle on the format. Thankfully there's a lot of good reading on the subject, especially on CFB with Frank Karsten's articles and videos (and hey look, a convenient what hands are keepable article, just today!). I should probably actually just bring some sideboarding notes for the next time I play.

 

[kirblar]

Should've, could've, would've :/

You guys are too nerf happy. Taking Flash off Snapcaster is a good way to turn an excellent card into a mediocre card with a lot less play to it. Nerfing every card that did good work in one or more formats is a good way to turn Magic into a boring game I'm not arguing for a Standard reprint but I'm glad the card exist as is.

Also there is no "it SHOULD have been Red", just that it could have been since its in color for both colors. There's no problem with it being Blue or Red so people should get over the butthurt

You didn't want that card being as good as it was.

 

[ThLunarian]

I feel like giving Snapcaster a mana cost of RR and otherwise leaving as-is would have been a perfect way to make it less oppressive but still really powerful.

 

[bigkrev]

I'd have printed Snapcaster as a 1/1 at UU. Still powerful, but more difficult on the mana and less likely to be a 2 for 1 as a blocker

 

[OnPoint]

Should've, could've, would've :/

You guys are too nerf happy. Taking Flash off Snapcaster is a good way to turn an excellent card into a mediocre card with a lot less play to it. Nerfing every card that did good work in one or more formats is a good way to turn Magic into a boring game I'm not arguing for a Standard reprint but I'm glad the card exist as is.

Also there is no "it SHOULD have been Red", just that it could have been since its in color for both colors. There's no problem with it being Blue or Red so people should get over the butthurt

But it SHOULD have been red. They've said as much. And a card like Past In Flames proves it.

 

["God's Beard!"]

More constructed cards should have power levels similar to Snapcaster than the other way around. It's a cool ability that increases your options.

I was actually able to drag a game on long enough to Snapcaster Terminus somebody, and it was just a ton of fun.

 

[Firemind]

You didn't want that card being as good as it was.

Snapcaster wasn't that oppressive in the last standard block tbh. It wasn't always a four-of in blue decks; some blue decks like Bant Control didn't even want it. A WBR deck won PT Gatecrash with a few Jund decks in the top 8 as I believe. Thragtusk was more oppressive to aggro than snapcaster was to midrange.

In Modern it's only a powerhouse because they banned several key cards in succession that were good in midrange (DRS and BBE).

In Legacy, it's a bit slow so most FoW decks don't want it.

 

[kirblar]

Snapcaster wasn't that oppressive in the last standard block tbh. It wasn't always a four-of in blue decks; some blue decks like Bant Control didn't even want it. A WBR deck won PT Gatecrash with a few Jund decks in the top 8 as I believe. Thragtusk was more oppressive to aggro than snapcaster was to midrange.

In Modern it's only a powerhouse because they banned several key cards in succession that were good in midrange (DRS and BBE).

In Legacy, it's a bit slow so most FoW decks don't want it.

It was part of the shell that made W/U very oppressive for a long time. You're thinking of the wrong half of its time in Standard.

 

[Firemind]

That's my point. It was a combination of factors: Mana Leak, Ponder, Delver of Secrets, Gitaxian Probe, Gut Shot, Vapor Snag, Geist of Saint Traft, Restoration Angel, Timely Reinforcements, several Swords.

To put the blame on Snapcaster is a bit naive.

 

[OnPoint]

Snapcaster wasn't that oppressive in the last standard block tbh. It wasn't always a four-of in blue decks; some blue decks like Bant Control didn't even want it. A WBR deck won PT Gatecrash with a few Jund decks in the top 8 as I believe. Thragtusk was more oppressive to aggro than snapcaster was to midrange.

In Modern it's only a powerhouse because they banned several key cards in succession that were good in midrange (DRS and BBE).

In Legacy, it's a bit slow so most FoW decks don't want it.

This is because they were very careful about what they printed in RTR. As someone said, we would have got Lightning Helix if Snappy wasn't running around, but instead we got Warleader's Helix. Counterspells were also costed a little higher (though to be fair the game was definitely already moving in that direction).

 

[bigkrev]

Snapcaster wasn't that oppressive in the last standard block tbh. It wasn't always a four-of in blue decks; some blue decks like Bant Control didn't even want it. A WBR deck won PT Gatecrash with a few Jund decks in the top 8 as I believe. Thragtusk was more oppressive to aggro than snapcaster was to midrange.

In Modern it's only a powerhouse because they banned several key cards in succession that were good in midrange (DRS and BBE).

In Legacy, it's a bit slow so most FoW decks don't want it.

Snapcaster was super oppressive for the first half of it's life when it had Gitaxian Probe, Ponder, Vapor Snag, Mana Leak to grab.

 

[Angry Grimace]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";122301028]More constructed cards should have power levels similar to Snapcaster than the other way around. It's a cool ability that increases your options.

I was actually able to drag a game on long enough to Snapcaster Terminus somebody, and it was just a ton of fun.[/QUOTE]

They once got this idea and made it into a block starting with Urza's Saga. All those cards are banned for being silly and game-breaking. I'm not saying Yawgmoth's Will is not a fun card to play with, but its a stupid card for them to have printed.

 

[ElyrionX]

Wednesday Night Magic and once again, I faced a guy who I lost to at last week's WNM. I was playing Esper Control and he was Jund midrange (running Domri, Xenagos and even Elspeth) which sideboarded hard against me after I lost the first game. He boarded in stuff like Slaughter Games and Rakdos's Return and they were all really hard to deal with.

Any tips?

 

[keeblerdrow]

Play play play. Esper Control is a deck about learning the other decks in the format forward and backward and then sculpting both your deck & play to them. So show up at the lgs on other nights and just play pick ups against as many different opponents and as many different format competitive decks as you can. You'll become more successful the more you know other people's decks.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I can't wait until I can stop seeing Sphinx's Revelation, because I'm just tired of seeing the card.

 

[kirblar]

A long time ago, they decided to move away from Instant Speed Card Draw. It's crept back into the game over the past decade, and has served to show that they were right to axe it in the first place.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Ajani is going around Theros dissing Heliod.

Anyway, about Snapcaster Mage, I believe Maro mentioned on his blog at some point that they may make a red version of it in the future, but it won't be as powerful and it probably won't have flash. Wizards tends to handle this sort of thing by making a card that costs more but has some benefit, though one that doesn't match the original. I think some variations they could do are:

Red Snapcaster 1 - 2R
Creature - Human Shaman
When Red Snapcaster 1 enters the battlefield, add RR to your mana pool and target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost. (You may cast that card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
2/2

Red Snapcaster 2 - 1R
Creature - Human Shaman
As an additional cost, discard a card.
When Red Snapcaster 2 enters the battlefield, draw a card and target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost. (You may cast that card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
2/1

Red Snapcaster 3 - 2R
Creature - Human Shaman
When Red Snapcaster 3 enters the battlefield, up to two target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gain flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost are equal to their mana costs. (You may cast those cards from your graveyard for their flashback cost. Then exile it.)
2/2

Or maybe

Red Snapcaster 4 - 1R
Creature - Human Shaman
When Red Snapcaster 4 enters the battlefield, exile a card from your graveyard. You may play it this turn.
2/1

Though that one seems potentially dangerous.
EDIT: Come to think of it, even just restricting it to instant and sorceries may make it sufficiently different and "better", since the card goes right back into the graveyard if it is cast.
EDIT 2: Come to think of it...

Red Snapcaster 5 - 1R
Creature - Human Shaman
When Red Snapcaster 5 enters the battlefield, exile an instant or sorcery card from each player's graveyard. Until end of turn, you may play cards exiled this way.
2/1

This seems exactly like what Wizards would do. The extra cards being given "flashback" don't actually benefit you that much, since you probably can't cast them, but it feels like it could be more powerful.

 

[kirblar]

Sounds like they're planning on blowing up Theros. Good.

 

["God's Beard!"]

After playing a lot with Bogles, this is the version I've come up with:

Rainbow Bogles

Creatures(11):

• 4 Slippery Bogle
• 4 Gladecover Scout
• 3 Invisible Stalker

Instants(4):

• 2 Path to Exile
• 2 Selesnya Charm

Enchantments(25):

• 4 Madcap Skills
• 4 Daybreak Coronet
• 4 Ethereal Armor
• 4 Rancor
• 3 Hyena Umbra
• 3 Spider Umbra
• 2 Taste for Mayhem
• 1 Spirit Link

Lands(20):

• 4 Razorverge Thicket
• 4 Horizon Canopy
• 4 Mana Confluence
• 4 Gemstone Mine
• 4 City of Brass

Sideboard(15):

• 2 Path to Exile
• 4 Leyline of Sanctity
• 1 Grafdigger's Cage
• 3 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 3 Stony Silence
• 2 Gaddock Teeg

I cut the supression fields because the nonbo with Horizon Canopy really annoyed me, and I added a red splash to make the deck a little more explosive. Madcap Skills has outperformed Spirit Mantle for me in testing.

I kind of want to cut the Taste for Mayhems for Ghor Clans.

 

[ElyrionX]

Play play play. Esper Control is a deck about learning the other decks in the format forward and backward and then sculpting both your deck & play to them. So show up at the lgs on other nights and just play pick ups against as many different opponents and as many different format competitive decks as you can. You'll become more successful the more you know other people's decks.

Been doing that and will continue to do so. Going to try to overhaul my sideboard too. It feels a bit too one-dimensional at the moment.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Ajani is going around Theros dissing Heliod.

Anyway, about Snapcaster Mage, I believe Maro mentioned on his blog at some point that they may make a red version of it in the future, but it won't be as powerful and it probably won't have flash. Wizards tends to handle this sort of thing by making a card that costs more but has some benefit, though one that doesn't match the original. I think some variations they could do are:

Red Snapcaster 1 - 2R
Creature - Human Shaman
When Red Snapcaster 1 enters the battlefield, add RR to your mana pool and target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost. (You may cast that card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
2/2

Red Snapcaster 2 - 1R
Creature - Human Shaman
As an additional cost, discard a card.
When Red Snapcaster 2 enters the battlefield, draw a card and target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost. (You may cast that card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
2/1

Red Snapcaster 3 - 2R
Creature - Human Shaman
When Red Snapcaster 3 enters the battlefield, up to two target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gain flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost are equal to their mana costs. (You may cast those cards from your graveyard for their flashback cost. Then exile it.)
2/2

Or maybe

Red Snapcaster 4 - 1R
Creature - Human Shaman
When Red Snapcaster 4 enters the battlefield, exile a card from your graveyard. You may play it this turn.
2/1

Though that one seems potentially dangerous.
EDIT: Come to think of it, even just restricting it to instant and sorceries may make it sufficiently different and "better", since the card goes right back into the graveyard if it is cast.
EDIT 2: Come to think of it...

Red Snapcaster 5 - 1R
Creature - Human Shaman
When Red Snapcaster 5 enters the battlefield, exile an instant or sorcery card from each player's graveyard. Until end of turn, you may play cards exiled this way.
2/1

This seems exactly like what Wizards would do. The extra cards being given "flashback" don't actually benefit you that much, since you probably can't cast them, but it feels like it could be more powerful.

I like to assume he's doing this in the form of hip-hop diss tracks.

 

[OnPoint]

Sounds like they're planning on blowing up Theros. Good.

At least the Gods, and it almost ensures we'll never return there. Still, they have to bust Elspeth out at some point.

 

[Angry Grimace]

At least the Gods, and it almost ensures we'll never return there. Still, they have to bust Elspeth out at some point.

It wasn't a super popular setting, but I imagine it will be revisted at least a little. My guess is that Elspeth will bust out in a Core Set story, since that seems to be their new way of handling lingering plot threads.

 

[ThLunarian]

At least the Gods, and it almost ensures we'll never return there. Still, they have to bust Elspeth out at some point.

I could see Theros getting consumed by the Eldrazi or something. I still think they're building toward a huge event with a block that spans multiple planes (kind of like Invasion and Time Spiral both did).

 

[ultron87]

I wonder if they could use a Duel Deck's limited story to get Elspeth out.

"Elspeth vs Heliod/The Gods" or something like that, though that would of course break the Planeswalker vs Planeswalker thing they've had forever.

 

[JulianImp]

I wonder if they could use a Duel Deck's limited story to get Elspeth out.

"Elspeth vs Heliod/The Gods" or something like that, though that would of course break the Planeswalker vs Planeswalker thing they've had forever.

They could always make it Elspeth vs Xenagos (PW) and use the deck to cover their fight, Heliod's betrayal and Elspeth's escape from Theros' underworld using all-new flavor text and some new art.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I wonder if they could use a Duel Deck's limited story to get Elspeth out.

"Elspeth vs Heliod/The Gods" or something like that, though that would of course break the Planeswalker vs Planeswalker thing they've had forever.

Elspeth v. Xenagos, Underworld Battle!

 

[ultron87]

Yeah, you guys are right. Pairing it that way makes way more sense.

*patiently awaits announcement of Kiora vs Ajani (because cats hate water) on Saturday at the SDCC panel*

 

[Angry Grimace]

Yeah, you guys are right. Pairing it that way makes way more sense.

*patiently awaits announcement of Kiora vs Ajani (because cats hate water) on Saturday at the SDCC panel*

In all honesty, I would expect something more like Kiora v. Ashiok, because Ashiok isn't worth much and they don't have to use 2 dead characters.

 

[kirblar]

Yeah, you guys are right. Pairing it that way makes way more sense.

*patiently awaits announcement of Kiora vs Ajani (because cats hate water) on Saturday at the SDCC panel*

I actually like that idea?

 

[phazedplasma]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";122317246]After playing a lot with Bogles, this is the version I've come up with:

Creatures(11):

• 4 Slippery Bogle
• 4 Gladecover Scout
• 3 Silhana Ledgewalker

Instants(2):

• 2 Path to Exile

Enchantments(27):

• 4 Madcap Skills
• 4 Daybreak Coronet
• 4 Ethereal Armor
• 4 Rancor
• 4 Hyena Umbra
• 2 Spider Umbra
• 2 Keen Sense
• 2 Taste for Mayhem
• 1 Spirit Link

Lands(20):

• 4 Razorverge Thicket
• 2 Temple Garden
• 4 Horizon Canopy
• 4 Mana Confluence
• 4 Gemstone Mine
• 2 City of Brass

Sideboard(15):

• 2 Path to Exile
• 4 Leyline of Sanctity
• 1 Grafdigger's Cage
• 3 Flamespeaker's Will
• 3 Stony Silence
• 2 Gaddock Teeg

I cut the supression fields because the nonbo with Horizon Canopy really annoyed me, and I added a red splash to make the deck a little more explosive. Madcap Skills has outperformed Spirit Mantle for me in testing.

I kind of want to cut the Taste for Mayhems for Ghor Clans.[/QUOTE]

How are your draws with only 11 creatures?

 

[Zocano]

Can the Eldrazi planes walk?

Following the build up to a large multi set block... The main threats are the Eldrazi and Phyrexians right?

Could see them meet at one point.

 

[OnPoint]

It wasn't a super popular setting, but I imagine it will be revisted at least a little. My guess is that Elspeth will bust out in a Core Set story, since that seems to be their new way of handling lingering plot threads.

Makes sense. I could definitely see this happening.

I could see Theros getting consumed by the Eldrazi or something. I still think they're building toward a huge event with a block that spans multiple planes (kind of like Invasion and Time Spiral both did).

They're certainly building toward convergence of plot threads. Nicol Bolas is up to something, the Eldrazi are fucking about on Zendikar, the New Phrexians are certainly busy trying to crack out of Mirrodin New Phyrexia,

There's a huge cast of characters with tightly intertwined threads between them, that is for sure. Hopefully they start to pull the drawstrings tighter and give us a payoff, because it's been building for over five years at this point and it's starting to feel a bit long for setup purposes.

Things I'm curious about off the top of my head:

1. The other demons that hold Liliana's deal. Firstly, because I wonder if they'll print another demon with Grisselbrand-ish power levels to represent them (there's two left right?). Secondly because the setup is there for the Chain Veil to take her over Big Black Garruk style and create a "big bad" for a future Core Set. Probably not M16, but maybe M17, if things continue on this path. Could even be in a normal set, I don't know.

2. What the hell is Nicol Bolas up to? What if this whole time he's been trying to save the multiverse instead of control it? I guess that's a little Watchmen of my expectations, but I think it would be awesome. I think it would be even cooler if he's just about to pull whatever it is he's up to off and Tezzeret fucks it up to gain greater power. I guess he's always been the Starscream to Bolas' Megatron, but I'd love to see the henchman get his day in the sun and take control.

3. Potential showdown: The Eldrazi Vs The Gods. I still think this could be really cool if handled right, even if the Gods are lower than Eldrazi caliber on the cards, it could work storywise.

4. How are they going to purify Garruk, or whether or not they will at all. I feel like he's got to come back to center-green. I just don't know how that will be. I was also hoping he'd kill a real, relevant planeswalker, but I guess not.

 

[ultron87]

Garruk gets maybe/probably healed at the end of DOTP I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOaJeIBN7r8

 

[Grakl]

Is MTG's story similar to comic books? It seems like it.

 

[Haly]

Magic's only had one real retcon so far, and a bunch of other smaller inconsistencies resolved through retcon.

 

[OnPoint]

What was the retcon, Haly?

Garruk gets maybe/probably healed at the end of DOTP I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOaJeIBN7r8

The hell was that demon at the end, Ob?

 

[Zocano]

Wait, how do the Phyrexians planeswalk?

The hell was that demon at the end, Ob?

Looks like Ob, Yah.