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[Jhriad]

Also, I just realized how completely impenetrable this conversation is for new players. :/

To be honest the entire thread is like that for newer players. Like other community threads with a small number of regular posters the conversation is in large part deep delves into the subject matter or semi exclusionary conversations between regulars.

 

[Joe Molotov]

Dammit, would have went 3-0 last night in draft if I could have drawn my Siege Rhino. After a long grindy game, I had my opponent down to 1 life, Treasure Cruised into my last 5 cards, no Rhino. I got Archer's Parapet and Swarm of Bloodflies, played both, just needed to hold him off one turn to trigger Parapet, he casts Feat of Resistance Pro-Black on his Sultai Scavengers and finished me off. I flipped my last two cards and Rhino was on the very bottom ._.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Someone on Reddit caught Rashad Miller playing a Modern Dredge deck in the MTGO practice room. No clue if he built the deck himself or if he's being careless and leaking a strategy that he's heard from someone testing for the PT.

Essentially, you're dredging as hard as you can, then you unearth Fatestitcher, cast two Gravecrawlers, and all your Vengevines come roaring back. It sounds kinda neat actually. I feel like someone has probably used this shell before, but maybe Grave-Troll would give it some more consistency.

Dredgevine's a thing people have been trying, but I can't see it being super popular.

It's too bad nothing ever really came of Prophetic Flamespeaker. I really like the design of that card.

The thing is, I'd rather just cast Temur Battle Rage on something than bother with Flamespeaker, really.

 

[Socat]

Dredgevine's a thing people have been trying, but I can't see it being super popular.

Just seems like a fun deck to play, regardless of performance, at least for me.

 

[bigkrev]

While they obviously need to amend this further to allow people to play in Pre-releases,
WOTC announced that employees and their families are now able to play sanctioned Magic

The restrictions:
-Prize must be less than $250
-Can't play in an event featuring new cards until a week after the set is released
-Can't play in PTQs/WMCQ/GP/PTs, as well as SCG Opens/TCGPlayer type events

While this is mostly meaningless news, it does mean that you will sometimes be able to see an R&D member at something like an FNM, which would be pretty cool

 

[OnPoint]

Id love it if they snuck super secret tech out that way

 

[Angry Grimace]

I never noticed Tasigur's fruit bowl is mounted on a zombie head:

 

["God's Beard!"]

Someone on Reddit caught Rashad Miller playing a Modern Dredge deck in the MTGO practice room. No clue if he built the deck himself or if he's being careless and leaking a strategy that he's heard from someone testing for the PT.

Essentially, you're dredging as hard as you can, then you unearth Fatestitcher, cast two Gravecrawlers, and all your Vengevines come roaring back. It sounds kinda neat actually. I feel like someone has probably used this shell before, but maybe Grave-Troll would give it some more consistency.

Why is gravecrawler better than Bloodghast?

 

[red13th]

?
Bloodghast won't trigger Vengevine.

 

[Joe Molotov]

Tasigur is so awesome, just chillaxing on his throne in his underwear.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Dredgevine's a thing people have been trying, but I can't see it being super popular.

Yeah, but those strategies have typically been hedging by playing stuff like Lotleth Troll. This list is all-in on dredge, and was actually seen playing Bridge (although the player who played against him didn't see any direct synergies, so Bridge is probably just insurance against removal). The list was using Dangerous Wager and Tormenting voice as a kind of ridiculous way to set up the yard, alongside more traditional things like Hedron Crab and Faithless Looting.

I dunno; it sounds cool. Hopefully we see something interesting from GGT at the PT.

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";149820929]Why is gravecrawler better than Bloodghast?[/QUOTE]

Fatestitcher is a Zombie.

Unearth Fatestitcher, untap a land, cast two Gravecrawlers, all of your Vengevines come roaring back.

The guy reporting on this didn't play with the deck, but against it. He couldn't remember for sure if the deck played Bloodghast or Dregscape Zombie, but it might.

 

["God's Beard!"]

?
Bloodghast won't trigger Vengevine.

LOL

Gimme a break, just woke up -_-

 

[Angry Grimace]

Not that I could even try it. Sold all my Golgari Grave-Troll a while back to fund getting back into Faeries.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Speaking of being into fairies, I wonder if they used Brutal Hordechief for the GP playmat instead of Tasigur because they didn't think anyone would want to play cards on a half-naked dude with a bunch of bananas.

 

[An-Det]

While they obviously need to amend this further to allow people to play in Pre-releases,
WOTC announced that employees and their families are now able to play sanctioned Magic

The restrictions:
-Prize must be less than $250
-Can't play in an event featuring new cards until a week after the set is released
-Can't play in PTQs/WMCQ/GP/PTs, as well as SCG Opens/TCGPlayer type events

While this is mostly meaningless news, it does mean that you will sometimes be able to see an R&D member at something like an FNM, which would be pretty cool

Seems like a fair balance, banning them from basic stuff like FNM never made any sense. The $250 limit is a bit restrictive though, since it would prohibit stuff like any decent sized legacy event (for example, if 1st is a set of Underground Seas).

Hopefully they lift the 1-week and Prerelease restrictions later (it's both or neither). The potential for abuse is pretty minimal considering how heavily sets are analyzed these days before Prereleases.

 

[OnPoint]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";149824565]Speaking of being into fairies, I wonder if they used Brutal Hordechief for the GP playmat instead of Tasigur because they didn't think anyone would want to play cards on a half-naked dude with a bunch of bananas.[/QUOTE]

The color balance in that art is so good that I didn't even notice the bananas until you pointed them out. Now I can't unsee them.

But he is in his underwear... Can we start calling him Fruit of the Loom?

 

[Angry Grimace]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";149824565]Speaking of being into fairies, I wonder if they used Brutal Hordechief for the GP playmat instead of Tasigur because they didn't think anyone would want to play cards on a half-naked dude with a bunch of bananas.[/QUOTE]

what you did there

I see it

 

[keeblerdrow]

The color balance in that art is so good that I didn't even notice the bananas until you pointed them out. Now I can't unsee them.

But he is in his underwear... Can we start calling him Fruit of the Loom?

I sometimes call him WhipGrapesBananaPearApple because it actually rolls off the tongue easily.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Well, I guess FRF is finally out on MODO, so I guess I'll do another pre-release since I have 5 hours to kill....welp, easily the worst sealed pool I've ever had. This is why I hate three color crap. I shouldn't have to go four-colors to have anything of power playable. Its just like KTK draft where you get a billion cards that can't play together unless you want to play stupid 4 or 5 color decks and I already have exceptionally low tolerance for mana screw.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Also the EV of MTGO prereleases is the worst.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Also the EV of MTGO prereleases is the worst.

I don't really care about the money/tix. I just wanted to play something for a while and have fun, but this is going to be the opposite of fun, I'm pretty sure. It probably will end with me conceding every match to go back to work to fish for free-wins off of people who drop. I wasn't kidding when I said my tolerance for mana screw is really low. I'll usually concede within 3 turns on MODO if I don't draw lands I need.

I made all my tix selling Golgari Grave-Trolls for 6 times what I bought them for.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Also, completely demolished my first opponent with Shockmaw Dragons and Sandsteppe Outcasts

I'm always a little surprised at how highly people value 1 drops in this limited format that aren't Kin-Tree Warden.

 

[bigkrev]

I'm always a little surprised at how highly people value 1 drops in any limited format

FTFY

 

[Angry Grimace]

FTFY

I mean, Kin-Tree Warden is pretty good since it can morph, stall attacks all day on colorless mana, etc. But everything else sucks and ideally you'd play a tapland turn one, not some 1/1 flier dork.

 

[Firemind]

Disowned Ancestor is great dawgs.

 

[Socat]

Anyone have opinions on this deck that I am going to run for a modern FNM tonight? I am mostly looking for sideboard help, but any help/critique in general would be appreciated.

1x Forest
1x Mountain
3x Arid Mesa
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Temple Garden
4x Stomping Ground
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills

4x Goblin Guide
4x Monastery Swiftspear
4x Wild Nacatl
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Eidolon of the Great Revel
4x Ghor-Clan Rampager
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Mutagenic Growth
4x Boros Charm

Sideboard:
2x Stony Silence
2x Chained to the Rocks
2x Volcanic Fallout
3x Destructive Revelry
2x Gut Shot
2x Torpor Orb
2x Dragon's Claw

The Bloodstained Mire is because I don't have a 4th Arid Mesa.

 

[ultron87]

I'll play Typhoid Rats and Ruthless Ripper all day every day.

 

[GamerKingFaiz]

I mean, Kin-Tree Warden is pretty good since it can morph, stall attacks all day on colorless mana, etc. But everything else sucks and ideally you'd play a tapland turn one, not some 1/1 flier dork.

Aven Skirmisher, Jeskai Student, and Jeskai Runemark carried me in a draft last week. Soooo good.

 

[Yeef]

Plenty of great 1-drops in the format. I'd say there's more good ones than bad ones.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Yeah, the 1 drops are surprisingly good. The only "trap" is Mardu Woe-Reaper - not because it's not a playable card, but because very few decks can take advantage of his one-drop-ness to a significant degree. This can lead to players draft him higher than they should.

On the subject of drafting: I'm very curious to figure out if this strategy is good in FRF/KTK/KTK:

1) In FRF, take all of the Qarsi High Priests, then wheel all of the Collateral Damages.
2) In KTK, take all of the Act of Treasons.

Surround this with a B/R aggro shell.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I'll play Typhoid Rats and Ruthless Ripper all day every day.

Ripper is a fake one drop though.

Aven Skirmisher, Jeskai Student, and Jeskai Runemark carried me in a draft last week. Soooo good.

One of those is a one-drop.

Spoiler

Its also bad, sorry

 

[GamerKingFaiz]

Ripper is a fake one drop though.



One of those is a one-drop.

Spoiler

Its also bad, sorry

I don't know, 1 mana evasive creature single handedly won my the game. Dropped him turn 1 and I remember just slowly beating my opponent in the air for a consistent 2 damage a turn (I had buffed him somehow, don't remember though).

Sure, this is a one off case, but don't brush off the little 1/1 flyer so easily!

 

["God's Beard!"]

It's not completely unplayable, but it's one of those cards where you'll only play it if you're doing something specific.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

I think I would need at least three Chief of the Edge before I even considered that thing.

 

[Firemind]

I once got beaten to death by a Firehoof Cavalry. True story.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

I mean, there are very few card so bad that they literally can't help win the game. One With Nothing comes to mind, but nothing else.

 

[Llyrwenne]

Also, completely demolished my first opponent with Shockmaw Dragons and Sandsteppe Outcasts

I'm always a little surprised at how highly people value 1 drops in this limited format that aren't Kin-Tree Warden.

I drafted five Typhoid Rats and put them all main-board because I don't give a fuck. I won 3-0 thanks to them. Don't you trash-talk my rats, bro!

 

[Joe Molotov]

I mean, there are very few card so bad that they literally can't help win the game. One With Nothing comes to mind, but nothing else.

What if you had 5 lands in your hand + a One With Nothing and you scryed a Tasigur?

 

[divisionbyzorro]

What if you had 5 lands in your hand + a One With Nothing and you scryed a Tasigur?

What if your opponent had a Typhoid Rats?

 

[Firemind]

LOL MTGO keeps crashing because Main Navigation stopped working whatever the fuck that means. Wizards pls

 

[The Technomancer]

I mean, there are very few card so bad that they literally can't help win the game. One With Nothing comes to mind, but nothing else.

I swear I heard One With Nothing showed up in a few competitive sideboards in its day. No idea how accurate that is though

 

[Angry Grimace]

LOL MTGO keeps crashing because Main Navigation stopped working whatever the fuck that means. Wizards pls

It means restart your computer, typically.

 

[red13th]

I swear I heard One With Nothing showed up in a few competitive sideboards in its day. No idea how accurate that is though

it was a very specific sideboard for Howling Mine/Ebony Owl Netsuke decks IIRC, not that popular or useful since that deck wasn't that popular.

EDIT: well it was RAVNICA Standard so saying a deck wasn't popular is strange, you could basically play everything and succeed to some degree.

 

[OnPoint]

Finally got around to our booster box today. Most of the packs in and only one fetch with no real stuff I wanted, and I was feeling meh. The last few packs made up for it, the top choice being a foil Ugin. I hate the lottery of a box, but winning feels so good, even if it's only occasional that I get to actually pull good things.

 

[Wichu]

Sidisi's Pet won me a couple of games today...

Spoiler

in Constructed! I PLAY WHAT I WANT

 

[Firemind]

It means restart your computer, typically.

I'll see if it works. First time it happened.

lol sandsteppe outcast is kind of busted. had three of them in my pool. they did some serious lifting.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Outcast is crazy good.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Anyone else think Archfiend of Depravity would be a fun card to just mess with someone with?

 

[Angry Grimace]

Took Tasigur Whip to FNM and lost every game. Hornet Queen was the loser of the night.

It's not my main deck but holy fuck was that a miserable experience.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Made a big post in the Alesha topic

Oh, this got bumped up. I suppose I'll post that big post I was working on that I decided not to post when this topic wasn't getting much activity.

Like I said I would, I'll post some recent Magic stories I liked. This turned out a lot longer than I intended, so I'll just put a few at the top, then the others will just be recommended for those interested in more.

Ajani, Mentor of Heroes (About a lion-man, or leonin, planeswalker named Ajani coming to the Greek-inspired world of Theros)
Summary of Theros e-book, needed to understand the next story
Ajani's Vengeance (What Ajani does after the events of the e-book)
Kruhpix's Insight (Epilogue to the Theros story)
The Hunter Cannot Pity (Story of a planeswalker from the birth of his powers to his death, ties into the Garruk story)
Monster (Notable for having Garruk beat up Jace, who is simultaneously the most popular and most hated character in Magic)
The First World is the Hardest (Origin story for a villain named Ob Nixilis)


Don't quite remember how good they were, but had positive feelings when skimming over for this post:
In Praise of the Worldsoul, part 2, part 3 (Takes place on Ravnica, a city-world ruled by various guilds; features interactions between Selesnya, Gruul, and Rakdos guilds)
The Seven Bells, part 2 (Takes place on Ravnica, about Izzet mad scientist shenanigans, format is borked from transfer to new site)
Gruul Ingenuity (Takes place on Ravnica, about a Gruul fighter learning new magic, has a preview card)
The Absolution of the Guildpact (Takes place on Ravnica, about Boros guys watching a play about the events of the first Ravnica story, has a preview card, links are borked)
Persistence of Memory (Takes place on Ravnica, about Dimir intrigue)
The Burying, part 2 (Takes place on Ravnica, origin story for Domri Rade, a Gruul planeswalker)
The Guild of Deals (Takes place on Ravnica, about a guy being dicked over by the Orzhov guild)
Expectations (Takes place on Ravnica, semi-sequel to Persistence of Memory, about Azorius and Dimir guilds)
Life in the Ring (Takes place on Ravnica, about the Rakdos guild, notable in that it's one of the few stories where they actually come off as noble)
Preparation (Takes place on Dominaria, I think, which was the main world for early Magic; about Jhoira)
Zurbit's Day (Unknown plane, notable just for the ending involving a cat)

Stories I remember were good:
The Lost Confession (Takes place on New Phyrexia, described in my earlier post; about Elspeth and that place)
The Consequences of Attraction (Takes place on Theros, a Greek myth inspired story involving a woman getting screwed over by a god and turned into a siren)
Building Toward a Dream, part 2 (Takes place on Theros, about an attempt at peace between humans and leonin that goes wrong)
Asphodel (Takes place on Theros, about a girl who encounters the zombie of her father)
Cowardice of the Hero (Takes place on Theros, about a man and the step-father he hates, the latter of whom ends up dying, has a preview card)
Emonberry Red (Takes place on Theros, notable for being about a gay male romance, though it's a Greek tragedy)
Kiora's Followers (Takes place on Theros, about Kiora arriving and messing around)
Dreams of the City (Takes place on Theros, sequel to Building Toward a Dream)
Nissa, Worldwaker (Takes place on Zendikar, about Nissa fighting Eldrazi, has a preview card)
Comin' Through (Just a cute comedic story about a goblin delivering soup during a battle, though it may test your tolerance for references to specific cards)
The Lithomancer (Takes place on Zendikar in the far past, about the sealing of the Eldrazi, has a preview card)
Sorin's Revelation (Takes place on Tarkir, about Sorin investigating the plane, has a preview card)