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Magic: the Gathering |OT4| Izzet Me; Izzet You? A Love Story

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Firemind

Member
Rhox Mauler doesn't require anything to be good. You just play it and tap it sideways. Deep-Sea Terror is more often than not Sea Monster in the mid game given blue's tendency to fall behind in the early to mid game. Skaab Goliath has a much more restrictive casting cost than Skysnare Spider. And one or two Screeching Skabs aren't going to cut it. You're right; this isn't Innistrad. Innistrad had a lot more ways to fill the graveyard and it was much more relevant with flashback, Stitching Drakes and whatnot in the set. Origins has nothing remotely similar (I guess Returned Centaur is kind of like Armored Skaab?), making the payoff cards like Skaab Goliath much worse. It also costs six mana, provided you can play it on turn six. At least Innistrad had Deranged Assistant.
 

Yeef

Member
blue sucks in this format unless you, surprise, have Whirler Rogues.
I disagree with this quite a bit. Blue has lots of great cards. Jhessian Thief, Stratus Walk, Disperse, Claustrophobia, Separatist Voidmage, Sigiled Starfish, Anchor to the Aether, Skaab Goliath. Blue's game takes long to get going, like always, but it has tons of ways to slow the opponent down and eke it small bits of card advantage and tempo.
 
I'm currently testing out Hangarback Walker in Jund when I get paired with someone playing a funky allies deck on Xmage.

Some guys just have to put in the last word whenever they lose.

sO7yHck.png


I guess it's not as bad as what I used to get when I played in cockatrice

5aKxBGW.jpg


pass em salt

HangarJund V1
 

Firemind

Member
I disagree with this quite a bit. Blue has lots of great cards. Jhessian Thief, Stratus Walk, Disperse, Claustrophobia, Separatist Voidmage, Sigiled Starfish, Anchor to the Aether, Skaab Goliath. Blue's game takes long to get going, like always, but it has tons of ways to slow the opponent down and eke it small bits of card advantage and tempo.
Being able to make tempo plays doesn't mean a lot when you can't put pressure on the opponent. None of the cards you listed does that. Blue really misses something like Welkin Turn, Wind Drake and/or Snapping Drake. As it is, it only has Scrapskin Drake, which I consider worse than Wind Drake since the former can't trade with most creatures. Aspiring Aeronaut is also much worse than Snapping Drake unless you managed to draft multiple Thunderclap Wyverns. Blue has to rely on other colours to apply the early beats. It doesn't even have Air Elemental at uncommon. It's sad to see white has better flyers by a considerable margin at all rarities.

U/W fliers is one of my all-time favourite draft archetypes so I'm aware blue isn't all about drawing cards. If M12 is a 10/10, Origins is more like a 4/10 and is only salvaged by white.

All this discussion makes me realize I want to draft Innistrad, heck, anything else, rather than Origins.
 
When I play Xmage, I like to make sure all my lands are Guru lands just to be sure to justify the whining about expensive cards when I test out some random Standard or Modern deck.
 

Firemind

Member
U/W being a 10/10 draft archetype, dominating all other colour combinations. It's not a reflection of the whole set.

ROE's U/W for example would be like a 9.
 

Neoweee

Member
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";174959964]Sounds like a draft deck to me. This isn't innistrad, It's a core set. The archetype synergies aren't really that heavy. Most decks are just the good stuff in their colors.


To be fair, the thopter and renown cards are basically the best commons in those colors so they don't really become synergy decks. If you have a thopter deck you're just winning.


I'm assuming this is just salt because the elves are all solid. Green in general isn't too hot though.


U/W fliers is one of the strongest archetypes...


...wat
BR sacrifice is great.


The only paper draft I've ever done for ORI I drafted mono-red. I lost to turn-three managorger both games in the finals though lol



I feel like you're stuck in old ideas for blue. UB is weird, but not terrible. I'll agree that they're the colors with the worst rares, but that doesn't really matter. Blue has insane finishers and Claustrophobia is one of the better removal spells in the set. Also, Screeching Skab is woefully underdrafted which makes UB dredge one of the most consistent draft archetypes.[/QUOTE]

I agree with you on most of the stuff.

Origins isn't about going full-fleged "archetype". All color pairs can be quite good, but the set is about marginal differences on card evaluations depending on what is in your deck. Grasp and Mighty Leap gain a little bit of priority, BR can be sacrifice deck or regular aggro or a more controll-y type deck, equipment and team buffs fit with the token generators in red, etc. There's a lot of stuff going on.

However, it is really, really important to get two drops, just so you can at least block your opponent's two drops and buy yourself time.

UW fliers is one of the best archetypes. The Gold card is goddamn nuts, and easily the best of the bunch.

Blue's problem is the relatively shallow pool of commons, especially when it comes to two-drops.



I think it is a particularly good Sealed set, due to the relatively non-bombyness, and subtle differences in card values based on the slight synergies.
 

Matriox

Member
The price of that has held up surprisingly well.

Yeah I just wasn't planning on picking them up anytime soon.. We have a modern fnm coming up in 2 weeks so I just pulled the trigger. Worst case (unless they get banned for no reason) they stay the same price and I can resell them, blech.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Being able to make tempo plays doesn't mean a lot when you can't put pressure on the opponent. None of the cards you listed does that. Blue really misses something like Welkin Turn, Wind Drake and/or Snapping Drake. As it is, it only has Scrapskin Drake, which I consider worse than Wind Drake since the former can't trade with most creatures. Aspiring Aeronaut is also much worse than Snapping Drake unless you managed to draft multiple Thunderclap Wyverns. Blue has to rely on other colours to apply the early beats. It doesn't even have Air Elemental at uncommon. It's sad to see white has better flyers by a considerable margin at all rarities.

U/W fliers is one of my all-time favourite draft archetypes so I'm aware blue isn't all about drawing cards. If M12 is a 10/10, Origins is more like a 4/10 and is only salvaged by white.

All this discussion makes me realize I want to draft Innistrad, heck, anything else, rather than Origins.

If it makes you feel better, Rise of the Eldrazi is coming back for flashbacks on MTGO. Again.
 

OnPoint

Member
Yeah I just wasn't planning on picking them up anytime soon.. We have a modern fnm coming up in 2 weeks so I just pulled the trigger. Worst case (unless they get banned for no reason) they stay the same price and I can resell them, blech.

If they were gonna ban 'Goyf, by now they would have done it. I would like them to reprint it into oblivion at this point.

Honestly, now would have been the perfect time, with Delve around, it could have produced some nifty synergies where people cast spells using the GY to shrink incoming 'Goyfs. But that's an aside.

You're safe, in short.
 

Matriox

Member
If they were gonna ban 'Goyf, by now they would have done it. I would like them to reprint it into oblivion at this point.

Honestly, now would have been the perfect time, with Delve around, it could have produced some nifty synergies where people cast spells using the GY to shrink incoming 'Goyfs. But that's an aside.

You're safe, in short.

I've been waiting for the reprint to hell for awhile now, I would have thought they learned by now that mythic goyf isn't gonna cut it, but its not looking good. Watch they print it in BFZ just to spite me.
 

OnPoint

Member
I've been waiting for the reprint to hell for awhile now, I would have thought they learned by now that mythic goyf isn't gonna cut it, but its not looking good. Watch they print it in BFZ just to spite me.

That's been my concern as well haha I'm one away from a playset and will be so mad if I pick it up and it gets reprinted. I'd guess that they'll print it in a set they need to drive sales of. I don't think BFZ needs that.
 

ElyrionX

Member
Yeah I just wasn't planning on picking them up anytime soon.. We have a modern fnm coming up in 2 weeks so I just pulled the trigger. Worst case (unless they get banned for no reason) they stay the same price and I can resell them, blech.

That is most definitely not the worst case, lol.
 

Matriox

Member
That is most definitely not the worst case, lol.

At the rate they've been printing tarmogoyf I don't see them getting any less than $125 anytime soon lol, unless you had something else in mind.

EDIT: Or should I have clarified with "Worst realistic case" :p
 

Jhriad

Member
At the rate they've been printing tarmogoyf I don't see them getting any less than $125 anytime soon lol, unless you had something else in mind.

EDIT: Or should I have clarified with "Worst realistic case" :p

I'd be willing to bet that Goyf dips below $100 on TCGPlayer after the next printing. Of course that's not until MM2017 so you're probably safe for a while if you bought in at a reasonable price.

A guy at my LGS bought like 50 hangarbacks when they were like 50 cents-$1. He is bragging pretty hard right now.

That's the best feeling. I wish I'd gotten in on Hangarback when it was that cheap. Best I've done is buying 30 copies of Mastery of the Unseen for around $5 and then getting rid of them all for around $3 a card after fees & shipping.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
A guy at my LGS bought like 50 hangarbacks when they were like 50 cents-$1. He is bragging pretty hard right now.

This is the reason MTGFinance is popular, btw. Its not like the money is all that great - its about going to your LGS and being a smuglord.
 

Jhriad

Member
This is the reason MTGFinance is popular, btw. Its not like the money is all that great - its about going to your LGS and being a smuglord.

I started dipping my toes into it so I could try to finance some portion of building my collection. Modern is expensive to try to get into if you didn't play during most of the Modern era. Also, being a smuglord on GAF.
 

Yeef

Member
Heathstone, like a lot of TCG's and LCG's, feels too much like a paired down version of Magic for me to enjoy it. Games like Netrunner that go in a very different direction mechanically tend to be more interesting.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Heathstone, like a lot of TCG's and LCG's, feels too much like a paired down version of Magic for me to enjoy it. Games like Netrunner that go in a very different direction mechanically tend to be more interesting.
I really need to get into Netrunner, but the rulebook is poorly written in areas and I need someone to teach me
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
It's actually not that complicated, but the vocabulary makes it seem a lot more daunting than it is.

At a cursory glance, this tutorial seems to do a pretty good job of explaining things in plain English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIUevBbIzkI

The biggest thing that I got hung up on when I tried to teach myself was when I could or couldn't play cards. It seemed like there were some cards you were supposed to play in reaction, but then it also seemed like everything was "sorcery" speed, so to speak? That there wasn't really a "stack" of action-counteraction
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
The problem with Hearthstone and other games is that they try to avoid resource variance, which ends up making the game less interesting.
 

bigkrev

Member
The problem with Hearthstone and other games is that they try to avoid resource variance, which ends up making the game less interesting.

And replace it with RNG effects on cards instead.

Personally, I'm always way more angry when RNG goes against me in Hearthstone than I am when I get flooded/screwed
 

Yeef

Member
The biggest thing that I got hung up on when I tried to teach myself was when I could or couldn't play cards. It seemed like there were some cards you were supposed to play in reaction, but then it also seemed like everything was "sorcery" speed, so to speak? That there wasn't really a "stack" of action-counteraction
I've only played with the base set and not with any of the Data packs (expansions), but there, everything except for 'Rezzing" (unmorphing) cards is sorcery speed. You get X number of actions each turn and every play, other than rezzing, costs some number of actions. Since you can only use actions during your own turn, there's no way to mess with the other player's turn.
 

kirblar

Member
About half of my Magic group was super into it for about a year, and then just last week the conversation was "yeah...I think I've realized I don't really like Hearthstone"
I play it cause Arena is fun. Hopefully Blizzards' E-Sports thing they're starting up involves some form of actual in-house tournament structure.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
I've only played with the base set and not with any of the Data packs (expansions), but there, everything except for 'Rezzing" (unmorphing) cards is sorcery speed. You get X number of actions each turn and every play, other than rezzing, costs some number of actions. Since you can only use actions during your own turn, there's no way to mess with the other player's turn.

Right its coming back to me now, Rezzing confused me, there was one card specifically where the timing it implied for it to be useful didn't make sense with what the rules said...I should dive back into it
 

OnPoint

Member
B-b-b-but the reserved list...

So fucking sick of hearing about the reserved list and how it holds older formats back. Not because you're talking about it, but because I hate that thing so much.

I wish they'd just reboot the whole fucking game sometimes. Fix/streamline any of the rules problems they have, figure out if Rosewater's "making spells a super type and giving them Flash to remove the need for Instants" works, and just go with it.
 
Okay GAF, tell me about these lands:

Scenic Coast
Land - Plains Island
~ enters the battlefield tapped.
When ~ enters the battlefield, add (1) to your mana pool.

Good? Bad? Indifferent?
 

G.ZZZ

Member
Okay GAF, tell me about these lands:

Scenic Coast
Land - Plains Island
~ enters the battlefield tapped.
When ~ enters the battlefield, add (1) to your mana pool.

Good? Bad? Indifferent?

Worse than shocks on T1-T2, better later on probably. It not being flexible make it a bit worse than shocks in general imho. It's still a good land in general, especially past turn 1 with fetches, probably better than shocks as a 1-of to be fetched those turns you don't need the colored mana, or maybe a 2-2 split with shocks.

In general however, placing land types on it is not something they should to do anymore. Fetches just are horrible for the game in general, they slow the game and make a lot of mechanic much much better than they should be (library manipulation and U in general, delve spells, effects that care about cards in graveyard etc...).
I think/hope they will go for good situationally better than dual lands that can't be fetched, like horizon canopy.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Okay GAF, tell me about these lands:

Scenic Coast
Land - Plains Island
~ enters the battlefield tapped.
When ~ enters the battlefield, add (1) to your mana pool.

Good? Bad? Indifferent?

Boy, MTG players are really obsessed with dual typed lands.

Worse than shocks on T1-T2, better later on probably. It not being flexible make it a bit worse than shocks in general imho. It's still a good land in general, especially past turn 1 with fetches, probably better than shocks as a 1-of to be fetched those turns you don't need the colored mana, or maybe a 2-2 split with shocks.

In general however, placing land types on it is not something they should to do anymore. Fetches just are horrible for the game in general, they slow the game and make a lot of mechanic much much better than they should be (library manipulation and U in general, delve spells, effects that care about cards in graveyard etc...).
I think/hope they will go for good situationally better than dual lands that can't be fetched, like horizon canopy.

I would play 0 of them in a format with shocklands because they don't do anything shocklands can't, especially with fetchlands available.
 

G.ZZZ

Member
Boy, MTG players are really obsessed with dual typed lands.



I would play 0 of them in a format with shocklands because they don't do anything shocklands can't, especially with fetchlands available.

Burn exist in modern and this can be relevant if you play a midrangey deck ... which yeah porbably win already vs burn.
 
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