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

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GoutPatrol

Forgotten in his cell
Or even if Cascade wasn't tied to the spell's casting cost. Like a 6cmc creature that has Cascade 2 and only pulls spells with cmc <3

That would be a fixed Cascade.

And you can probably make the Cascade "as you cast it instead of ETB" effect on Fairies dominance in standard the year before.
 

Hero

Member
Free spells are generally broken but for the most part Cascade lends itself to having built in variance. I don't understand the unwarranted hatred. BBE was the best card and it didn't see play outside of Jund decks. No other Cascade cards see any type of modern play.
 

f0rk

Member
Free spells are generally broken but for the most part Cascade lends itself to having built in variance. I don't understand the unwarranted hatred. BBE was the best card and it didn't see play outside of Jund decks. No other Cascade cards see any type of modern play.
Except in living end
 
I was rocking the BBE>Blightning Jund decks when I got back into Magic. Looking back and knowing the era of JtMS and all that bullshit was right around the corner, I have no regrets.

Cascade, as much as I love it, is a bad mechanic, though.
 

OnPoint

Member
I think Cascade was a mistake and they know that. But I wouldn't be shocked to see the odd Shardless Agent-style card pop up in supplemental sets here or there.

I never realized what a good sacrifice outlet Greater Gargadon is until today. Super weird how it just clicked for me.

I meant competitive. 14th place doesn't mean anything at all.

Takes a lot to get to 14th place. I would say you'd be best to keep an eye on any decks in the top 32 - 64, as placing in those spots is nothing to sneeze at.
 

Firemind

Member
I took Greater Gargadon to a few GP Trial wins. Never felt better than to Boom // Bust and take Gargadon to one suspend counter. RIP land destruction

Hope I get a Wildfire at the GP. And Swans of Bryn Argoll. :)
 

Hero

Member
I think Cascade was a mistake and they know that. But I wouldn't be shocked to see the odd Shardless Agent-style card pop up in supplemental sets here or there.

I never realized what a good sacrifice outlet Greater Gargadon is until today. Super weird how it just clicked for me.



Takes a lot to get to 14th place. I would say you'd be best to keep an eye on any decks in the top 32 - 64, as placing in those spots is nothing to sneeze at.

While 14th place isn't bad for a result it is an outlier for the deck. If we see it perform consistently then we could talk. The same event had a slivers deck at 5th, should we talk about how broken slivers are?
 

OnPoint

Member
While 14th place isn't bad for a result it is an outlier for the deck. If we see it perform consistently then we could talk. The same event had a slivers deck at 5th, should we talk about how broken slivers are?

No, but 5th place is even better. I'm making the argument that decks that place highly in an event at least warrant looking into. 14th and 5th are great finishes. I guess I wasn't really commenting on the broken nature of things the way you guys were. Carry on.
 
If Twin were to get banned tomorrow, Restore Balance becomes interesting, because it's great against the midrange/aggro decks, but is non-competitive with combo.

This is essentially the crux of the argument for banning Twin - you expand the metagame significantly.

As I've said before, I'm happy to get Twin banned if you give back Seething Song. Storm is much easier to hate out than Twin, so it wouldn't clamp down on the metagame quite so hard, but it would give people like me a deck that they would love to play.

EDIT: Also, I'm glad to see that Ugin is, in fact, really good in Modern RG Tron. I always thought it was silly that people were immediately dismissing it because it cost 8 instead of 7.
 

ironmang

Member
Takes a lot to get to 14th place. I would say you'd be best to keep an eye on any decks in the top 32 - 64, as placing in those spots is nothing to sneeze at.

I top 4'd one of those premier iqs a few months back with a tier 2 deck and made some pretty big misplays along the way including a series of them that cost me the top 4 match. It's not as impressive as you think lol.

Speaking of tournaments, I'm very undecided what I'm going to play at the invitational next week. Standard I'm leaning towards atarka red since I don't have a whole lot of experience against those morph fuckers. In Modern I'd normally go with Scapeshift but every big tournament I've played it in has been a disaster even though I've been playing it almost weekly for the last 14 months to local and smaller tournament success. Leaning towards Jund since it's been testing well against everything except for Junk... and even that's definitely winnable. Twin is probably the right choice but the thought of twin mirrors makes me ill.
 

OnPoint

Member

This

"If you dare root around in my head, Beleren, I think you'll find those clouds overhead are suddenly full of lightning bolts that are all, coincidentally, aimed at you," said Ral Zarek in a low voice.

"Then can you just tell me where we're going?" Beleren asked.

"You'll see soon enough."

"You realize, 'You'll see soon enough' is exactly the kind of thing people say right before I immediately dive into their minds."

Ral looked over his shoulder at the mind mage. "Did you know lightning strikes the Tenth more often than any other district? Do you know why that is?"

"You?"

Ral smirked. "Gold star.
"​

is embarrassing.
 

MjFrancis

Member
Sometimes I wish I could play with oversized cards. I never knew what the heck was going on with Underworld Connections, but it looks good when the image is large enough to take in the detail.. Yeong-Hao Han may not be renowned in the mtg art community but I've always liked his work.

cardart_UnderworldConnections.jpg

On the card this art looks like a mesh of a tunnel hideout, but blown up it looks like a seedy underground Ravnica marketplace.

---

It should be noted I did not read this Uncharted Realms. The only lore I've been interested in has pretty much been limited to Innistrad. Even that wasn't necessarily great, I'm just a sucker for the gothic horror theme.
 

Jhriad

Member
This


is embarrassing.

Seems like pretty boilerplate Fantasy writing tbh. Other than the gold star bit I don't think it would have been out of place in something like the old Forgotten Realms books that I read when I was a kid. It's certainly not great but expecting better from a snippet of flavor intended to help sell packs of cardboard is expecting a bit much.
 

red13th

Member
Sometimes I wish I could play with oversized cards. I never knew what the heck was going on with Underworld Connections, but it looks good when the image is large enough to take in the detail.. Yeong-Hao Han may not be renowned in the mtg art community but I've always liked his work.

His RtR basics are amazing.
 

OnPoint

Member
Seems like pretty boilerplate Fantasy writing tbh. Other than the gold star bit I don't think it would have been out of place in something like the old Forgotten Realms books that I read when I was a kid. It's certainly not great but expecting better from a snippet of flavor intended to help sell packs of cardboard is expecting a bit much.

Considering they used to write actual novels and they were then reduced to this, I don't feel bad for expecting more.
 

ElyrionX

Member
This

"If you dare root around in my head, Beleren, I think you'll find those clouds overhead are suddenly full of lightning bolts that are all, coincidentally, aimed at you," said Ral Zarek in a low voice.

"Then can you just tell me where we're going?" Beleren asked.

"You'll see soon enough."

"You realize, 'You'll see soon enough' is exactly the kind of thing people say right before I immediately dive into their minds."

Ral looked over his shoulder at the mind mage. "Did you know lightning strikes the Tenth more often than any other district? Do you know why that is?"

"You?"

Ral smirked. "Gold star.
"​

is embarrassing.

This is why I don't read them. The writing is horrendous.
 

MjFrancis

Member
His RtR basics are amazing.
I had those in mind when I praised his art. Even the basic mountain, being my least favorite of the five, is still distinctive and beautiful.

His art likes to accentuate sharp points and edges (especially in RtR) like Raymond Swanland while somehow maintaining a recognizable and distinctive style.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Or even if Cascade wasn't tied to the spell's casting cost. Like a 6cmc creature that has Cascade 2 and only pulls spells with cmc <3

I couldn't figure out why there was a heart at the end of this post. (lol)

I don't mind cascade in bloodbraid decks at all. So many decks can win the game by turn 4 that cascading into potentially abrupt decays or bolts isn't all that impressive. Even discard is seldom good several turns in.

Dude, cascading into Abrupt Decay is total BS.

It reads like a screenplay. That dialogue could absolutely work if sold correctly by the right actors, but reads like a ball of cheese.

I read all that dialogue in my head with Jace being played by that guy that played Peter on Heroes and Ral's dialogue by the guy who played Mark Sloan on Grey's Anatomy. I'm pretty sure both of those dudes could deliver the dialogue exactly as written.

Free spells are generally broken but for the most part Cascade lends itself to having built in variance. I don't understand the unwarranted hatred. BBE was the best card and it didn't see play outside of Jund decks. No other Cascade cards see any type of modern play.

Living End, Restore Balance? Also, Hypergenesis is banned because Cascade exists. Its not even just the brokenness of the mechanic. Its mindless 2 for 1s and the rate of return on a 3/2 haste is too high to also get to Cascade any 3 or less CMC spell that you get. You're basically getting a 3/2 for free on top of whatever the payment is for the spell you get. 3/2 haste isn't a bad return even if you turn over Thoughtseize or Bolt.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
MTG lore is interesting. Like, Uncharted Realms is often pretty awful, and no-one I know reads it, but we all care enough about the story to find out second hand. Everyone in my playgroup has a handle on what's going on, and we all talk about it, but none of us actually want to read it.
 

Jhriad

Member
People who read them? I mean I haven't read any of them since high school, and I'm sure some were better than others, but I don't remember them being THIS bad.

From the bit I've read you might want to go back and reevaluate. My limited experience would put them on par with the slightly below average Forgotten Realms books and that writing is probably on the lower end of that range but it's comparable. Uncharted Realms stuff probably ends up averaging pretty low on that scale but it's not like series like the FR, Warhammer, or MtG books were very good on average.
 

FeD.nL

Member
So I had a bit of a shitty day so went by the store to get some Khans packs, just to open them and perhaps find a fetch land. Well my GF helped me with opening and in her very first pack a Wooded Foothills, but then in my second to last pack (bought 10 packs for 34 euros) I found a Foil Windswept Heath! Haven't felt so excited in a long time.

But now the question. Should I hold on to them and wait for them to rise a bit, or just sell them and get my own set of regular windswept heaths?
 

Firemind

Member
I thought the novels had actual novelists at the helm.

Uncharted Realms seems like it's written by someone who dropped out of majoring English. Or graduated from a shitty uni and thinks he or she is hot shit.
 

ironmang

Member
Dude, cascading into Abrupt Decay is total BS.

Except for cascading into tarmogoyf and sometimes liliana, I'd almost rather have a siege rhino if I'm paying 4 for a creature. You get value but you're still stuck with a 3/2 body after the fact. Assuming you actually cascade into a relevant spell.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I thought the novels had actual novelists at the helm.

Uncharted Realms seems like it's written by someone who dropped out of majoring English. Or graduated from a shitty uni and thinks he or she is hot shit.

Some of the UR series are written by Sam Stoddard. Yes, developer Sam Stoddard.

Except for cascading into tarmogoyf and sometimes liliana, I'd almost rather have a siege rhino if I'm paying 4 for a creature. You get value but you're still stuck with a 3/2 body after the fact. Assuming you actually cascade into a relevant spell.

Cascading into anything in a well-constructed Jund deck is good, e.g. casting BBE is always good.

Siege Rhino can at least just get PTE'd and die. Pathing a BBE works, but its still a 2 for 1 because the Jund player got whatever they cascaded into. If they Cascaded into Lightning Bolt, its the same thing as Siege Rhino. If they Cascaded into Liliana, you're just fucked. The overall return on BBE is way better than Siege Rhino in reality because level of variance on the Cascade is at the low end, very close to or equal to Siege Rhino, to on the high end just offensively above Siege Rhino.
 

aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
This is why I don't read them. The writing is horrendous.

From the bit I've read you might want to go back and reevaluate. My limited experience would put them on par with the slightly below average Forgotten Realms books and that writing is probably on the lower end of that range but it's comparable. Uncharted Realms stuff probably ends up averaging pretty low on that scale but it's not like series like the FR, Warhammer, or MtG books were very good on average.

This is bad writing no matter how you cut it. I read a lot of fantasy, and have recently been reading Pathfinder novel (tie-ins with the popular tabletop RPG) and the writing, in general, is much, much better than the quoted passage. No editor worth their chops would let dialogue like that slide.
 

Jhriad

Member
This is bad writing no matter how you cut it.

I wasn't making the argument that it was good but that it was close to being on par with some of the young adult/entry level fantasy of the early era in which the Magic novels were being printed. A good number of those mid to late Nineties fantasy novels spawned from physical goods (Dungeons & Dragons, Magic, Warhammer, etc.) aren't up to the level we would expect nowadays. Heck, a good number probably weren't up to snuff for their day but they were light, easily consumable entry points for young readers.
 

ironmang

Member
Cascading into anything in a well-constructed Jund deck is good, e.g. casting BBE is always good.

Siege Rhino can at least just get PTE'd and die. Pathing a BBE works, but its still a 2 for 1 because the Jund player got whatever they cascaded into. If they Cascaded into Lightning Bolt, its the same thing as Siege Rhino. If they Cascaded into Liliana, you're just fucked. The overall return on BBE is way better than Siege Rhino in reality because level of variance on the Cascade is at the low end, very close to or equal to Siege Rhino, to on the high end just offensively above Siege Rhino.

A lot of the stuff you're cascading into on turn 4 or later just isn't all that great. You're forgetting that BBE is a 3/2 and Rhino is a 4/5 with trample. The life loss is strictly better than BBE's haste and the guaranteed life gain is important when a T1 deck is burn.

Both die to PTE but BBE dies to bolt, snapcaster, half a lingering souls, voice, finks, or any other number of common modern stuff.

BBE just isn't the same now with all the rhinos and tasigurs running around and without the boost that DRS provided.
 

kirblar

Member
This is bad writing no matter how you cut it. I read a lot of fantasy, and have recently been reading Pathfinder novel (tie-ins with the popular tabletop RPG) and the writing, in general, is much, much better than the quoted passage. No editor worth their chops would let dialogue like that slide.
It's a weird situation where you unironically wish you were reading a Mark Rosewater-penned piece instead.
 

Mrmrt

Neo Member
Is Magic 2014 — Duels of the Planeswalkers , the best way for a Hearthstone player to start, his magic career? I have friends and local events that play magic, but I guess this is the best way to start?
 

kirblar

Member
Is Magic 2014 — Duels of the Planeswalkers , the best way for a Hearthstone player to start, his magic career? I have friends and local events that play magic, but I guess this is the best way to start?
Yes. Don't touch 2015. Origins in a few months is probably the best option to hop into next since it's actually a permanent game going forward.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
A lot of the stuff you're cascading into on turn 4 or later just isn't all that great. You're forgetting that BBE is a 3/2 and Rhino is a 4/5 with trample. The life loss is strictly better than BBE's haste and the guaranteed life gain is important when a T1 deck is burn.

Both die to PTE but BBE dies to bolt, snapcaster, half a lingering souls, voice, finks, or any other number of common modern stuff.

BBE just isn't the same now with all the rhinos and tasigurs running around and without the boost that DRS provided.

I'm not forgetting anything. Its still a 2 for 1 on its own without anything else at all.

The fact that there's variance in whether its game-breaking or just vaguely OP doesn't actually make it not a bullshit mechanic. Cascade is an exceptionally poor mechanic and shouldn't be around on a card that leaves behind a 3/2 with Haste for 4 CMC.
 

y2dvd

Member
Are the money rare cards that have been printed so far in both Modern Masters sets expected to never see a standard reprint again? I think that's whack if so.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Are the money rare cards that have been printed so far in both Modern Masters sets expected to never see a standard reprint again? I think that's whack if so.

I'm not sure what card you'd think they should reprint in Standard...

The thing is, it doesn't mean MTG is getting less powerful, per se, its that they don't reprint cards that were already a problem in Standard.
 

OnPoint

Member
I'm not sure what card you'd think they should reprint in Standard...

The thing is, it doesn't mean MTG is getting less powerful, per se, its that they don't reprint cards that were already a problem in Standard.

We've known for a while, but I still think it's bunk that they're not going to reprint the three original Eldrazi in standard. People whining about Annihilator ruining it for everyone.
 
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