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[The Technomancer]

"Red doesn't have a depth problem!"

I think they've made some good stabs at getting away from Red's depth problem. I think that they just, for some reason, don't want to ever swap Chandra out of the main lineup for another monored Planeswalker who's entire strategy won't always be limited to "burn the shit out of everything"

 

[Angry Grimace]

"Red doesn't have a depth problem!"

I mean, her Origins card is 3 different "does damage" effects. I don't know how much less inspired they could get. The hilarious part is that the emblem has an interesting effect, but you won't ever actually get the emblem.

 

[kirblar]

If it wasn't clear, I'm in the "Red definitely has a depth problem in mechanics/flavor" camp.

 

[Firemind]

My 12 year old cousin could write a more interesting Chandra than Wizards. Speaking of, when are we going to see Jaya Ballard in pw form.

+1 deal 3 damage to target creature or player
-2 destroy target blue permanent
-8 inferno

 

["God's Beard!"]

Chandra, Spirit of the Flame 3RR
+1 Destroy target land. CARDNAME deals damage to that land's controller equal to the number of lands in his or her graveyard.
+1 Gain control of target creature until end of turn. It gains haste.
-X Sacrifice X Lands, then exile the top X cards of your library. Until end of turn, you may play those cards without paying their mana cost.
[2]

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Are we all assuming that the new Chandra is real now?

 

[kirblar]

Are we all assuming that the new Chandra is real now?

Yeah.

 

["God's Beard!"]

So I spent a few days ironing out a trade with someone on deckbox when it turned out they're one of my friends in real life that goes to the same LGS as me.


<_<

 

[MjFrancis]

So now that MM2015 boxes have slumped to about $200 on eBay and whatnot, I've been offered up to eight boxes at $175/ea. I haven't done anything with the ones I have, but all I can think is damn, that's what they should have retailed for to begin with. Still gives your retailer $35 per box, which is more than what a typical expansion yields.

 

[charlequin]

I mean, there's no way we'd get something like Shadowmoor or Time Spiral these days, and while I'm not necessarily sure that that's a bad thing

I'd say it's a good and bad thing, respectively.

This isn't some new world order thing (I like NWO quite a bit), but I think design feels more conservative since, say, Scars of Mirrodin or so (okay Innistrad stands apart among several blocks of relatively safe design).

I think this trend is real, but less consistent and starting earlier. Alara is a pretty conservative design (they say it has a block plan but it ultimately just plays out like an old-school Big Set -> Small Set That's The Same -> Small Set With A Twist block structure.) Zendikar is a new theme grounded by super-conservative design surrounding it (while ROE is an alien from outer space.) Scars is more innovative than either, Innistrad is super-innovative in terms of development if not design, then RTR and Theros are conservative again. I think KTK's structural innovation should count for a lot, even if it uses a familiar theme to ground it -- like, compare KTK to RTR.

Put it another way: current designs (and I'm really talking about RtR through Khans here) feel like they think they've "solved" set design and can just remix previous approaches to making sets, as opposed to really playing around.

I do agree that there's a bit of an issue with not tackling stuff they haven't yet proven they can do. (Origins is actually a bit more interesting than the last few blocks on this, to me. BFZ is probably gonna be super-remixy again.)

 

["God's Beard!"]

Is pucatrade good? Do you just wait in line for cards or what? It seems like there's a crapton of people looking for Tundras :-(

 

[OnPoint]

I think they've made some good stabs at getting away from Red's depth problem. I think that they just, for some reason, don't want to ever swap Chandra out of the main lineup for another monored Planeswalker who's entire strategy won't always be limited to "burn the shit out of everything"

I think they're not going nearly far enough. There's been talk in this thread previously about red supposedly being a creative, passionate and artistic color and we've seen nothing much of that ever. There has to be design space in this. I also liked the commander deck bringing a strong artifact theme -- perhaps red should be the color to take on this mantle more regularly. Something to get away from Aggro and AggroBurn variants every single standard season.

Chandra needs a break, 100% for sure. Koth was a nice diversion -- maybe bring him back? Him caring about lands was a cool way to get around THROW FIRE I HAVE A TEMPER red seems to be stuck in. Tibalt could be cool if they would maybe play with the design, make him rely a bit more on high-stakes chance? But then Rosewater recently said he's red-black so probably not.

As an aside, it would do well for the diversity of the lineup to bring Koth back, too. Right now, the five PW in origins are White, White, White, Mediterranean-ish and Mythological. They've gone so far as to have a trans-gender character so it just seems odd to me that they aren't using this to widen their footprint a bit and spotlight at least one non-white real-race character. That said, they don't have a lot of non-white, non-mythological recurring characters. Aside from Koth and Narset (who have yet to recur) we have Tezzeret and Sarkhan. Teferi is no longer a 'walker.

 

[Jhriad]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";166636611]Is pucatrade good? Do you just wait in line for cards or what? It seems like there's a crapton of people looking for Tundras :-([/QUOTE]

Pucatrade is great if you're at your computer a lot and you're willing to install a page monitor that will ping you when a trade is available. The way it works is you enter the cards you're willing to trade and you wait for someone to put the card in their want list. Once that happens the first person to click 'Send Card' (or whatever it is) has a minute to confirm that they want to send the card to that person. You can see what else they want in that time so you can see what else you could send them to increase the number of points you get. Once you confirm the trade their points will be put into escrow and you'll get them from escrow once the recipient confirms they've received the card(s). On the other end if you want a particular card and you have the points for it you just add it to your Want List and it's usually filled within minutes. If you're outside of North America it can take longer for your Wants to be fulfilled though as a lot of people don't want to pay the shipping and some countries have gotten a reputation for having more missing packages

 

["God's Beard!"]

Minutes? Even for high-value cards like duals? It seemed like there was a big stack of people on the list waiting. I'm wary of sending a ton of people random cards and not getting my duals.

 

[Lucario]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";166638543]Minutes? Even for high-value cards like duals? It seemed like there was a big stack of people on the list waiting. I'm wary of sending a ton of people random cards and not getting my duals.[/QUOTE]

Nah. There has been an absurd waitlist for duals for months now; people just hoard points and add valuables to their list.

When I stopped using the service, I was usually one of 3-5 people with points requesting the legacy staples I wanted, and they still took 2-4 weeks. There are currently ~28 people requesting tundras who have the points for them; it's going to take multiple months to get one if you're lucky.

You need to get creative if you want high value cards. Accepting MP duals for full value will get you somewhere, although it kind of sucks. You can also write in your profile (or username) that you're looking for foreign duals, and maybe you'll get lucky and someone will have white-boardered italian tundras.

 

[Infinite Stars]

I just finished my first non draft FNM and great Scott that whole thing was fun. Went 2-2-1. It wasn't the best run, but I had fun. My deck performed a lot better in these runs/with my tweaks then what it did before at Game day. Dropping the Coco in my deck helped a crapton, as while I like CoCo as a card, it's not worth it in my deck. Going to have to tweak some stuff, as there were some serious duds in the deck in play testing(I'm looking at you, Aven Sunstriker)

The last round though.. Game 1 was me vs a BG Constellation deck and the game effectively stalled around turn 7 for 15 turns. He had 5 cards left in his library when he won at 45 minutes into the round.

Anyone got any tips for the Burn matchup? It was this deck and burn/aggro that I had issues with.

 

[ElyrionX]

I keep building new Commander decks.....

 

[keeblerdrow]

I'm on 3 solid weeks of really really bad hands and top decks. Last week, the best hand I kept all night with Gw devotion was Nykthos, EMystic, EMystic, Courser. Tonight I played a big midrange Abzan deck and only managed to get 2 sources of green mana onto the field at the same time in 2 of 11 games played for the night. I have 17 lands that either tap for or fetch to green mana and I've been flabbergasted that I couldn't manage to cast coursers and raptors in my hands and either died with them in there or managed to cast them on about turn 7 in the 2 games I got the 2nd green mana. I've been trying not to be the guy at the store ranting about his luck. TRYING.

 

[Toxi]

I keep building new Commander decks.....

That tends to happen.

 

[FeD.nL]

2 points:

1) Thoughtseize and Duress are very good for removing CoCo before they get the mana to cast it and keep them waiting to topdeck it.

2) You have to understand the deck (it is a combo deck) and know which one of their guys is a target for Dismember/Cut/etc. Usually Anafenza or Melira. Once they get Anafenza or Melira/Viscera Seer/Finks out you just scoop.

Play Bitterblossom, Spectral Procession and Lingering Souls and rule the skies.

Also that instant that +1/+1 your whole team and -1/-1 opponent's team whose name escapes me.

Thanks! I run one ZP in my deck and 1 in my board guess I'll bring the other one in from now on along with some duresses.

 

[ElyrionX]

That tends to happen.

Hopefully it stops at 4 now. Azami, Melek, Animar and the latest addition, Rafiq.

 

[Firemind]

I learned my lesson. I wait until I complete an EDH deck before thinking about adding another. I'm now trying to rebuild my Niv-Mizzet deck, but instead of adding a million cute combos (Intruder Alarm, Counterbalance, Radiate, Future Sight, Arcanis, Memnarch etc.), I'm focusing on a couple now with Omniscience at the top end.

I thought about Nicol Bolas, but when I tried to add cards, I realized there are too many crazy valuable cards I want to actually complete it: Tabernacle (700), Chains of Mephistodofofosfosefos (370), Mana Drain (220). Why are there so many cool cards in Legends and why are they all on the reserve list?

 

[Wichu]

Finally actually won a FNM despite playing really badly in the last round (I was tired). Palace Siege was just like "I'm not going to let you lose this game no matter how hard you try."

Palace Siege is a true bro.

 

[manipulate]

Red's stuff is super limited and boring, they need to figure some more eternal shit for it

edit:

They're adding players hand over fist. They literally sell something like five times as many cards now as they did in 2009. Hasbro brags about them in every report.

jeez.. ok

 

[acheron_xl]

Hopefully it stops at 4 now. Azami, Melek, Animar and the latest addition, Rafiq.

Only 4? I have almost 50. Thank heavens for MTGO.

 

[OnPoint]

Hopefully it stops at 4 now. Azami, Melek, Animar and the latest addition, Rafiq.

I have like 15 lol

 

[y2dvd]

I keep building new Commander decks.....

Hahaha and I keep trying to just build one really good one. This one guy at the lgs carries around about 10 different ones at all times. Crazy!

 

["God's Beard!"]

Hopefully it stops at 4 now. Azami, Melek, Animar and the latest addition, Rafiq.

I've actually been going down in my commander count. I had three decks but now I only really have one(Teysa Tokens) and the shell of my Black Devotion commander deck.

Nah. There has been an absurd waitlist for duals for months now; people just hoard points and add valuables to their list.

When I stopped using the service, I was usually one of 3-5 people with points requesting the legacy staples I wanted, and they still took 2-4 weeks. There are currently ~28 people requesting tundras who have the points for them; it's going to take multiple months to get one if you're lucky.

You need to get creative if you want high value cards. Accepting MP duals for full value will get you somewhere, although it kind of sucks. You can also write in your profile (or username) that you're looking for foreign duals, and maybe you'll get lucky and someone will have white-boardered italian tundras.

Thought so. I'll stick to direct trades since the only thing I'm seriously looking for are Tundras.

 

[acheron_xl]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";166665007]I've actually been going down in my commander count. I had three decks but now I only really have one(Teysa Tokens) and the shell of my Black Devotion commander deck.[/QUOTE]

Assuming you're playing the 3CC Teysa, you playing Darkest Hour?

 

["God's Beard!"]

Assuming you're playing the 3CC Teysa, you playing Darkest Hour?

Yes and yes. Lots of sweepers, lots of planeswalkers, lots of tokens, lots of tutors.

 

[Kwixotik]

Tips:
1. Bring a lot of water, and maybe snacks.
2. The direction you pass cards changes with each pack opening.
3. If the person next to you already has a pack of cards queued, don't pass to him or her yet and don't pick up your next queued pack.
4. Try to be aware of what colors of cards are being taken by other players from the cards you are given, and what colors specifically aren't being taken highly. This is probably the most advanced aspect of drafting, so don't fret too much over this.
5. Try to keep in mind the mana cost of cards. If you just pick every awesome card, you'll find yourself low on 2-mana cards and thus have a slow start, for example.

Thanks for all of the tips. I ended up not being able to make it, but my gf went. It was her first time and she went 2-1 but had to concede the last round for her interview. She beat some guy who said he had been playing since 1993. She said he was mad about it lol. It sounds like she had fun though, I'm excited to go next week.

 

[acheron_xl]

Wow. Looking over my EDH decks, I somehow don't have BW tokens and sweepers built. I'll have to rectify that. My current BW deck seems to be an Athreos ETB creature deck that I hardly remember building.

 

[Kwixotik]

Rules question. An opponent has a creature out that says it is destroyed when it is the target of a spell or ability. Am I able to play something like Bramblecrush ("Destroy target noncreature permanent") on it? Basically can a spell target something it would usually have no effect on?

 

[WanderingWind]

Rules question. An opponent has a creature out that says it is destroyed when it is the target of a spell or ability. Am I able to play something like Bramblecrush ("Destroy target noncreature permanent") on it? Basically can a spell target something it would usually have no effect on?

Nah. The target has to be legal for it to be cast.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Rules question. An opponent has a creature out that says it is destroyed when it is the target of a spell or ability. Am I able to play something like Bramblecrush ("Destroy target noncreature permanent") on it? Basically can a spell target something it would usually have no effect on?

No, you can't. You are completely unable to make something a target if it isn't specified by the card.

 

[Toxi]

I do find it funny how Chandra's before and after is exactly the same.

"From a rebellious troublemaker to a rebellious troublemaker with art outside the card's border."

 

[Haly]

"From a rebellious troublemaker to a rebellious troublemaker with art outside the card's border."

That's how you know she doesn't play by the rules.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Ouch, Adam Fronzee dropping his win and in because he wanted to strive his Ajani's Presence instead of playing an extra blocker then losing to one point of damage. If he plays the dude and just targets the Mentor he untaps and wins as long as CVM's manifests weren't Atarka or Polukranos. I wonder if he forgot the Satyr token from Xenagos or just assumed he was so far ahead he couldn't lose in one attack.

 

[Jaeyden]

Finally cracked the box of MM15. Emrakul, Foil Kosilek, Tarmogoyf, Bitterblossom, Cryptic and Heirarch. Not too bad I guess.

 

[ultron87]

They should give Red the Vendilion Clique ability targeting opponents. Get rid of the problem in their hand now and not care about the future thing they draw.

 

[charlequin]

Finally cracked the box of MM15. Emrakul, Foil Kosilek, Tarmogoyf, Bitterblossom, Cryptic and Heirarch. Not too bad I guess.

"Just cracked $360 of value from a $200-something box before counting anything but the top six cards, that's alright I guess."

They should give Red the Vendilion Clique ability targeting opponents. Get rid of the problem in their hand now and not care about the future thing they draw.

As per Rosewater's comment today about what would make Chaos Warp an acceptable design, I think random replacement is the next hot new frontier in making red design space not garbage.

 

[Firemind]

Nah, that's broken. Red isn't supposed to have Peeks, much less Thoughtseizes.

I just realized Timetwister ISN'T banned in EDH. WHY? my wallet ;-;

I guess it's something to strive for ...

 

[kirblar]

I don't understand why Chaos Warp wasn't designed like that in the first place- his criticism of it is completely valid.

It's also an area where you get Red an ability it needs/wants that blue doesn't need as much.

 

[charlequin]

I don't understand why Chaos Warp wasn't designed like that in the first place- his criticism of it is completely valid.

In a vacuum, he's 100% right -- by making Chaos Warp a single-target Warp World, it breaks the aspect of the effect that makes it acceptable to the color pie.

On the other hand, I'm still a big believer in designing pretty serious color pie bends for Eternal-only products. Rosewater getting the power to cut all the Chaos Warps and Songs of the Dryads out of Commander decks just makes that format shittier without any actual benefit to anybody.

It's also an area where you get Red an ability it needs/wants that blue doesn't need as much.

Almost all the best red design space is stuff blue's been patent-squatting for years, lol.

 

[Infinite Stars]

What about conditional counters in red? For instance:
Chandra's Defiance RR

Chose one:
Sacrifice a creature: counter target creature spell
Discard a non creature card: counter target non creature spell
Discard a land: Destroy target non basic land.

I mean, I'm not on Game design, but I think this would help red in a sense. Green is all about the "Use short term resources for long term game"(Mana Ramping) approach, Black is all about "Use long term resources for long term cards "(Life for Cards). So having Red fit as " Mid term resources for mid term gain" couldn't be bad.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Rather than countering, I'd prefer to see red's already present ability to redirect and gain temporary control be played up more.

 

[acheron_xl]

Tibalt's Mischief
2R
Instant
Shuffle your library, then reveal the top card of it. Counter target spell unless it's controller pays X, where X is the converted mana cost of the revealed card.

 

[OnPoint]

On the other hand, I'm still a big believer in designing pretty serious color pie bends for Eternal-only products. Rosewater getting the power to cut all the Chaos Warps and Songs of the Dryads out of Commander decks just makes that format shittier without any actual benefit to anybody.

The benefit is that Blue still gets to be best at everything. I agree that they should go ahead and just pretzel the fuck out of the color pie in eternal/commander.

 

[acheron_xl]

The benefit is that Blue still gets to be best at everything. I agree that they should go ahead and just pretzel the fuck out of the color pie in eternal/commander.

If they bend the color pie too much in supplemental products, they'll have another case of the 'Planar Chaos' problem, wherein people (maybe even WotC employees) will point at the places where the pie was bent as a precedent for future bending. Slippery slope and all that.

 

[OnPoint]

If they bend the color pie too much in supplemental products, they'll have another case of the 'Planar Chaos' problem, wherein people (maybe even WotC employees) will point at the places where the pie was bent as a precedent for future bending. Slippery slope and all that.

1. Make clear dividing lines internally on what is and what isn't applicable outside of standard

2. Abide by those rules with an iron fist

The reserve list shows they're good at setting and standing by foolish and arbitrary rules already. Why not this too?