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Magic: the Gathering |OT9| Kaladesh - Cruisin' Down the Street in my 6/4

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Firemind

Member
Was it you who I traded with for the Blood Moons? Kinda regret getting rid of those haha I might have to buy back in at some point
No I don't think so. I have 3 from MM and 1 from the Dark. Not sure it I want to get rid of them. I assume they're only going to go up.
 

OnPoint

Member
No I don't think so. I have 3 from MM and 1 from the Dark. Not sure it I want to get rid of them. I assume they're only going to go up.

Oh no, the ones I traded were from Chronicles. I have one left from MM myself. It seems to be holding fast at $30 right now, maybe I'll buy one every couple weeks.
 

kirblar

Member
This whole reading the metagame and building the control deck with the right answers thing is goddamn bullshit. Sure, maybe you can do it for FNM when you have a rough idea of who's going to show up and the decks they usually play. But a GP? Forget about it. You can't possibly predict what 500 - 1000 people are going to be playing, at least not with the data that we currently can get our hands on.

Narrow answers like Negate, Spell Pierce and Mana Leak are only going to be getting you so far and are dependent on your matchups. And that's just the first layer of variance. Playing narrow answers as 1-ofs is utterly ridiculous. Sure, that 1 Negate in your deck is going to work great against Burn but good luck to you actually drawing it when you need it.

Control needs broad answers to stay relevant. In the current Modern metagame, the control decks posting good results only made it there with a huge dose of luck.
Someone just won the tournament doing exactly this.

Yes, you have to get lucky and avoid bad variance. But it was clear that he wasn't getting lucky when we were seeing him play, his deck was actually overperforming and compensating for his play errors.
I feel like people's timelines in these conversations are a bit skewed? Counterspell hasn't been relevant (or available) outside of Legacy for like a decade and balanced, non-oppressive control decks existed during windows where powerful counterspells like Mana Leak were available. Like the time of Randy Blue was before most people in this thread even were playing Magic. This is not to say its not clear that the design philosophy regarding control cards has changed at WOTC. It's just that when people were saying "control seems hard/bad in this current Standard/Modern metagame" its not because they were pinning for the days of "20 counterspells + 2 wincon".deck days.
Mana Leak was incredibly oppressive. It did awful things to the format - it was just most oppressive in a Tempo shell.
 

bigkrev

Member
Terese Nielsen will be selling Guru land playmats!

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I feel like people's timelines in these conversations are a bit skewed? Counterspell hasn't been relevant (or available) outside of Legacy for like a decade and balanced, non-oppressive control decks existed during windows where powerful counterspells like Mana Leak were available.

I didn't say they were oppressive during those previous eras, just that they were faceroll-y. The irony being targeted here is people who have spent years complaining how WotC doesn't do enough to respect "high-skill" control decks, but then aren't actually able to play them well once they actually become high-skill decks.
 
Plus, for what it's worth, Wizards seems to fine having Conditional UU Counters be printed in Standard(We've had Stubborn Denial, Silumgar's Scorn and Surge-Counter since KTK), so it's not like they're against counters.

Still think that Horribly Awry would Have been better without the Creature clause though and might have stopped CoCo Geddon. I'd kill for a 1U Counter target spell <=3 CMC.
 

ElyrionX

Member
There's always luck involved, so I'm not sure what you're alluding to? No deck can possibly be crafted to counter every other type of deck effectively, you just have to create your deck to combat what you think people are going to be playing and be lucky in dodging them during the tournament. How is that any different for non-control decks?

The difference is that a control deck is inherently reactive and hence, lives and dies by its answers whereas the decks in the format now are primarily proactive decks that can just race to the win.
 

ElyrionX

Member
I didn't say they were oppressive during those previous eras, just that they were faceroll-y. The irony being targeted here is people who have spent years complaining how WotC doesn't do enough to respect "high-skill" control decks, but then aren't actually able to play them well once they actually become high-skill decks.

There's zero skill involved when an Infect player casts a Become Immense and you only have Spell Snare in hand while Negate is somewhere in your library; there's just no decision to make. The narrowness of these cards means that it never makes sense to run a full playset of them so it just comes down to how lucky you are to have the right answer in hand at the right time.
 

Hero

Member
There's zero skill involved when an Infect player casts a Become Immense and you only have Spell Snare in hand while Negate is somewhere in your library; there's just no decision to make. The narrowness of these cards means that it never makes sense to run a full playset of them so it just comes down to how lucky you are to have the right answer in hand at the right time.

Just because Infect//Become Immense is stupidly overpowered doesn't mean situational/specific cards aren't better for design. Obviously with eternal formats they're kind of screwed but that's why we have the ban list and just like Treasure Cruise and Dig through Time got the axe, so will Become Immense. You're comparing a prime example of a card that was pretty much unplayed in standard to a balanced but situational counterspell.
 

ElyrionX

Member
Just because Infect//Become Immense is stupidly overpowered doesn't mean situational/specific cards aren't better for design. Obviously with eternal formats they're kind of screwed but that's why we have the ban list and just like Treasure Cruise and Dig through Time got the axe, so will Become Immense. You're comparing a prime example of a card that was pretty much unplayed in standard to a balanced but situational counterspell.

You can replace Become Immense with any other key wincon of any proactive deck and my point will still remain the same.

Spell Snare is not balanced at all. It is a stupidly narrow counterspell that saw play only because of the peculiarities of the format and the fact that control decks do not have many broad answers at 2CMC and below.

Cryptic Command is an example of a balanced counterspell.
 

Hero

Member
You can replace Become Immense with any other key wincon of any proactive deck and my point will still remain the same.

Spell Snare is not balanced at all. It is a stupidly narrow counterspell that saw play only because of the peculiarities of the format and the fact that control decks do not have many broad answers at 2CMC and below.

Cryptic Command is an example of a balanced counterspell.

Spell Snare is a great card because it lets you counter their turn two card if you're not on the play. What you don't seem to realize is that the mere possibility of counterspells can alter how the game is played, even if a player doesn't have it. If you spell pierce or mana leak a spell in the first game and board them all out in the second game they will still play around those cards. That is powerful in itself.

The fact that you think Cryptic Command is a "balanced" counterspell card shows how out of touch you are. That card is the exact opposite of what kinds of cards should be printed since it is literally the fucking kitchen sink. Counter a spell and cantrip, sweet. Tap down your dudes and bounce that problematic permanent, awesome! Look at me! I'm such a good control player because this card lets me do anything!
 

ElyrionX

Member
Spell Snare is a great card because it lets you counter their turn two card if you're not on the play. What you don't seem to realize is that the mere possibility of counterspells can alter how the game is played, even if a player doesn't have it. If you spell pierce or mana leak a spell in the first game and board them all out in the second game they will still play around those cards. That is powerful in itself.

The fact that you think Cryptic Command is a "balanced" counterspell card shows how out of touch you are. That card is the exact opposite of what kinds of cards should be printed since it is literally the fucking kitchen sink. Counter a spell and cantrip, sweet. Tap down your dudes and bounce that problematic permanent, awesome! Look at me! I'm such a good control player because this card lets me do anything!

Cryptic Command is so good, that's why you see it in every blue deck, amirite?

You have to build a goddamn mana base around the card just to play it.

Edit: If you're playing three colors, Cryptic Commands forces you into making suboptimal decisions on fetching lands, especially in the face of a potential Blood Moon.
 
Cryptic Command is so good, that's why you see it in every blue deck, amirite?

You have to build a goddamn mana base around the card just to play it.

First of all you're talking "control" decks and most control decks stretch their manabase thin to be able to play Cryptic Command. You usually see only a single sacred foundry / blood crypt to multiple Ux lands in Jeskai and Grixis
 

ElyrionX

Member
First of all you're talking "control" decks and most control decks stretch their manabase thin to be able to play Cryptic Command. You usually see only a single sacred foundry / blood crypt to multiple UR lands in Jeskai and Grixis

That's my point. When deckbuilding, you need to make very conscious decisions to squeeze Cryptic Command into your deck. And even with that, it is very rarely played as a 4-of, typically a 2-of, because it is too slow and too demanding on the manabase.
 

OnPoint

Member
Are we really arguing about whether or not Cryptic Command is or isn't balanced? I know I'm not the best player, in here, or mostly anywhere really, but this is a pretty clear-cut case.
 

kirblar

Member
Are we really arguing about whether or not Cryptic Command is or isn't balanced? I know I'm not the best player, in here, or mostly anywhere really, but this is a pretty clear-cut case.
We just had an insano discussion a few days ago on a different card too lol
 

OnPoint

Member
We just had an insano discussion a few days ago on a different card too lol

Yeah, Mother of Runes. Being of an appropriate power level for standard. Which when you really think about it, it totally i--pffftttttt hahahaha OK. I can't even continue that statement.
 

OnPoint

Member
Plasm Capture is a definitely a card I was pumped on that kind of just didn't find its place anywhere. I wish they'd reprint it in a relevant place.
 

Hero

Member
Cryptic Command is so good, that's why you see it in every blue deck, amirite?

You have to build a goddamn mana base around the card just to play it.

Edit: If you're playing three colors, Cryptic Commands forces you into making suboptimal decisions on fetching lands, especially in the face of a potential Blood Moon.

Oh darn, how am I ever going to build this manabase with all these shock, fetch, check, and filter lands?

That's my point. When deckbuilding, you need to make very conscious decisions to squeeze Cryptic Command into your deck. And even with that, it is very rarely played as a 4-of, typically a 2-of, because it is too slow and too demanding on the manabase.

Guys, JTMS is rarely played as a 4 of in eternal formats, he's clearly not that busted.
 

OnPoint

Member
They made Past in Flames and it had no impact on Standard

Without Rituals and stuff that sacks for mama, Will is a strong card, but probably wouldn't see any play.

I would agree that without rituals, Will is not quite as good, but:

Past In Flames =/= Yawgmoth's Will

Will allows you to play anything. PIF only instant and sorcery. Would be pretty great in Delirum-self-mill strategies.

Or in Modern. Imagine Will in something like Affinity. Or Dredge. Ugh.

Also the one mana difference in cost is actually pretty relevant.

No. The card's not safe.
 

bigkrev

Member
I would agree that without rituals, Will is not quite as good, but:

Past In Flames =/= Yawgmoth's Will

Will allows you to play anything. PIF only instant and sorcery. Would be pretty great in Delirum-self-mill strategies.

Or in Modern. Imagine Will in something like Affinity. Or Dredge. Ugh.

Also the one mana difference in cost is actually pretty relevant.

No. The card's not safe.

Yeah, Will being able to play lands, cast permanent cards, and use alternate costs makes it a good bit more flexible than Past In Flames.

I'm purely talking about Standard, where you don't get alternate cost, where getting to "play" a land means you get to put a mana-producing land onto the battlefield in a format without fetchlands, and you can cast any creatures or the like that you can afford after spending the 3 mana on the spell, which means you get back 2 2drops if you are casting this with 7 mana. I'd obviously ban the card in Modern, but as a pure thought exercise, the card doesn't do anything broken in Standard except in the late late game, where it's power level would be on par with other 8+ mana cards, like Emrakul and Ulamog.
 

OnPoint

Member
I'm purely talking about Standard, where you don't get alternate cost, where getting to "play" a land means you get to put a mana-producing land onto the battlefield in a format without fetchlands, and you can cast any creatures or the like that you can afford after spending the 3 mana on the spell, which means you get back 2 2drops if you are casting this with 7 mana. I'd obviously ban the card in Modern, but as a pure thought exercise, the card doesn't do anything broken in Standard except in the late late game, where it's power level would be on par with other 8+ mana cards, like Emrakul and Ulamog.

Again, it's still probably too good in standard, and specifically current standard, a graveyard-filling standard with no real hate to combat shenanigans. Imagine Turn 10, you pay three mana to take your hand from 4 cards to 25? Imagine the options that player would have. I'm having fits just thinking about playing Torrential Gearhulk from the graveyard. Sorry chum. That's too good.
 

bigkrev

Member
Again, it's still probably too good in standard, and specifically current standard, a graveyard-filling standard with no real hate to combat shenanigans. Imagine Turn 10, you pay three mana to take your hand from 4 cards to 25? Imagine the options that player would have. I'm having fits just thinking about playing Torrential Gearhulk from the graveyard. Sorry chum. That's too good.

How on earth are you going from 4 cards in hand to 25 cards in hand for 10 mana?
 

OnPoint

Member
How on earth are you going from 4 cards in hand to 25 cards in hand for 10 mana?
... really?

You don't literally have 25 cards in your hand. But if you have 4 and your graveyard has 21, and you play Yawgmoth's Will, it's basically the same damn thing.
 

bigkrev

Member
... really?

You don't literally have 25 cards in your hand. But if you have 4 and your graveyard has 19, and you play Yawgmoth's Will, it's basically the same damn thing.

Yagmoth's Will lets you cast cards for a single turn. You still need to pay the mana costs on those cards. How are you going to cast all the cards in your graveyard? You don't have rituals in Standard. If you are casting it with 10 lands out, you can only cast spells that combine to cost 7 or less. That is going to average 2-4 spells.
 
So I called the only LGS in my area that was scheduling the Kaladesh Showdown event and they told me that it has been canceled.

There goes my motivation to buy a standard deck.
 
Yagmoth's Will lets you cast cards for a single turn. You still need to pay the mana costs on those cards. How are you going to cast all the cards in your graveyard? You don't have rituals in Standard. If you are casting it with 10 lands out, you can only cast spells that combine to cost 7 or less. That is going to average 2-4 spells.

I'd play Will on 4 just to get a forest back and play Grim Flayer or somethin, heck I'd play it to grapple with the past from the graveyard.
 

OnPoint

Member
Yagmoth's Will lets you cast cards for a single turn. You still need to pay the mana costs on those cards. How are you going to cast all the cards in your graveyard? You don't have rituals in Standard. If you are casting it with 10 lands out, you can only cast spells that combine to cost 7 or less. That is going to average 2-4 spells.

I know how Will works. Why are you focusing on the combo aspect of it? I am well aware of the lack of rituals in Standard and am in no way saying you could cast your entire 21 card graveyard. Maybe read my posts? You're missing my point. If you're at turn 10 and you and your opponent have both stalled out, or you're in an attrition-based battle, or maybe you just need that one answer to push through, Will probably opens up your options to a crazy amount of stuff. Yes, even if you cast your average of 2-4 spells off Will, it's likely enough to drastically tilt the game in that player's favor, or maybe even outright win it. And then games just become who draws Will and who doesn't, which is not what a Standard without graveyard hate needs.
 
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