• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Magic: the Gathering - Shadows over Innistrad |OT| Blue's Clues

Status
Not open for further replies.
How did you beat this in limited?

16.jpg
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
I still have my old DCI number from like...2008 or so, haha

It has eight digits, I get weird looks whenever I register for something

EDIT: Wait I think its even older, it might be from the Pokemon days...
 

Card Boy

Banned
The Magic Gift Box box itself is quite massive. I thought I had quite few magic cards but only managed to fit 2 rows on it. I reused the Deck builders toolkit box to fit most of my Shadow Era cards in.
 

Maledict

Member
I really doubt the next shard set will be a shard set in the way Alara was. They've been very upfront that they really, really struggled to create enough cards for each shard, and the failure thematically to capture the shards in the same way as the guilds of Ravnica.

I'm not sure how popular Alara was, but in my local area most people agree with the killingagoldfish review - a dreadful, uninspired block that didn't have enough creativity to justify its existence and was full of randomly powerful multi-coloured cards that didn't hold together at all. Plus limited was bloody awful.
 
Alara Reborn gets credit for having a lot of cards people like, but as an actual set its a genuine hot mess. Like, I'm glad Alara exists for learning purposes, but basically every lesson from that block was on what not to do

Yeah, basically every decision in this set was bad: the all-gold gimmick was bad, the things they had to do to fix mana were bad, the mechanic cascade is awful, the creative treatment on the world is completely incoherent, the cards are mostly split between hot garbage and ludicrously overpowered stuff. It felt at the time like a throwback to the pre-Maro era of non-planned blocks, and when it came out later that the entire block was planned around the idea of this all-gold set as the capstone it suddenly made a lot more sense how they got so far off the sidewalk.

The thing that really stuck with me on this is that people asked why they didn't do watermarks and the answer was basically that if they'd done them they wouldn't have had a coherent way to use them on the bizarre mash-up stuff in ARB and, well... I feel like that should've been a sign?


That's from Shards of Alara (a better set than ARB.)

I think we'll go back to Alara. From the way things are described in Meren's story, it seems like after the conflux each shard just became a different region of the plane. Like, if you're in Grixis you can just walk to Bant given enough time.

That's correct. They were all just regions before and they're all just stuck together now.

I'm not sure how popular Alara was, but in my local area most people agree with the killingagoldfish review - a dreadful, uninspired block that didn't have enough creativity to justify its existence and was full of randomly powerful multi-coloured cards that didn't hold together at all. Plus limited was bloody awful.

The thing about Alara is that partially by virtue of that incoherence, it has a ton of random cards that have proven powerful in the time since, and (much like Kamigawa) it came out before Commander was a big thing but had a ton of cards perfectly suited to a life in that format so it has a bit of a false-nostalgia sheen for people who like playing Sedraxis or Sphinx of the Steel Wind or Mayael or whatever.
 
When we return to Alara, it's totally going to be post-conflux. The Meren UR+ everything we've heard from the plane since indicates that Bant+Naya are being overrun by the unholy hordes of Grixis, Jund is being Jund, and Esper has transformed into basically Magical Wakanda. That's ripe for a return as you don't have to hit the reset button to get a conflict. Also allows for you to have the symbols on the cards

However, the issue with returning to Alara is that of the 5 that we saw in Alara Block none of them are able to get there anytime soon, what with Elspeth being dead, Ajani being an Evangelical Athiest, Tezerret observing the Phyrexians, Sarkhan's on Tarkir, and Bolas is MIA. The only other Walker that has been to Bant is Gideon.

Like, I can't speak for Wizards, but it seems like there's a lot of plots that feel like they need to fire before we can do certain things. We likely won't go back to Alara without Elspeth/Ajani. Elspeth isn't returning back from the dead/Ajani isn't giving up his Richard Dawkins gig until we return to Theros, but we can't return to Theros until the Gatewatch goes there.
 

Firemind

Member
Since when is there any justification for planeswalkers to planeswalk? I mean, Tamiyo visited Innistrad for no apparent reason.
 
Since when is there any justification for planeswalkers to planeswalk? I mean, Tamiyo visited Innistrad for no apparent reason.
Since Wizards adopted the Gatewatch as their central narrative force. We won't have a block without a Gatewatch member, and the Gatewatch needs a reason to visit a place.

And Tamiyo is visiting Innistrad because it's moon is super unique and one of a kind.
 
Since Wizards adopted the Gatewatch as their central narrative force. We won't have a block without a Gatewatch member, and the Gatewatch needs a reason to visit a place.

Yeah, but their charter is explicitly "help any random place out with extraplanar threats, really" so that's super flexible. At some point they have to pick back up on the Bolas storyline and then can pop over to Alara then.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if Kaladesh involved Bolas, though indirectly because there are already probably two red planeswalkers. That's one reason why I expect Tezzeret to appear, even if I guess he isn't actually working for Bolas anymore.
 

cuc

Member
Hello, MtG thread! Unsurprisingly NeoGAF turns out to be the most fun place to talk about Magic online.

Seems like there's a lot of misunderstanding about the real world style guide inspirations of the various clans of Tarkir. If you look at the Abzan style (and Khans block as a whole) it's pretty obvious that they specifically avoided the Indian Subcontinent as well as China for the themes of the Abzan and the other clans.

Very true, and that's the cool thing about the Tarkir idea. Rather than "the Asian plane" or "the Mongolian plane', it's much more accurately described as an Inner Asia or Eurasian Heartland plane, what remains of Asia when we cut off what we think of as the major civilizations: Greece/Rome, Sumer/Akkad, India, and China.

For Magic, they had conveyed the Silk Road's vibe of cultural and ethnic diversity remarkably well. Although one can argue Tarkir is still hamstrung by how one-dimensional Magic's depiction of the colors is, particularly black and red.

Specifically:
Abzan draws from Persia, seemingly with Towers of Silence replaced by kin-trees.
Jeskai has Tibetan/Nepalese/Bhutanese architecture married to an Avatar-inspired kung fu theme.
Sultai is all about imagining the Khmer Empire and Angkor Wat as a Temple of Doom-style Orientalist fantasy, with emasculated men practicing necromancy and throwing their enemies into crocodile pits.
Mardu is the weakest. It has nowhere near the richness of real steppe cultures.
Temur is Siberian shamanism.
 
In your guys' opinion, is rotation the best time to buy my playsets of the Battlelands? I know they're not "expensive" right now, but do you think they'll do anything in Modern? I get nervous lol
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
In your guys' opinion, is rotation the best time to buy my playsets of the Battlelands? I know they're not "expensive" right now, but do you think they'll do anything in Modern? I get nervous lol
Nah. They're dollar rares when they rotate.
 

Yeef

Member
Yeah, basically every decision in this set was bad: the all-gold gimmick was bad, the things they had to do to fix mana were bad, the mechanic cascade is awful, the creative treatment on the world is completely incoherent, the cards are mostly split between hot garbage and ludicrously overpowered stuff. It felt at the time like a throwback to the pre-Maro era of non-planned blocks, and when it came out later that the entire block was planned around the idea of this all-gold set as the capstone it suddenly made a lot more sense how they got so far off the sidewalk.
You forgot the worst part - the order on the collector's numbers is horrific.
 

bigkrev

Member
Drafted this set for the third time- had a DISASTER of a draft- Ended up with 8 actual creatures and an Always Watching (with multiple token makers), having to play 19 lands due to lack of playable a, and still won the draft. Better lucky than good!
 
In your guys' opinion, is rotation the best time to buy my playsets of the Battlelands? I know they're not "expensive" right now, but do you think they'll do anything in Modern? I get nervous lol

Cinder Glade sees some play in Valakut decks but that's about it. I mean, they're fetchable so maybe one day something will happen that causes them to be in demand but I wouldn't bet on it.
 
Hello, MtG thread! Unsurprisingly NeoGAF turns out to be the most fun place to talk about Magic online.



Very true, and that's the cool thing about the Tarkir idea. Rather than "the Asian plane" or "the Mongolian plane', it's much more accurately described as an Inner Asia or Eurasian Heartland plane, what remains of Asia when we cut off what we think of as the major civilizations: Greece/Rome, Sumer/Akkad, India, and China.

For Magic, they had conveyed the Silk Road's vibe of cultural and ethnic diversity remarkably well. Although one can argue Tarkir is still hamstrung by how one-dimensional Magic's depiction of the colors is, particularly black and red.

Specifically:
Abzan draws from Persia, seemingly with Towers of Silence replaced by kin-trees.
Jeskai has Tibetan/Nepalese/Bhutanese architecture married to an Avatar-inspired kung fu theme.
Sultai is all about imagining the Khmer Empire and Angkor Wat as a Temple of Doom-style Orientalist fantasy, with emasculated men practicing necromancy and throwing their enemies into crocodile pits.
Mardu is the weakest. It has nowhere near the richness of real steppe cultures.
Temur is Siberian shamanism.

Great to see another new person. Those are details about the khan inspirations that I hadn't heard before and they're very interesting.
 

Crocodile

Member
Drafted this set for the third time- had a DISASTER of a draft- Ended up with 8 actual creatures and an Always Watching (with multiple token makers), having to play 19 lands due to lack of playable a, and still won the draft. Better lucky than good!

How did you botch the draft so bad?

How did you still win?
 

Toxi

Banned
I really like the different feel of the clans, they feel unique yet bizarrely familiar.
My favorite part of the clans was they had a level of depth many previous factions in Magic didn't have. For example, the Abzan on the surface were just another community-focused White/Green faction with some necromancy thrown in, but then you look closer and there's all these interesting aspects like how they adopt the children of their enemies and assimilate them into their own culture as shock troops. Or how their necromancy is an extension of ancestral worship that also is expressed through the Kin-trees.

And then Dragons of Tarkir destroyed them. Man, Wizards is really dedicated to ruining their interesting settings.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
I kinda want to make the modern version of the green white tokens deck. Anyone have fun with it? Also is the token version of Always Watching worth considering?
 

hermit7

Member
Just got back from playing modern at FNM. Played modern goblins (8 whack) and didn't drop a game.

Game 1 played mono green stompy. He had some slower draws and mulled to 5 one game, really just couldn't keep up with the speed of the deck.

Game 2 played a mirror match he had burning tree for the turn 2 reckless bushwhacker. A little bit slow but I had some really good draws.

Game three against Merfolk. Never had any vials, but I was able to land piled river both games. He is a beater when attacking with legion loyalist for 12 damage pro blue, trample and first strike.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Some kid showed up to play Modern last night to and had literally nothing but Fate Reforged draft chaff. He's beat me game 1. I was on Jund.
 
I see how it is Bandini, ducking at 1-1 vs my Modern Mono-2CMC control deck :p

I just wanted to Squelch a Nahiri ultimate :-(

To be honest, I thought I wouldn't even be close to winning one game with this thing.

riseupkmsls.png
 
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";205628865]I see how it is Bandini, ducking at 1-1 vs my Modern Mono-2CMC control deck :p

I just wanted to Squelch a Nahiri ultimate :-(

To be honest, I thought I wouldn't even be close to winning one game with this thing.

  • [/QUOTE]

    lol this looks gross
 

Bandini

Member
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";205628865]I see how it is Bandini, ducking at 1-1 vs my Modern Mono-2CMC control deck :p

I just wanted to Squelch a Nahiri ultimate :-(

To be honest, I thought I wouldn't even be close to winning one game with this thing.

riseupkmsls.png
[/QUOTE]

Joke's on you, I don't run Nahiri in that list! It's my current paper build, more aggressive with 4 Delver 4 Snapcaster 3 Geist 1 Resto.

Looking to pick up Nahiri fairly soon now that I've officially paid off my student loans as of 3 days ago. :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom