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Magic: The Gathering

favorite color

  • Red

    Votes: 4 30.8%

  • Blue

    Votes: 5 38.5%

  • Green

    Votes: 4 30.8%

  • White

    Votes: 5 38.5%

  • Black

    Votes: 4 30.8%
  • Total voters
    13
Definite improvement. Test them all.
Edit:
If white is out, then so is life gain. Direct damage and bigger creatures instead.
 
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Ooh. I haven't seen the most recent sets. I see there's always wiggle room.
 
okay, so I just need a little bit of clarification, are enchantments the same thing as equip cards or something else entirely?
 
sorry for the double post, but I took the time to try and construct a deck with what I have in red and green

http://deckstats.net/deck-5402255-4c74ab1b658db61ceece91150bd23adb.html

what do you guys think? also, I'm more looking to play for fun than in tournament. I doubt I'm anywhere near tournament level anyway.

also, I forgot to add in 2 transguild promenades
 
SanoBaron said:
okay, so I just need a little bit of clarification, are enchantments the same thing as equip cards or something else entirely?

Enchantments are their own type as is equipment
Equipments will always be artifacts

The deck is alright (and I say that lightly) since you're still learning how to play but I want you to go back and look at the cost of these cards and compare it to the amount of mana you produce quickly. You'll notice that you still have alot high cost cards but no quick way to play them, the probability of drawing exactly what you need is low based on the fact the copies are limited. I remember you saying that you're working with a toolkit you bought so for what you're working, it should teach you the game but when you get the chance look up Gruul decks and mono green aggro not to copy but to get an understanding of how their ramp and aggression works
 
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I'm also working with a lot of stuff that doesn't really work together. I'll probably try to buy another toolkit (that's a lotta cards for a good price) and some other packs, maybe a structure deck.
 
SanoBaron said:
I'm also working with a lot of stuff that doesn't really work together. I'll probably try to buy another toolkit (that's a lotta cards for a good price) and some other packs, maybe a structure deck.

If you are looking for pre-constructed decks, I suggest the ones titled Event Decks. They are a bit more expensive than the starter decks, but they have more value and are more cohesive in terms of theme.
 
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A commander deck is pretty good as well its a little pricey to some but its 100 good cards one of them a planeswalker and most of the deck pays for its self (money wise) though be warned its only one copy of each nonland card
 
Yeah the white commander deck is very legit...and the green one has some beef to it. Either are a pretty great buy.

Although singles are pretty cheap as well...as long as you aren't buying something everyone uses or something op.

Remember when dragonspeaker was 70? pheh.
 
I've been playing for about two years and am pretty new to the game. I play blue black. Does this make me an asshole by default?
 
I've got a friend who's been playing for over 10 years. He uses mono black, and he's only hurting himself.
 
Eva-Unit-Shrek said:
I've been playing for about two years and am pretty new to the game. I play blue black. Does this make me an asshole by default?

Basically this, Very fun to play...not fun to play against type cards.
 
so in other words, black is the Margaret of the colors?
 
Margaret is fun to play, just not against, in Persona 4 Ultimax
 
Yeah sort of...although magic has alot of decks like that if I'm being honest.

Infinite squirrel combo and jund aggro beatdown come to mind off the bat.

5 color Jeskai ascension loop otk deck.
 
So I finally got some time to go over the decklist you posted and I thought I'd break down the sub-optimal card choices.

You mentioned Transguild Promenade which I do not recommend in a deck with less than 3 colors. The card is designed for a deck with powerful multi-colour spells that will catch you up after setting yourself back one turn in order to set up your colours. Setting yourself back for mono-coloured spells is not worth it. Use basic lands instead.

Also, since we are on the topic of lands, bump the land count to 25-26 if you are able to. Rule of them is to have 40% lands which is 24 per 60 card deck. But you have a bunch of 7 cost guys which you want to be able to cast which means you need to find more lands than average.

Lay of the Land is bad. While lands are important, but they are generally worth less than spells or creatures especially mid-game. Lay of the Land basically just trades are card in your hand for something worth less than a card in hand. Also, in the hypothetical example you need to play an X cost card, but you have X-1 lands, you would rather topdeck the land than this card, as you would be able to play your card immediately whereas with Lay of the land you are behind a turn.
Replace it with a land, or an Elvish Mystic if you can find more.

Predator's Rapport: Pure lifegain is bad period. To illustrate take the hypothetical where you and your opponent have no cards in hand and the only card on board is an opponents creature. That creature is eventually going to kill you. If you topdeck a lifegain spell, all you did was delay the inevitable. You'd much rather have another creature or a kill spell to stop the bleeding.
What's worse is that this card is also situational lifegain. If you don't have a creature it's just dead in hand.

Urban Burgeoning: Bad card is bad. While I can think of situations where this card can be useful, you don't need to be fancy by using all your mana for a creature, and then untapping to shock the opponent on their turn. You can just do it on your next turn. Also, every card like this in the deck means one less resource to win the game with. As a general rule, don't play cards that do not contribute to your winning strategy.

Awe of the Guilds: This card is too situational to justify. Boards rarely get clogged up enough to the point where you would want this. Also, playing your big creatures should be enough to break board stalls should they happen.

As for general thoughts about the deck.
The deck is a little unfocused. Note, I know the deck is made with a limited pool, so of course it will appear so, but I would like to still say my piece so you can spend less time blindly tinkering, and give it some direction.
It appears to be more of a deck that finds lands and plays creatures as land sources so you can play big creatures such as the Axebane Stag. But, you have some small creatures that don't contribute to this plan, such as Guttersnipe. What you would rather do is find more cards like Elvish mystic and Axebane Guardian so you can play your bigger creatures more consistently. That isn't to say you should remove all your smaller creatures, as you need something to stave off the offense of a faster deck.
 
Eva-Unit-Shrek said:
I've been playing for about two years and am pretty new to the game. I play blue black. Does this make me an asshole by default?

Lol one of the most dangerous combinations usually results in me and my opponent staring at each other
 
Humdinger said:
5 color Jeskai ascension loop otk deck.

It's only 4 color. You have the option for just UWR in Standard. The only 5 color combo deck I recall is OmniDoor ThragFire. I guess OmniTell is sort of 5 color, but it never hard casts stuff beside blue and red spells.
 
Stopped playing on mirrodim... guess i lost some new mechanics along the way
 
So, my friends and I did a Vintage Rotisserie Draft last night. We'll be playing out the games on Saturday, but I figured some ya'll might be interested in how it went. I'll also be giving my thoughts on the draft from my point of view.

So, the VRD format is kinda like a regular draft you'd play at your friendly local store. There are a few differences. First off, the rotisserie portion means it works as a snake draft. If you play any fantasy leagues, then it should be familiar to you. The pick order goes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
and so on. The second thing about the rotisserie style is that all picks are "face up". Everyone knows what everyone else is drafting. As for the cards we're drafting, instead of opening multiple packs, we're essentially 'opening' one giant pack that consists of one of every vintage legal card in magic. The decks get kinda gonzo.

Terms to know:
Fair: This is a deck that taps its lands to play it's spells. This is something I see that confuses lots of newer players when older players throw the term around. That Blue/White control deck that either counters or kills everything you play is fair. It might not be fun to play against, but it's fair. Same as that Red burn deck with nothing that costs more than 2. It's tapping it's land and casting it's spells

Unfair: In general, combo decks. Unfair means you're trying to "cheat" cards into play. Show and Tell putting an Emrakul, Aeons Torn into play is unfair. Someone getting to 15 mana and punching you in the face with it is fair (if unpleasant)

Curve: Used here, I refer to the mana curve. Imagine if you make a histogram by splitting up every card in your deck by their converted mana cost. That's your mana curve.

Fixing: having ways to 'fix' what colors of mana you have available

If you're not bored by reading all this and there are terms you don't get, just ask

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pOfsrnASl4ABT5hw4f3On4N4oPquFHaUca1kU5GlfFA/edit?usp=sharing


I'm AP at the end. Pick 8 kinda sucks as I lose out on the big splashy power stuff, but whatever. I went in with a couple of lists of general plans depending on how the draft turned out. My first 6 picks are just general good stuff. I don't know exactly why I chose Demonic Tutor over Vampiric Tutor. The Entomb was to both signal the possibility of going Reanimator and to give me options for some instant speed flashback tutor. Picks 7 and 8 are where i start building a real plan. I've seen that SW and JB are going tempo-style, JG is going blue control, and DL is going crazy artifact, so I take Survival of the Fittest and Painter's Servant. Painter's Servant has a couple of different win conditions and I figured I'd be in good shape to target either, and Survival allows me to both continue threatening a reanimation plan and just general stompy goodness. The 14 picks made me sad, as I lost Red Elemental Blast, Birds of Paradise, and Imperial Seal. Not wanting to risk losing him, I snapped up Griselbrand and added Deathrite Shaman just as a generally useful creature. In the next block of picks, I think I made a mistake not picking up Hymn to Tourach. I kinda got cought up with someone take Birds of Paradise, Animate Dead, and Woodfall Primus. I was worried that I would get locked out of some of my hate cards and so I took Bane of Progress. It didn't help that I just watched someone take Tolarian Academy and Metal Worker. Regardless, at this point I settled on a Green/Black control deck with Painter's Servant and Reanimator as win options. Other than losing out on some dual lands, Diabolic Edict, Yawgmoth's Will, and Putrefy, I felt really good about my next 8 or so picks. Some good disruption, one of the best card draw spells ever, and a bit of fixing. At this point, I decide to stop floating one of my Painter's Servant wincons and pick up Iona, Shield of Emeria. Fun fact, it's very hard to win when you can't play spells. Shortly thereafter i pick up the other good Painter win card in Grindstone as well as some more disruption with Unmask, Brain Maggot, and Maelstrom Pulse.

This far into the draft, I was still debating running red. I decided to play it safe and pick up the two remaining Ravnica lands that were in my colors. From here on out, it was filling out my deck. I picked up Nicol Bolas thinking I had Goryo's Vengeance and Sneak Attack, but it was late and I was dumb, so he was a bit of a wasted pick. I've got lots of random cards that provide sideboard options, Bloodghast and Squee, Goblin Nabob are wombo combos with Survival of the Fittest and Recurring Nightmare. Kruphix's Insight is super cute. It both fills my graveyard and helps me find Pernicious Deed, Recurring Nightmares, Survival of the Fittest, Necromancy, and Necropotence. The red stuff other than Squee are on the chopping block for my final build.

Looking at the others, I'm worried about the JB and SW decks. Both are fairly well developed and planned. I think I have the tools to fight both, but we'll see. JW is gonna be weird as his deck attacks at an awkward angle. I think that as long as I can keep him off of Voltaic Key + Time Vault, I can beat him, but it's gonna be rough. Other than those decks, I think I can control my way to victory. I'll update again after we play our tourney and let ya'll know how it goes.

EDIT: One final thing. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jundreanimservant/
That's probably the list i'm gonna run. I'm debating going more all in on my wincons. If I do that, I'm cutting Goyf, Metamorph, Bloodbraid, Blightning, Sinkhole, and Deed for Iona, Survival, Kruphix's Insight, DRS, Ashen Rider, and Exhume
 
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OK, here's the final standings, what they played, and what I remember about the games

Alan W: 6-1, Green/Black stompy. Nothing super fancy. Black disruption with Hymn, Putrefy, Inquisition, and Mind Twist coupled with mana dorks and fatties. Our matches were pretty straight forward. Game 1 he gets out an early Terastadon and stomps my face in. Game 2 I get turn 2 Painter's Servant, turn 3 Dark Ritual and Grindstone. Game 3 was extra grindy as we traded disruption until we were left with nothing but a lone llanowar elf in play. Sadly for me, he finds a fatty before I do and he wins

Steven W: 5-2, Blue/Red Delver with Kiki and Splinter Twin combo. Pretty easy win for him. Game 1 I had a pretty solid lock on the board with Liliana, but he lands a Koth and proceeds to take out Lili and then me. Game 2 is slow, then I miscount my mana and waste a dark ritual a turn before I could cast Griselbrand

Dan L: 5-2, mono Blue Upheaval/Tinker. Turn 1 Tinker into Lodestone Golem give him an easy win. In game 2 he went for an upheaval when I had a Pernicious Deed on board, and I forgot to pop the Deed and kill his mana rocks. RIP me.

Me: 4-3, Jund Reanimator. Lots of disruption with the bonus option of either reanimating a fatty or winning with one of the Painter's Servant combos. I still wish I would've remembered to grab Sneak Attack.

Jason G: 3-4, Blue/White merfolk control. Lots of nice control stuff and some real high power juice with Ancestral Recall, Snapcaster Mage, and Time Walk. In our games, he ran into 2 issues: First, I wasn't playing blue, so his merfolk lords weren't helping a lot. Second, his Bribery and Thada-Adel always whiffed since i was often able to tutor out anything good. He had Containment Priest, but I was able to just hard cast some fatties in one game, and Painter's combo in the other.

Jacob B: 2-5, Grixis delver. Nice value cards in Blue/Black/Red. Sadly, he's recovering from a flu and his head wasn't completely there. He forgot to board in his graveyard hate. Game 1 was a really long grind with him eventually decking himself (I had Necropotence in play and just stopped drawing). Game 2 was just me jamming out Griselbrand.

Jacob W: 2-5, Oath/turbo fog. Super grindy deck, wanted to just sit around until it could win by having Oath of Druids and Forbidden Orchard to jam out one of his giants. I couldn't Grindstone kill him, but old fashioned Pack Rats were plenty good enough to get the job done.

Miles T: 1-6, Lands. Miles had some issues in the draft, the stuff he really needed to make his deck sing kept getting take before he could. Lacking Strip Mine, Wasteland, and Balance was a real problem. He was able to jam out the Dark Depths/Thespian Stage combo on everyone, but just didn't have the consistency to hit it every game.
 
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So after years of not knowing where my small collection of Magic cards went and some slight urging from my best friend to find them, I finally found them in the one place I never thought to check (box in garage, thankfully easily accessible). I cobbled together a White/Red deck, lost a match against my friend, and replaced some old, crappy cards with proxies for test purposes before I buy anything. My result is this: http://deckstats.net/deck-6358897-ece5ba35d84defe71dad518f941f567b.html

My own thoughts: Despite having a ton of Green I could have used due to having two Red/Green pre-made decks, I went with White for life gain and Red for some quick damage to get things rolling. However my first revision saw me taking out several red cards and replacing them with white cards. I'm not sure if I want to go mono-White to keep things simple for my first real deck or re-organize the red cards so it's mostly quick damage and some red creatures (or no red creatures).

I do like the potential of having Auriok Champion out and exploiting the life gain with a Glitterfang hit-and-run; coupled with Ajani's Pridemate ability to gain +1/+1 and (possibly if it's out) Archangel of Thune giving all creatures I control +1/+1 every time I gain life, and some other life gain stuff, that's a lot of beefing up my side. I do realize that even if I have just A.Champion and Glitterfang the combo could probably be countered, it would take at least three turns to get just that set up due to two mana sources, and how useless such a combo is past the early game once my opponent gets things rolling on their side. I do have other ways of gaining life+buffs so Glitterfang isn't needed or necessary, but it sounds fun if I do get it.

Sort-of edit: messed around with the starting hand generator a few times and the above combo along with Sol Ring/enough land happened. Still can be screwed over by what the other guy plays but it's not as unlikely a set up as I thought.

Finally, some listed cards are probably not staying (Infantry Veteran definitely, maybe Mystic Penitent, and maybe one or two of the Disenchants). Also, should I drop a couple of the lands? Deck distribution will still be about 1/3 land anyway but with the way Banazama put it in his analysis of Sano's deck, those extra few lands may screw with my chances of drawing other cards.
 
The deck could surely use some work. I don't know your budget so I don't want to suggest what you should and shouldn't buy. Your deck has a lot of small creatures, try experimenting with 20 lands first than see if 22 is fine cause 24 may be a bit unnecessary for whatever your deck is spose to do which by the way, what is it supposed to do the description didn't reveal any useful info for me to work with
 
Oh yeah, I probably should have put that. That's what happens when I type out such a thing past midnight. Budget: I think I'd feel comfortable spending about $30-60 this month.

Alright, so the general idea I want to go with is life gain (white) for me while dishing out quick damage and having some creatures out fast (red) so I can set up and not be defenseless... but I have like, what, only a few creatures that really fulfill that role? On top of that, after realizing the potential set up I had with some cards, the life gain would buff my creatures, so it feels like red is just thrown in there since I had them.

As for anything else I might edit after looking over it again, I can probably switch out Arcbound Slith for more Slith Firewalkers. I'm also unsure of Augur il-Vec: Shadow sounds nice and I hear it kind of fell by the wayside, but I dunno.

And the small creatures comment: are you suggesting I should add in more big ones or just that I ease up on the mana since the small guys aren't so mana intensive?
 
So, any of you magic players gonna be at CB?

If so, I can bring along my cube for some drafting.
 
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