Magic: The Gathering XIII: What A Horrible Night To Have An Enchantment- Curse

[tgva8889]

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Vexing Devil is fine. It's really flashy and powerful, but it isn't particularly amazing. It dies to removal just like everything else, it doesn't have evasion so it can be blocked and stalled. And if they can't deal with it, they can turn it into a Spark Elemental variant.

The fact that your opponent gets to choose the mode is what makes it weaker than it appears at first glance.

[Mystic Muse]

Well, yes, but...why does he want a deck with those?

He saw a deck using them and thought it looked fun, so he wanted to make one using the same cards. He specifically mentioned two of each planeswalker, but he isn't going to mind a third Venser.

[Lord Seth]

Cards are legal the date of their official release.

Looks like the SCG and Grand Prix I was planning to go to is going to be a major testing ground for a bunch of strategies then. Not sure if that'd be a good or bad thing for me.

[Octopus Jack]

Hi guys, I've fairly recently gotten into magic, been playing for a few months now and if you can give some opinions on one of my first decks to actually work I'd be grateful:

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Lands:
2 Vault of the Archangel
2 Drowned Catacomb
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Evolving Wilds
8 Plains
4 Swamps
2 Islands

Creature Spells:
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Drogskol Captain
1 Geist Honored Monk
1 Geist of St Traft

Noncreature Spells:
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Liliana of the Veil
4 Lingering Souls
4 Midnight Haunting
1 Shrine of Loyal Legions
4 Gather the Townsfolk
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Intangible Virtue
2 Avacyn's Collar
2 Tragic slip

I think I still need to work on the amount of each type of land in my deck and any advice would be great.

[Zombimode]

Hi guys, I've fairly recently gotten into magic, been playing for a few months now and if you can give some opinions on one of my first decks to actually work I'd be grateful:

Uh, depends what you want to play actually. T2? Casual?

You play three colors. Without having run the numbers it seems you may find yourself mana screwed (or color screwed, if thats a term) more often then you would like it. Maybe put more double lands in, or more Terramorphics sorry, Evolving Wilds ()?
But again, it depends on the environment you want to play. For casual your manabase looks fine. In standard the deck is at risk to have no blue or black mana in the first turns while having blue/black spells in hand.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Holy...!

Avacyn Restored Spoilers

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Wow, they are really pushing creature spells, aren't they? Somberwald Elder and Caravan of Souls...both make creature decks (especially G/W angels) so much more viable, though Caravan of Souls works for any tribal decks. I can't think of a single tribal deck that wouldn't want to be able to go 'Yeah, you can't counter this creature'. With all as is, but turn 4 you can play a CMC 7 creature with just Somerwald Elder, not even counting Avacyn's Pilgrim, Birds, or other mana ramp.

...Plus the art of the Elder is by Steve Argyle, want.

[Mystic Muse]

Avacyn Restored spoiler

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If it weren't so high-costing, I'd want a few angels of Glory's rise for my humans deck for the sideboard.

[AgentPaper]

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Turn 1: Land, Avacyn's Pilgrim
Turn 2: Land, Somberwald Sage
Turn 3: Land, Avacyn, Angel of Hope

Yeah, this is definitely a thing. In this circumstance, I'd actually say Avacyn is better than Elesh Norn, because it comes out early enough that you're not likely to be wiping your opponent's board, and Avacyn allows you to build up your own board pretty much unhampered as much as you like. You can block lots of stuff without letting things die, so it's hard for them to get a Tragic Slip going, and there aren't many other ways to get rid of Avacyn that early on. Elesh Norn, on the other hand, kills maybe one or two of their creatures, and makes them use removal before casting the rest of them.

[Callos_DeTerran]

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Turn 1: Land, Avacyn's Pilgrim
Turn 2: Land, Somberwald Sage
Turn 3: Land, Avacyn, Angel of Hope

Yeah, this is definitely a thing. In this circumstance, I'd actually say Avacyn is better than Elesh Norn, because it comes out early enough that you're not likely to be wiping your opponent's board, and Avacyn allows you to build up your own board pretty much unhampered as much as you like. You can block lots of stuff without letting things die, so it's hard for them to get a Tragic Slip going, and there aren't many other ways to get rid of Avacyn that early on. Elesh Norn, on the other hand, kills maybe one or two of their creatures, and makes them use removal before casting the rest of them.

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Don't forget, you can make one of those lands Caravan of Souls so Avacyn, Angel of Hope can't be countered.

Worse (or better from your point of view!), you can follow Avacyn up with Descendant's Path AND Druid's Repository. Possibly free angels every round and more mana acceleration when Avacyn attacks? Can you say re-enacting the breaking of the Helvault by getting out the entirety of Avacyn's generals.

Actually, on closer count, you'd have to wait one more round before playing Avacyn (she's 8, not 7), but you could play Sigarda, Bruna, or Gisela instead.

[9mm]

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either I'm missing something or does entreat angels and bonefire of the damned have an extra X mana cost for no apparent reason?

[Callos_DeTerran]

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either I'm missing something or does entreat angels and bonefire of the damned have an extra X mana cost for no apparent reason?

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Makes it more expensive to use. You have to pay the same amount for both X's to get the effect, so it's basically cutting the effect of the spell in half if you hard-cast it instead of Miracle cast it.

[9mm]

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Makes it more expensive to use. You have to pay the same amount for both X's to get the effect, so it's basically cutting the effect of the spell in half if you hard-cast it instead of Miracle cast it.

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now that makes more sense than my "so I pay X and 0" lines of thought.

[Octopus Jack]

Uh, depends what you want to play actually. T2? Casual?

You play three colors. Without having run the numbers it seems you may find yourself mana screwed (or color screwed, if thats a term) more often then you would like it. Maybe put more double lands in, or more Terramorphics sorry, Evolving Wilds ()?
But again, it depends on the environment you want to play. For casual your manabase looks fine. In standard the deck is at risk to have no blue or black mana in the first turns while having blue/black spells in hand.

I'm playing mostly casual games against people but want a deck that can be semi-competitive for things like FNM and my uni's magic society standard tournaments. I'm still trying to get hold of more double lands and I think I can score more evolving wilds off some people I know.

[Binks]

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now that makes more sense than my "so I pay X and 0" lines of thought.

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All X's in a card are set to the same value. If you want one X (mana cost or effect) to be 3 then all the other X's must also be 3s. XX is basically 2*X mana cost, so if you want 3 angels you normally need to pay 6 just to satisfy the X costs, but only 3 if you miracle it.

[tgva8889]

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Remember: Sage accelerates you from 3 to 7. Therefore, the cards you are casting after it should cost at least that much. Otherwise, it's more worthwhile to play cards like Solemn Simulacrum and go from 4 to 6 (and less risky).

That said, Turn 1 Land Mana Dork Turn 2 Land Sage Turn 3 Land Elesh Norn is pretty hard to beat. I guess we know why Griselbrand costs 8 and not 7.

[Land with Undetermined Name] is rather ridiculous. It's good in just about anything you could possibly want. Like, Wolf Run Ramp just became much better against Delver.

[flabort]

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Remember that infinite mana combo that just got spoiled? Moon Sage's Emblem, Arcane Melee, Ghostly Flicker?
Yeah, add Aprentice Alchemist to that, to use the mana to recast it. Infinite draw, as it sacs, hits the graveyard and returns to hand, and is cast for 1, then sacs again...
Wait, does Summoning Sickness affect abilities other than attacking or tapping? Can it sac without haste?

I'm exited to see a couple Matt Stewart cards: I recently discovered "Artist Magic", and constructed a Matt Stewart deck. Things like Hornet Sting, creepy doll, basically a really good Artifact/Green aggro deck. I'll get the deck list over here soon.
I don't see any by him in GREEN, yet, but he isn't limited to one color...

I see a problem with soul bond: Multibonding. So it bonds with an unbonded creature as it ETB. Then another unbonded creature ETB... and bonds to the soulbonded creature, because there's no clause that says it can't bond while IT'S bonded already...

[tgva8889]

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flabort: Actually, there is. A creature can only be paired with one other creature at a time. Period.

Also, if you were to use a creature's ability with "T" in the cost the turn it enters the battlefield, it would need to have Haste.

[Binks]

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Wait, does Summoning Sickness affect abilities other than attacking or tapping? Can it sac without haste?

I see a problem with soul bond: Multibonding. So it bonds with an unbonded creature as it ETB. Then another unbonded creature ETB... and bonds to the soulbonded creature, because there's no clause that says it can't bond while IT'S bonded already...

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1. No attacking or tapping when summoning sick. Anything else is fair game.
2. The 'another unpaired creature' part stops this to the best of my understanding, as the soulbound creature is not unpaired.

That and the fact it's called pairing (2) and the designers have repeatedly said its 2 creatures only and the mechanics article specifically says you can only pair unpaired creatures means this isn't going to happen.

[flabort]

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OK. We're all good, then.
Infinite monoblue draw, AWAY!!!
CAST ALL THE SPELLS!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I see... I was just reading Soulbond wrong, then. That's good, Wolfir can't get +12/+12 by bonding with 3 creatures. Just try to argue that it DOES work that way to a judge, though.

Meanwhile (Critique?):

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That Green/artifact (G/A) Matt Stewart deck. I challenge you to find one card that he hasn't done art for in this list:

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showt...55#post8245055
4x Hornet Sting
4x Viridian Emissary
3x Noxious Revival
3x Lambholt Elder
3x Creepy Doll
3x Druidic Satchel
3x Sacred Wolf
2x Strider Harness
2x Skinshifter
2x Cobbled wings
2x Gremlin Mine
2x Dungrove Elder
2x Lost in the Woods
2x Manor Gargoyle
1x Blunt the Assault
1x Quilled Slagwurm
21x Forest

I believe I figured out the deck would cost $21.90 using the magiccards.info page's Medium price listings.
The format it's for is just a simple casual variant. The only rule different from normal is this:
All the cards in your deck must have art all from the same artist.

So could there be better G/A Matt Stewart cards to use? Better ratios?

[memnarch]

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1. No attacking or tapping when summoning sick. Anything else is fair game.
2. The 'another unpaired creature' part stops this to the best of my understanding, as the soulbound creature is not unpaired.

That and the fact it's called pairing (2) and the designers have repeatedly said its 2 creatures only and the mechanics article specifically says you can only pair unpaired creatures means this isn't going to happen.

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Addendum; tapping for abilities without the [tap] symbol is allowed, such as captivating vampire's ability.

Also, I am unable to find Caravan of souls; what are people using to for spoiler sites?

[Mystic Muse]

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Addendum; tapping for abilities without the [tap] symbol is allowed, such as captivating vampire's ability.

Also, I am unable to find Caravan of souls; what are people using to for spoiler sites?

MTG Salvation

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I think they meant "Cavern of souls"

[flabort]

Oh, recently found (someone shared it on Salvation) a "random card generator": Most of the cards from it suck, but some, you could tweek, and they'd come out fine.
http://www.toothycat.net/wiki/bnf.pl...cCardGenerator

Some FINE examples:

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Tribal Sorcery - Beast (red)
Choose one: put two 4/4 red Elemental creature tokens onto the battlefield; or destroy up to two target artifacts

Converted mana cost: 2

Sorcery - Generated (green)
Choose one: target tapped creature with toughness 2 or more gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each card in your hand and untap that creature; or draw three cards, then discard two cards

Converted mana cost: 1

Land
T: add R to your mana pool. Spend this mana only on spells.
T: add 1 to your mana pool

Tribal Artifact - Gnome
Whenever a artifact leaves the battlefield, target Gnome gets -2/+2 until end of turn
4: draw three cards, then discard a card

Converted mana cost: 2

Sorcery (black)
~this~ deals 1 damage to target creature with both power and toughness 3 or less for each card in an opponent's graveyard. If a creature damaged this way would be put into a graveyard this turn, exile it instead

Converted mana cost: 2

Not a one balanced, completely. But some work by a good mind, and they'd be pretty interesting.

[Duos]

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UG effect land is AWESOME. Quicken is one of my favorite cards ever. The effect is as cheap as could be, too. Nice, very nice. Shenanigans ho!

[Grytorm]

Hi, I have posted here a few times before in this thread and I wanted to know peoples opinion on this deck I made, although I don't quite have all the cards yet. Thoughts? I don't want to spend much more on it though.

Deck

[Duos]

You should be playing Gather the Townsfolk. It's really strong especially with Honor of the Pure and Champion of the Parish.

I'd cut an Adaptive Automoton or two in favor of Shrine of Loyal Legions as well; since shrine gives you excellent resiliency: You drop it early, and pop it EoT when they wipe board.

Accorder Paladin is also kind of a weak choice. I'd cut them for the Gathers.

If you can afford them: Mirran Crusader is dumb, so you should play them if you can. Swords are good as well.

For sideboard, Suture Priest is kind of weak. I'd run Timely Reinforcements in their place, since they do about the same thing.

[Lord Seth]

When people refer to new cards in spoilers and don't want to either link to them or show an image, could they at least give the name so I can know what they're talking about in case I don't know the particular card yet? It can be a bit tedious to have to find a card by function, especially if they don't actually say what it does.

[flabort]

Format: You should try it. Those with salvation accounts should critique it there.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=409616

[Androgeus]

When people refer to new cards in spoilers and don't want to either link to them or show an image, could they at least give the name so I can know what they're talking about in case I don't know the particular card yet? It can be a bit tedious to have to find a card by function, especially if they don't actually say what it does.

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Is this in reference to Duos' post? If it is, then it's not his fault. He talking about the UG effect land, we've had the effect spoiled but not the name. Its text is as follows

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{T}: Add 1 to your mana pool.
{U}{G}, {T}: Until end of turn, you may cast nonland cards as though they had flash.

It does seem pretty cool.

Talking of effect lands, was anyone else disappointed by RW one (Slayer's Stronghold), or am I just being dense?

[Grytorm]

The only problem with Shrine of Loyal Legions is that with it and without the Adaptive Automatons and the Gather the townsfolk I would have a lot of 2 drops.

Edit:
One thing I have not been certain about is running Gutshot maindeck. If I move it to the side board I should have enough room for everything.

[Lord Seth]

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Is this in reference to Duos' post? If it is, then it's not his fault. He talking about the UG effect land, we've had the effect spoiled but not the name. Its text is as follows

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{T}: Add 1 to your mana pool.
{U}{G}, {T}: Until end of turn, you may cast nonland cards as though they had flash.

It does seem pretty cool.

Talking of effect lands, was anyone else disappointed by RW one (Slayer's Stronghold), or am I just being dense?

Well, even if the name isn't spoiled yet, it would have been nice had its abilities been clearly laid out.