Magic the Gathering XIX: Heroic- Bump this thread.

[Sith_Happens]

edit: is it mean to run mycosynth lattice and vandalblast?

It's the best kind of mean.

Just don't try it in Affinity, though. Affinity is the kind of deck that runs 18 lands and has an empty hand by turn two.

...Casual!?! Cranial platings, artifact lands, and at least there won't be opals...

That word can mean very different things at different tables. For me, for example, it usually means playing against whatever my cousin took to his last Modern FNM.

Also, batterskull probably is still a fraction of the reason, if not a tiny part. Does wizards say why they ban cards in articles and such, or do people just figure it out with ease?

Nowadays at least they usually do.

[Seatbelt]

i've already started on the deck, it obviously has four of each artifact land, and four cranial platings

if i wanted to i could buy the mox opals, i've not got much else to buy, other than more cards, and they're only $60 each, i was expecting them to be more, but it'd take a while to get four of them, so for now i'm just going to say no to the opals

I had a casual artifacts deck with a playset of each artifact land. But I made sure to mention before the start of the game that they're banned in everything and if the opponent prefers I can just run them as basics.

[Mystic Muse]

Also, batterskull probably is still a fraction of the reason, if not a tiny part. Does wizards say why they ban cards in articles and such, or do people just figure it out with ease?

I'm intentionally being hyperbolic for the sake of comedy. Sometimes Legacy affinity doesn't even run Stoneforge, so I don't know if Modern Affinity would change anything to run what could very well be considered an overcosted Steelshaper's gift in that deck.

I've played Magic for a long time, but I still have a ways to go in figuring out what decks want what things.

[Sith_Happens]

what could very well be considered an overcosted Steelshaper's gift in that deck.

It's not an overcosted Steelshaper's Gift, it's an extremely undercosted Stonehewer Giant.

[Mystic Muse]

It's not an overcosted Steelshaper's Gift, it's an extremely undercosted Stonehewer Giant.

I meant for Affinity specifically.

I know what she can do in decks in general, but I don't know about her specifically in affinity in Modern. Haven't tested her out in that yet, to know whether she'd be an addition, or if she doesn't actually contribute to that deck as much as she would others. I dislike proxying stuff, and I still haven't gotten my stoneforges back yet. Plus, there's not much point in testing out a card that will never ever be unbanned in Modern.

Basically, I'm well-acquainted with stoneblade decks, but have never played with Stoneforge affinity in any format.

[Sith_Happens]

Melek EDH is on TappedOut now.

Time to actually work on it some more.

[Shadow of the Sun]

So they've released the event deck.

No fetches. :C

Path to Exile and Lingering Souls is nice.

[Somensjev]

so, my emrakul and scarecrows finally arrived

i'm so happy


edit: i was looking over the banned list for modern, most of them make sense, but some don't, like why is bloodbraid elf banned?
and chrome mox?
and finally, sword of the meek

all the others make at least some kind of sense, but i can't think of any reason why these ones are banned

[Sith_Happens]

edit: i was looking over the banned list for modern, most of them make sense, but some don't, like why is bloodbraid elf banned?
and chrome mox?
and finally, sword of the meek

Bloodbraid Elf was banned last September to make Jund stop being 70% of the format (if I'm exaggerating that number, it's not by much). I can think of extremely few decks that wouldn't run at least two Chrome Moxes, it's just that much better and more widely usable than any other mana acceleration available. Pretty much the only thing Sword of the Meek is good for is comboing with Thopter Foundry.

[CN the Logos]

Does TappedOut show edit history or does wanting previous versions/iterations of a deck to be viewable mean I have to make separate lists from scratch?

It doesn't show the history automatically, but there's a place for you to note it if you wish.

Yeah, that's the other main thing I'm concerned about. Spell vs. permanent balance has been tricky, so I figured I might be able to swing a lower land count given how many mana rocks I'm running.

Of course, I'm hoping I have time to install Cockatrice today so I can do some goldfishing and find out for myself whether I'm right about that.

I'd have to look over the CMC of your most important spells to be sure, but I don't think you have the mana rocks to justify missing a ton of land drops. All the stuff really worth copying with Melek is expensive, and mana rocks are generally easier to destroy than lands.

[Sith_Happens]

Just cut Melek library down to 99. Currently goldfishing, will probably also fill out the Maybeboard soon.

[Duck999]

Do you have your scarecrow deck planned out? If so, can I see it?

[Somensjev]

Do you have your scarecrow deck planned out? If so, can I see it?

here's a casual deck i designed that uses some scarecrows
it was originally a full scarecrow deck, but it slowly became this, and i like it

some other day i'm going to make a scarecrow tribal, using things like shared animosity, and coat of arms/door to destinies, and other cards like that, any suggestions for that would be appreciated i just went onto gatherer and used to advanced search to find every card that said "creature type"

edit

Spoiler: rather long ramble about fluffy stuff

Show

so i was reading about the zendikar storyline, since it's my favourite part of magic (i'm very partial to the eldrazi ), and i found this sentence describing zendikar "Everything on the plane is precarious, unpredictable, or just plain lethal." my immediate reaction was something along the lines of 'oh my god it's australia'

anyway, i've been reading up on the story from there again because one of the people in my playgroup, the person who's been playing longest (other than me) said something along the lines of "eldrazi fear nothing, except the angels of zendikar, which are the only things that can actually kill them, which is why they sealed most of them up, like [some angel he own], with those weird things on their faces, so that they couldn't fight them"

and i was thinking, we're not even sure if eldrazi think, or feel emotions, let alone fear, and in what way are the angels more powerful than the eldrazi? the eldrazi live in a place that only planeswalkers, and the most powerful god-like beings can travel through

so if anyone more well-versed in the story than i could answer, could you tell me if what he says is true, or if he was just making things up to make his angels sound that much more awesome

[Sith_Happens]

My goldfishing has told me two useful pieces of information:

1. Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond are only preferable to a land for the first few turns.

2. My Melek deck in its current form doesn't do much of anything for the first few turns.

Moxen out, Mountains in.

[Somensjev]

My goldfishing has told me two useful pieces of information:

1. Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond are only preferable to a land for the first few turns.

2. My Melek deck in its current form doesn't do much of anything for the first few turns.

Moxen out, Mountains in.

if they weren't doing anything that mountains can't do then i'd definitely suggest swapping them out, artifact removal is cheap and common, land removal is more expensive, and rarer

[Shadow of the Sun]

My goldfishing has told me two useful pieces of information:

1. Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond are only preferable to a land for the first few turns.

2. My Melek deck in its current form doesn't do much of anything for the first few turns.

Moxen out, Mountains in.

Yeah, Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond are best for quick combo decks and the like, like the fun Legacy deck Oops All Spells.

[Boci]

My goldfishing has told me two useful pieces of information:

1. Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond are only preferable to a land for the first few turns.

2. My Melek deck in its current form doesn't do much of anything for the first few turns.

Moxen out, Mountains in.

Is cold steel heart better than the izzit keyrune/clue stone? Its one mana cheaper than those, but that only counts when you only have 2 mana (so basically turn 2 with no soul ring on turn 1), as the keyrune and cluestone can be tapped for mana the turn they EB. Further more they will give you a choice of RB instead of just 1, and it will have a secondary function. Or do you really need it to have CMC 2?

[Sith_Happens]

Is cold steel heart better than the izzit keyrune/clue stone? Its one mana cheaper than those, but that only counts when you only have 2 mana (so basically turn 2 with no soul ring on turn 1), as the keyrune and cluestone can be tapped for mana the turn they EB. Further more they will give you a choice of RB instead of just 1, and it will have a secondary function. Or do you really need it to have CMC 2?

For acceleration purposes there's almost no situation in which it's better to have a 3-drop mana rock than an 2-drop one. I hadn't considered the fixing aspects though, and I have been having spots of color trouble. I'll think about it.

EDIT: Aaaaaand I'm suddenly pretty sure that this error I've been getting on TappedOut's playtest client where some cards are blacked out is happening consistently to certain cards rather than at random, and you can still see what card each one is by spacebarring it. That possibly throws off my data quite a bit, I've been chucking all such cards to the bottom of the library and redrawing them.

EDIT 2: And at least one of the blacked-out cards is a Mountain.

[Zombimode]

...Casual!?! Cranial platings, artifact lands, and at least there won't be opals...

I use artifact lands and Cranial Plating in my casual artifact pillowfort deck - together with Scryb Ranger and Scuttlemut.

Casual is not about which cards you use - but how you use them

One of my decks runs 4x Sol Ring - to cast dragons and large fireballs. That seems pretty casual to me

[Sith_Happens]

Yup, this blackout error has occurred to most of my Mountains and my Thawing Glaciers. Really need to reevaluate my mana performance now.

[Cogwheel]

"Hey maybe I should actually buy packs for once. One Theros and one Born of the Gods, let's not go overboard."

Foil Brimaz, foil Thoughtseize. Haha okay.

[Litewarior]

Bloodbraid Elf was banned last September to make Jund stop being 70% of the format (if I'm exaggerating that number, it's not by much). I can think of extremely few decks that wouldn't run at least two Chrome Moxes, it's just that much better and more widely usable than any other mana acceleration available. Pretty much the only thing Sword of the Meek is good for is comboing with Thopter Foundry.

I heavily disagree with that assessment of Chrome Mox. Mana accelerators that are inherent card disadvantage are rarely played, even if they are 'free', and Chrome Mox is probably the most disadvantageous of them all. There's plenty you can do with lands in the graveyard from Mox Diamond, and Lotus Petal gives you the burst of mana when you need it, but Chrome Mox puts you down a card that you can't get back, and you can only make mana of that type. It's a terrible topdeck and puts you behind your opponent in cards.

Now if you're playing a combo deck like storm, forget everything I said there. You want to reach your critical mass of mana as fast as possible, and a few moxen can help with that. But too many can cause issues.

[Duck999]

here's a casual deck i designed that uses some scarecrows
it was originally a full scarecrow deck, but it slowly became this, and i like it

some other day i'm going to make a scarecrow tribal, using things like shared animosity, and coat of arms/door to destinies, and other cards like that, any suggestions for that would be appreciated i just went onto gatherer and used to advanced search to find every card that said "creature type"

edit

Spoiler: rather long ramble about fluffy stuff

Show

so i was reading about the zendikar storyline, since it's my favourite part of magic (i'm very partial to the eldrazi ), and i found this sentence describing zendikar "Everything on the plane is precarious, unpredictable, or just plain lethal." my immediate reaction was something along the lines of 'oh my god it's australia'

anyway, i've been reading up on the story from there again because one of the people in my playgroup, the person who's been playing longest (other than me) said something along the lines of "eldrazi fear nothing, except the angels of zendikar, which are the only things that can actually kill them, which is why they sealed most of them up, like [some angel he own], with those weird things on their faces, so that they couldn't fight them"

and i was thinking, we're not even sure if eldrazi think, or feel emotions, let alone fear, and in what way are the angels more powerful than the eldrazi? the eldrazi live in a place that only planeswalkers, and the most powerful god-like beings can travel through

so if anyone more well-versed in the story than i could answer, could you tell me if what he says is true, or if he was just making things up to make his angels sound that much more awesome

Let me get this straight: The angels can kill the Eldrazi, but the closest three planeswalkers, including Ugin, could get was binding them to the prison plane.

[memnarch]

Let me get this straight: The angels can kill the Eldrazi, but the closest three planeswalkers, including Ugin, could get was binding them to the prison plane.

Nobody can kill The Three Eldrazi. The Brood that gets spawned sure, but not the big, indestructable ones. All the angel's but the most powerful didn't get off scott free neither; the ones that survived were cursed with the distinctive white halo. Here's the article you can read a bit more about the angels and Eldrazi in.

[Duck999]

So that small bit of story was a little incorrect. The angels cannot kill the Eldrazi, even Iona can't, and therefore the Eldrazi don't fear the angels, but they do however force them to not be able to fight back. This could be seen as fear, but it could also be seen as extra protection. However, I assume the Eldrazi could feel some sort of emotions, judging from them being living creatures. Maybe not strong feelings, or even noticeable, but I expect them to be there nonetheless.

Edit: So yeah, he was using hyperbole, or just not telling the story correctly.

[Sith_Happens]

I heavily disagree with that assessment of Chrome Mox. Mana accelerators that are inherent card disadvantage are rarely played, even if they are 'free', and Chrome Mox is probably the most disadvantageous of them all. There's plenty you can do with lands in the graveyard from Mox Diamond, and Lotus Petal gives you the burst of mana when you need it, but Chrome Mox puts you down a card that you can't get back, and you can only make mana of that type. It's a terrible topdeck and puts you behind your opponent in cards.

Now if you're playing a combo deck like storm, forget everything I said there. You want to reach your critical mass of mana as fast as possible, and a few moxen can help with that. But too many can cause issues.

Mox Diamond and Lotus Petal aren't Modern-legal, so they have no bearing on my assessment. Similarly, this isn't Legacy where every card is absolutely crucial; I can think of few Modern decks that couldn't spare a card to be a turn ahead in a "turn four format."

[Mystic Muse]

So, getting deck signed project is going fairly well.

4x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Dark Confidant
4x Liliana of the Veil
4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Marsh Flats

All have been signed so far. In addition to 4x Qasali Pridemage, 1 of each of the "Sword of X and Y" cycle, and 2 Sigarda Host of Herons.

[Shinzutalos]

Challenge: Make the most creative (but effective) vintage deck

Go crazy

[Bucky]

For acceleration purposes there's almost no situation in which it's better to have a 3-drop mana rock than an 2-drop one. I hadn't considered the fixing aspects though, and I have been having spots of color trouble. I'll think about it.

For 2-mana rocks you should consider Signets. Use keyrunes only if you plan on attacking with them.

Challenge: Make the most creative (but effective) vintage deck

Go crazy

MUD Pod! Workshop out expensive artifact creatures and convert them into sideboard bombs!

[Duck999]

For 2-mana rocks you should consider Signets. Use keyrunes only if you plan on attacking with them.

Yeah. Keyrunes are not all that special unless you use them as creatures.