Magic the Gathering XX: KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANS!!!

[Ninjaman]

Crackling doom is the ultimate removal spell, as it should be at WBR with one of each removal color, however it is in colors almost nobody in modern is running. The mana bases are too painful to go 4 color, ESPECIALLY with with the prevalence of delver and burn, and Treasure Cruise/Dig Through time is a huge pull to go blue. The only thing that's not is pod, which is using siege rhinos and all the life gain goodies Abzan can provide to outlast the aggro decks. Oh, and pod likes its mana dorks, so it's definitely not moving out of green.

When jund was big some lists splashed white for lingering souls, so it's not unheard of.

[ChaosOS]

Jund is taking a pretty big knocking by the shift to delver and burn, on top of that Ajundi was mostly powered by Deathrite Shaman making mana really easy. On the other hand, new fetches do probably help the splash.

[Lea Plath]

Well, that was fun! I've just done a Kamigawa Block draft.

So a guy had just bought some boosters online for £80 (8 champion, 8 betrayer, 8 saviour) and we drafted em. I managed to force a fairly decent R/G deck despite red being fairly popular and then went 1-1. I didn't get a third round cause a few people dropped cause they got frustrated with the bad cards, but personally I liked that. And I would probably build a kamigawa cube (all the cards that are actually draftable in kamigawa, none of the unplayable cards like glimpse or ones that you draft and auto win like jitte).

Also, I've decided to have 2 edh decks on the go, rather than one uber one.

So the 2 decks are Karador Tribal Spirits and a Marchesa Sacrifice Aggro deck and I would like feed back on both.

Ideally if they were the uber versions the mana bases would be better but I am having to spread my fetches between them and I've only got 1 of cards like Demonic Tutor currently.

[golentan]

Hey all. I'm a casual player who mostly likes building theme decks for funsies rather than getting in with all the tournaments and nitty gritty of the rules for different formats. My favorite theme by far is Slivers, because of my unhealthy love for anything with a hive mind. Anyway, I've been cleaning up pretty nicely with my green-white slivers, but to keep some variety in my repertoire I made a blue-black sliver deck, the cards for which just arrived tonight. I haven't played it against any of my friends yet, but I did a test game against myself.

This has taught me 2 things. 1: I like my new deck. 2: Slivers vs. Slivers is agonizingly hilarious.

[Duck999]

2: Slivers vs. Slivers is agonizingly hilarious.

But now slivers have "Sliver creatures you control." I can no longer mind control my opponents slivers and gain all the abilities.

[golentan]

But now slivers have "Sliver creatures you control." I can no longer mind control my opponents slivers and gain all the abilities.

While true, and part of what kept the game differentiated, I didn't build either deck with all or even mostly new slivers.

[Eldariel]

Well, that was fun! I've just done a Kamigawa Block draft.

So a guy had just bought some boosters online for £80 (8 champion, 8 betrayer, 8 saviour) and we drafted em. I managed to force a fairly decent R/G deck despite red being fairly popular and then went 1-1. I didn't get a third round cause a few people dropped cause they got frustrated with the bad cards, but personally I liked that. And I would probably build a kamigawa cube (all the cards that are actually draftable in kamigawa, none of the unplayable cards like glimpse or ones that you draft and auto win like jitte).

Also, I've decided to have 2 edh decks on the go, rather than one uber one.

So the 2 decks are Karador Tribal Spirits and a Marchesa Sacrifice Aggro deck and I would like feed back on both.

Ideally if they were the uber versions the mana bases would be better but I am having to spread my fetches between them and I've only got 1 of cards like Demonic Tutor currently.

Kamigawa-block draft is something everyone should experience. First of all, it features the Dampen Thoughts-deck; one of the very, very few completely non-creature archetypes that have been viable and powerful in Limited. Secondly, it features a lot of synergies around Arcane and Spirit mechanics, Soulshift/Soratami/etc. making life interesting and a fair split of powerful cards and mechanics. Kamigawa interacts very poorly with sets outside it, but Kamigawa is an amazing standalone block. Saviors is a bit of an odd one out though with its weird mechanics but it does widen the foci a bit so it isn't entirely unwelcome, and the tribal/type synergies are still there; nowadays all too few people know the joy of stacking their whole deck with Elder Pine of Jukai for instance. Kamigawa also has a special place in my heart since it's the first format I really officially drafted properly. Jitte is the only real downside and it doesn't show up to problematic degrees.

[Landis963]

I've been percolating a deck concept for a while now, but it lacks a win-con. How might one go about building a deck centered on screwing with lands? Not by destroying them per se, just altering their types, swapping them around, stuff like that.

[sonofzeal]

I've been percolating a deck concept for a while now, but it lacks a win-con. How might one go about building a deck centered on screwing with lands? Not by destroying them per se, just altering their types, swapping them around, stuff like that.

If you are doing some land destruction in there, there was one annoying deck in DotP 2014 that used a lot of Roiling Terrain fairly effectively.

[Sith_Happens]

I've been percolating a deck concept for a while now, but it lacks a win-con. How might one go about building a deck centered on screwing with lands? Not by destroying them per se, just altering their types, swapping them around, stuff like that.

1. Put in four Blood Moons.
2. ???
3. Profit.

Alternatively (or additionally):

1. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Spreading Algae
2. ???
3. Profit

...Also I guess there's landwalk.

[Eldariel]

I've been percolating a deck concept for a while now, but it lacks a win-con. How might one go about building a deck centered on screwing with lands? Not by destroying them per se, just altering their types, swapping them around, stuff like that.

Google Pirates. A hilarious deck :)

[Duck999]

Homelands draft. Do it. It is amazing.
My entire deck was Labyrinth Minotaur, Didgeridoo, Memory Lapse, and only a few other assorted cards. I had at least 5 Memory Lapse's and seven Labyrinth Minotaurs. It worked surprisingly well.

[Eldariel]

Okay, now I'm at a computer so I can actually explain stuff. Pirates-deck is a mono-blue "land destruction" deck built around the fact that people can only play 1 land per turn. That is, it's packed with bounce-spells that bounce their lands and then stuff that takes their mana (y'know, pirates). An ancient example build I was able to dig out looks like this:

Spoiler: Pirates!

Show

Pirates
4 Rishadan Cutpurse
3 Rishadan Footpad
2 Gilded Drake
2 Ninja of the Deep Hours (Pirate Ninjas!)

Artifacts
3 Isochron Scepter
3 Ankh of Mishra

Spells
4 Force of Will
3 Parallax Tide
4 Boomerang
2 Seal of Removal
4 Hoodwink
4 Stifle

Mana
2 Chrome Mox
4 Rishadan Port
16 Island

Now, the list is admittedly aged and there are plenty of new cards that could be incorporated. Also, things like Stifle are more useful in a high power level environment where people are like to run fetchlands (which you can Stifle) to fix their mana. Still, Stifling the Parallax Tide-trigger is a nice haymaker. Principally the deck just wants to keep bouncing enemy lands and make them pay stuff they can't afford. The lack of Daze in this list is a crime and there's more land bounce like Eye of Nowhere that should be considered; the key guiding principle in this deck was likely being able to fit a bounce spell on Isochron Scepter for the lock. Note that Ankh of Mishra in play + Parallax Tide exploding is a nice way to end games too.

Overall, a very cute deck idea and all kinds of fun to play (painful to play against, granted) but definitely needs some tuning and there are lots of new additions (creatures in particular; fun though they may be, the Pirates aren't really competitive with modern creatures) that could be fit in here. But there you have the strategy.


Another mono-blue "LD" deck you could try would be a pile that keeps enemy lands tapped. A deck I ran in the Ravnica/Time Spiral standard-format (of Owling Mine-fame, if someone remembers; Owling Mine is basically very similar to the Pirates-deck above, except it runs Howling Mine-effects that the enemy is poorly equipped to use), basically this one tries to deploy few cheap threats, keep the enemy tapped out and unable to do stuff (through a combination of stolen untaps, tap effects and soft/hard counters) and beat their face in.

Spoiler: Blue Exhaustion

Show

Lands
18 Snow-Covered Island
1 Pendelhaven
3 Quicksand

Creatures
3 Looter il-Kor
2 Martyr of Frost
4 Flying Men
3 Voidmage Prodigy
2 Drifter il-Dal
4 Infiltrator il-Kor

Spells
4 Unstable Mutation
4 Psionic Blast
4 Gigadrowse
4 Remand
4 Exhaustion

EDIT: Oh yeah, Parallax Tide had the power level errata removed. Now you can just bounce it in response to removing lands to remove lands permanently, Stifle not needed (though Stifle does accomplish the same thing, of course).

[Bucky]

1. Put in four Blood Moons.
2. ???
3. Profit.

Alternatively (or additionally):

1. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Spreading Algae
2. ???
3. Profit

...Also I guess there's landwalk.

You inspired me to brew up this Legacy monstrosity:

Spoiler

Show

Core:
4 Winter Orb
4 Delver of Secrets

2 Rishadan Port

4 Daze
4 Force of Will

Filters:
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Treasure Cruise

Supplementary mana:
4 Chrome Mox
4 Deathrite Shaman?

Supplementary Threats:
3 Cloud of Faeries?

Removal:
4 Lighting Bolt

Mana:
10 Fetchlands
4 Dual Lands
1 Island
1 Mountain

? indicates I'm not certain about the slot. Although in hindsight, Delver was possibly the wrong starting point.

tl;dr: Winter Orb, Rishadan Port + Chrome Mox, backed by Daze and a bunch of Delver stuff.

[JustPlayItLoud]

I come to you all, Magic players of the Playground, to seek your help. I played Magic a few times in middle school, but I never really liked it and still don't really. I've always preferred L5R. I'm currently trying to teach some of my friends L5R to try and expand our play group. As part of that arrangement I've agreed to play Magic with them occasionally as well. I do not, however, want to keep borrowing decks to play. I would like to build one for bring with me, but I need some help.

I want to build a deck that can do moderately well without a large money investment for chase rares and such. I don't know enough about the various deck archetypes, but I'm not too worried about anything complicated, and I like to build fairly complex L5R decks.

I don't know what deck construction/legality they follow, but I would assume what is most popular (limited?).

Mostly I just want to be able to play without embarrassing myself, and hopefully win occasionally. I don't think they're serious tournament players, so I mostly just need a deck that's mostly competent without a significant monetary investment. For any L5R players I'm thinking along the lines of how pretty much any Unicorn cavalry blitz is reasonably competent.

[Duck999]

I would ask what they play. If they have played a few years, modern seems likely. Some people just say casual and throw in any cards.

[Mystic Muse]

The other question is what your budget is. Just a general guideline.

[Tvtyrant]

I come to you all, Magic players of the Playground, to seek your help. I played Magic a few times in middle school, but I never really liked it and still don't really. I've always preferred L5R. I'm currently trying to teach some of my friends L5R to try and expand our play group. As part of that arrangement I've agreed to play Magic with them occasionally as well. I do not, however, want to keep borrowing decks to play. I would like to build one for bring with me, but I need some help.

I want to build a deck that can do moderately well without a large money investment for chase rares and such. I don't know enough about the various deck archetypes, but I'm not too worried about anything complicated, and I like to build fairly complex L5R decks.

I don't know what deck construction/legality they follow, but I would assume what is most popular (limited?).

Mostly I just want to be able to play without embarrassing myself, and hopefully win occasionally. I don't think they're serious tournament players, so I mostly just need a deck that's mostly competent without a significant monetary investment. For any L5R players I'm thinking along the lines of how pretty much any Unicorn cavalry blitz is reasonably competent.

Unless they are playing very expensive decks your best bet is probably going to be something along the lines of burn or red deck wins. Super cheap to start out, you can improve them by adding some moderately expensive cards if you need/want to later, and easy to play. They are similar but fundamentally different decks.

[JustPlayItLoud]

I would ask what they play. If they have played a few years, modern seems likely. Some people just say casual and throw in any cards.

I asked and they mostly just play casually, using whatever. They do maintain Standard legal decks but do not play in any sanctioned play. I would prefer Standard legal (this is the most common tournament format right?) just because I'm used to maintaining deck legality as a result of playing L5R.

The other question is what your budget is. Just a general guideline.

Preferably sub-$100 range. My L5R tournament Crane scout deck cost me roughly $100-150 and has never lost a non-tournament match. I would hope I can stay a little cheaper since it isn't aimed at top level play.

Unless they are playing very expensive decks your best bet is probably going to be something along the lines of burn or red deck wins. Super cheap to start out, you can improve them by adding some moderately expensive cards if you need/want to later, and easy to play. They are similar but fundamentally different decks.

If you don't mind, could you elaborate just a bit? As in: colors, cards to keep an eye out for, general play style, etc. I don't lean toward any particular style. In L5R I've generally gone with clans I liked and gone from there, but I don't know any Magic fluff. Is there an ongoing metaplot to speak of? Either way I've played everything from Shadowlands swarm/blitz to Crane scouts/archers to Scorpion dishonor to defensive and dueling honor. The only thing I've never done is enlightenment, but I'm not aware of Magic having such complicated win cons.

[Mystic Muse]

I asked and they mostly just play casually, using whatever. They do maintain Standard legal decks but do not play in any sanctioned play. I would prefer Standard legal (this is the most common tournament format right?) just because I'm used to maintaining deck legality as a result of playing L5R.

A Standard deck only remains standard legal for a limited time, because of how standard works. Sets became illegal in Standard after being in for so long, which is how the format stays fresh.

I'm not aware of Magic having such complicated win cons.

Oh, Magic has a TON of alternate wincons. It's actually kind of awesome.

[sonofzeal]

I come to you all, Magic players of the Playground, to seek your help. I played Magic a few times in middle school, but I never really liked it and still don't really. I've always preferred L5R. I'm currently trying to teach some of my friends L5R to try and expand our play group. As part of that arrangement I've agreed to play Magic with them occasionally as well. I do not, however, want to keep borrowing decks to play. I would like to build one for bring with me, but I need some help.

I want to build a deck that can do moderately well without a large money investment for chase rares and such. I don't know enough about the various deck archetypes, but I'm not too worried about anything complicated, and I like to build fairly complex L5R decks.

I don't know what deck construction/legality they follow, but I would assume what is most popular (limited?).

Mostly I just want to be able to play without embarrassing myself, and hopefully win occasionally. I don't think they're serious tournament players, so I mostly just need a deck that's mostly competent without a significant monetary investment. For any L5R players I'm thinking along the lines of how pretty much any Unicorn cavalry blitz is reasonably competent.

Depending how your friends play, there's probably a vast array that's competent and within reasonable budget if you're okay buying cards online (most are under a dollar). This leaves you open to choose what you want to play. I like "tribal" decks, themed around a particular type of creature. Like vampires? Grap a couple dozen strong vampire cards at a mixture of mana costs , and a few cards that make vampires stronger or do nifty things if you have a lot of vampires, and you've got yourself a potent deck. Substitute "vampire" for "treefolk", "ninja", "human", "elf", "beast", "soldier", "angel", "demon", etc. You name it, you can probably put together a deck for it that'll hold its own in any casual group. This won't get you up to major tournament level, but I find decks like that to be fun and surprisingly competitive in most groups.

[Tvtyrant]

If you don't mind, could you elaborate just a bit? As in: colors, cards to keep an eye out for, general play style, etc. I don't lean toward any particular style. In L5R I've generally gone with clans I liked and gone from there, but I don't know any Magic fluff. Is there an ongoing metaplot to speak of? Either way I've played everything from Shadowlands swarm/blitz to Crane scouts/archers to Scorpion dishonor to defensive and dueling honor. The only thing I've never done is enlightenment, but I'm not aware of Magic having such complicated win cons.

Standard burn/RDW is not as cheap as casual (Easy to get it under $20 in casual) but basically it works like this. Single color (red) using spells that do damage to creatures and players (lightning bolt, etc.) with oversized and often hasted red creatures. When the opponent is high on life you use your spells to kill creatures and have your creatures swing into their life, and then when they get low on life you shoot them directly with your spells to end the game.

Here is a link to a competitive red deck wins list. Here is a link to my casual/pauper red deck wins deck (not standard.)

Both of those are focused on using creatures for the kill and using your spells to clear a pathway for them to hit. That is what the term Red Deck Wins or Sligh is used to mean, burn uses more spells and less creatures.

[Ninjaman]

The first deck Tvtyrant linked to is a good suggestion, I played the deck for a while and it is quite solid. It costs around 80$, and if you remove the rabblemaster in the board (not that important) it only costs around 60$.

[Lea Plath]

Guys! Guys! Don't worry. I speak L5R.

The closest thing to Unicorn Blitz in standard is either the Mono Red Sligh deck (cheap creatures, cheap combat tricks to punch through stuff and take out life as early as possible).

Or if you feel like you want something a liiittle bit less budget but with a little bit more options to play, Jeskai Ascendancy Tokens is a thing (fast token deck which pumps all its stuff a lot).

The meta plot of magic is that there are a bunch of planes in this multiverse called the Blind Eternities. Every year, we visit a different plane or return to an old one. The on-going plots at the evil dragon planeswalker Nicol Bolas trying to regain his lost power, a group of multidimensional beings called the Eldrazi and how to stop them and a group of evil machine/people hybirds called the Phyrexians returning.

[Svata]

I hate Jeskai Ascendancy. It plus, anything with prowess, (artifacts with convoke/briber's purse where x=0), and Retraction Helix will screw your day up.

[Ninjaman]

I hate Jeskai Ascendancy. It plus, anything with prowess, (artifacts with convoke/briber's purse where x=0), and Retraction Helix will screw your day up.

I think the aggro version plays springleaf drum to go infinite.

[Lea Plath]

So...this would be a bad time to ask for deck advice? :P

So I've been playing Jeskai Combo and I'm looking to tweak my deck a bit. This is the list I'm looking to run, after feedback. I could run Dragon Mantle etc but it doesn't feel like it does enough for me, besides maybe an alt way to win.

Spoiler: Deck

Show

4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Astral Cornucopia
1 Altar of the Brood
1 Swan Song
4 Dig Through Time
4 Retraction Helix
2 Taigam's Scheming
2 Treasure Cruise
4 Commune with the Gods
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Island
1 Forest
1 Plains
4 Mana Confluence
1 Flooded Strand
3 Yavimaya Coast
1 Shivan Reef
4 Frontier Bivouac
3 Windswept Heath
1 Mountain
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Voyaging Satyr
1 Twinflame
2 Tormenting Voice
SB: 3 Swan Song
SB: 2 Negate
SB: 2 Erase
SB: 2 Nyx-Fleece Ram
SB: 1 Stubborn Denial

[sonofzeal]

I'm still struggling to put together a Phyrexia-themed deck. Any technological-themed cards (Predator Flagship, for instance) are accepted. I like the visual style for Old Phyrexia more than New, which just seems to be a bit more generically "evil", as opposed to the sci-fi leanings of Old Phyrexia which set it apart from most of the rest of MtG. So far, cards I know I want to include...

Phyrexian Arena
Phyrexian Splicer
Phyrexian Portal
Phyrexian Delver
Phyrexian Reclaimation
Phyrexian Obliterator (New, but good)
???

[IcemanJRC]

So...this would be a bad time to ask for deck advice? :P

So I've been playing Jeskai Combo and I'm looking to tweak my deck a bit. This is the list I'm looking to run, after feedback. I could run Dragon Mantle etc but it doesn't feel like it does enough for me, besides maybe an alt way to win.

Spoiler: Deck

Show

4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Astral Cornucopia
1 Altar of the Brood
1 Swan Song
4 Dig Through Time
4 Retraction Helix
2 Taigam's Scheming
2 Treasure Cruise
4 Commune with the Gods
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Island
1 Forest
1 Plains
4 Mana Confluence
1 Flooded Strand
3 Yavimaya Coast
1 Shivan Reef
4 Frontier Bivouac
3 Windswept Heath
1 Mountain
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Voyaging Satyr
1 Twinflame
2 Tormenting Voice
SB: 3 Swan Song
SB: 2 Negate
SB: 2 Erase
SB: 2 Nyx-Fleece Ram
SB: 1 Stubborn Denial

-4 Rattleclaw
-4 Astral Cornucopia
-4 Commune
-1 Satyr
-1 Twinflame

+4 Basarra Tower Archer
+2 Taigam's Scheming
+2 Tormenting Voice
+2 Treasure Cruise
+3 Briber's Purse
+1 Tormod's Crypt

Since you already don't do the Dragon Mantle combo, the fact that they make mana is largely irrelevant, so use Archer instead to have an additional Hexproof creature to target with Helix. The rest is a more aggressive dig package, Commune is pretty bad because it dumps Helix and Artifacts all the time. Also, Briber's Purse and Tormod's Crypt are just better than Cornucopia, they do stuff sometimes. When I get home I can help with the manabase also if you'd like. I just went 6-3 at GP San Antonio so I'm busy commisserating my poor performance.

[Svata]

I think the aggro version plays springleaf drum to go infinite.

That as well.