Magic the Gathering XXI: Tap Target Keg

[Fable Wright]

What sort of deck is this (What's it called I mean, Zoo? Tarmidant :X?)? I ran into it recently.

19 Creatures
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Siege Rhino
4x Birds of Paradise
3x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Dark Confidant

21 Non-Creatures
3x Liliana of the Veil
4x Lingering Souls
3x Abrupt Decay
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtsieze
4x Path to Exile
2x Maelstrom Pulse

21 Lands
1x Gavony Township
2x Forest
1x Plains
1x Swamp
2x Marsh Flats
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Windswept Heath
3x Overgrown Tomb
3x Temple Garden
1x Godless Shrine

61 Cards Total

Seems like a fairly straightforward Junk list to me, albeit much closer to the pre-Deathrite lists than I'm used to. Though are people calling Junk Abzan nowadays in Modern? Not sure.

[Shadow of the Sun]

It's a bit lower in land than most Junk lists these days- especially since most Junk lists don't run Knight of the Reliquary any more.

It looks like a cross between Junk and Big Zoo- probably running KotR over Tasigur or some bigger cards to avoid killing itself with Dark Confidant.

So 'closer to pre-Deathrite days' is probably accurate.

[gooddragon1]

At first I thought you meant junk as in the cards were bad, then I looked up junk+modern mtg and found out that it's a pretty good deck. Outside my price range though. Thanks for the identification. I can't tell the difference between aggro and junk etc.

[Shadow of the Sun]

At first I thought you meant junk as in the cards were bad, then I looked up junk+modern mtg and found out that it's a pretty good deck. Outside my price range though. Thanks for the identification. I can't tell the difference between aggro and junk etc.

Junk specifically refers to the BGW colour combination, which Wizards has decided to call Abzan. But since so many people have been playing magic for years, Junk still gets used because people remember back when it was what they knew it as.

Junk and other decks like that fit into the archetype of midrange. There are some midrange decks in Modern that are cheaper than Junk and Jund, but they're still probably too expensive for you. Grixis Control is actually a midrange deck but more on the control end of the spectrum.

[Dhavaer]

I went shopping for cards and was disappointed for the most part: they had no Bile Blights and only one Return to the Ranks. On the bright side, I got a bunch more cheap warriors to fill up Horde of Edge and Scale. Hateblades and Heroes are out, Aven Skirmishers and Mardu Shadowspears are in. I also added some Blood-Chin Ragers for extra evasion, Foul-Tongue Shrieks for life drain, a pair of Abzan Advantages for main deck enchantment removal and a second Rush of Battle.

I'd like to find a place for Battle Brawlers and maybe more Ragers, and wouldn't mind putting the Graveblades back in my main deck (they're sideboarded now, too expensive for Return), but mostly I'm fairly happy. Any advice?

[ryuplaneswalker]

What sort of deck is this (What's it called I mean, Zoo? Tarmidant :X?)? I ran into it recently.

19 Creatures
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Siege Rhino
4x Birds of Paradise
3x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Dark Confidant

21 Non-Creatures
3x Liliana of the Veil
4x Lingering Souls
3x Abrupt Decay
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtsieze
4x Path to Exile
2x Maelstrom Pulse

21 Lands
1x Gavony Township
2x Forest
1x Plains
1x Swamp
2x Marsh Flats
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Windswept Heath
3x Overgrown Tomb
3x Temple Garden
1x Godless Shrine

61 Cards Total

I called something close to that back in the first Ravnica the "Holy Trinity" since the 3 guilds that those colors are contained in are all religions, yeah the Golgari being a religion is a bit of a stretch but I recall in the books the Necromancer that was the founder had a cult of personality going before he was displaced by a Gorgon.

[Tesla_pasta]

It's a bit lower in land than most Junk lists these days- especially since most Junk lists don't run Knight of the Reliquary any more.

It looks like a cross between Junk and Big Zoo- probably running KotR over Tasigur or some bigger cards to avoid killing itself with Dark Confidant.

So 'closer to pre-Deathrite days' is probably accurate.

I'm guessing that they're relying on birds of paradise as extra mana sources to accelerate out Lilianas, KotR, and Rhino.

I'd definitely call this "Abzan" or "Rock", but not everyone is picking up the naming convention. The original name for the archetype was 'Rock' (short for The Rock and His Millions), in reference to the WWE character of the same name. Old extended BGx decks would use Derranged Hermit and Phyrexian Plaguelord as a win conditions- the Plaguelord was 'The Rock' and the Druid + squirrel tokens were the 'Millions of Fans'. The cards change, but the central stragety and colors remain the same- Green fatties backed up by whatever Black removal and hand hate fits the metagame.

Subsequent versions have used Baneslayer, Thrun, Bloodbraid, Huntmaster, Olivia, Tasigur, and others as their 'Rocks'. The most common today are 'goyf + Siege Rhino, though Huntmaster and Olivia are also becoming popular again.

[Ionbound]

So I'm thinking about getting 'From the Vault: Angels'. Mostly because I love angels, and am working on an EDH deck with Gisela as the commander. But...Are they worth $65?

[nightwyrm]

So I'm thinking about getting 'From the Vault: Angels'. Mostly because I love angels, and am working on an EDH deck with Gisela as the commander. But...Are they worth $65?

My recommendation is that if you find one for $65, take it. It's selling online for more than that.

The foil Avacyn alone is worth $30ish. And it's angels, it's a tribe that people love and collects. I can only see the value going up in the years to come.

Oh, and the art is incredible.

[Mystic Muse]

You can find them on Ebay for slightly less (One going for $63). Honestly, it really depends on what cards you actually need out of the set. Which of the cards do you actually plan on using?

[nightwyrm]

Ulamog 2.0. Now completely reanimate-able.

[Svata]

Why can I not stop giggling madly?

[Fable Wright]

Why can I not stop giggling madly?

Probably because of the card text.

[Ionbound]

You can find them on Ebay for slightly less (One going for $63). Honestly, it really depends on what cards you actually need out of the set. Which of the cards do you actually plan on using?

Most of them, actually. I want to make a Gisela EDH deck. And as it happens, most of the angels are red, white, or both. It's less that it wasn't a good buy and more that I needed to psych myself up to actually doing it.

[tgva8889]

Well, that's certainly an interesting card. I much prefer "get decked really fast" to "you don't get to have permanents."

[Dhavaer]

I made decks again.

Vampiric Constellations is all about gaining life using enchantments, and then doing damage with enchantments. Basically I saw Underworld Coinsmith and thought it looked awesome and built a deck around it. It's going out of standard soon and that makes me very, very sad. Also, I think I should put Shadows of the Past back in.Not sure what to drop, though, maybe the lamia?

Bolstering Renown rains +1/+1 counters. There isn't much else to it. Weenies become fatties and gain abilities for doing so. As you can see from the size of the maybeboard, I cut a lot of fat from this one. I still mourn the Rhox Maulers.

Any suggestions?

[Sith_Happens]

What sort of deck is this (What's it called I mean, Zoo? Tarmidant :X?)? I ran into it recently.

Either "Abzan Midrange" or "Incredibly Poor Use of Bob."

Ulamog 2.0. Now completely reanimate-able.

[Tesla_pasta]

Ulamog 2.0. Now completely reanimate-able.

It's entirely possible to 1-shot someone in limited with this. In a super slow control deck, cast it turn 13 or so, attack once, pass turn.

I can also see a tribal eldrazi commander deck using this as resource development with stuff like oblivion sower.

[tgva8889]

Yeah, I think if you get to 10 mana and get to cast an indestructible 10/10 that destroys 2 permanents in Limited, you deserve to win that game. Although I look forward to someone losing to their own Ulamog via some sort of Threaten effect on camera.

[Duck999]

And new dual lands require two or more (instead of less) lands to be out to be untapped, and they need to be basic lands.

[Ionbound]

So I made an EDH Angel Tribal deck I'm calling Angel's Rise. Any thoughts/critique/improvement suggestions would be welcome.

[tgva8889]

I'd cut Thalia, because taxing like that isn't highly effective in Commander unless you're a fast attacking deck, which you aren't because your Angels are very expensive. A 2/1 first striker isn't going to influence a Commander game for very long or very much, and the effect isn't great in the format.

I'd also cut Amulet of Vigor, because it doesn't really accelerate your mana very much. Or really do much of anything. Unless you're comboing or using this card to do some sort of massive mana value, this card could be better replaced by any other card that does something.

I would up your lands to 37 or more. You have a lot of very expensive angels, including your Commander, and not that many ways to collect additional mana sources. You're going to need to draw 7 or more mana every game to cast your Commander at a reasonable time as well as all your other flying Angels, so it's best to play a few more mana sources to ensure you draw enough.

I would probably consider including more removal spells, as it doesn't look like you have that many. Cheaper ones, instant-speed ones, and ones that kill the things you really want to kill are good choices. You don't need super-wide range of targets; even something like Reprisal or Oblivion Ring would probably help you a bit.

[unseenmage]

Our group is using the Random Commander button on www.edhrec.com for a Random Commander League.
Our league is more focused on fun as evidenced by the random element.

Spoiler: rules for those interested

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- An employee at our LGS rolls a random commander using the button of the same name at edhrec.com.
- Each player gets 20 proxies, you can proxy your commander.
- If you want to reroll your commander it will cost you half your proxies. Can be repeated. No takebacks.
- If two players want to trade commanders they can but it costs them each half their proxies. Can be repeated. No takebacks.
- Duplicate Commanders are possible. No rule against it as there is already a reroll rule in place.
- We have 1 month to build decks using the randomly assigned commanders.
- Normal Commander Banlist applies.
- Event will be 4-man pods. Unknown time limit.
- Prizes include free commander rerolls, free commander trade, maybe a free takeback (doubtful).
Edit: It was discussed that one could win more proxies but if allowed to win too many proxies then the winner would just keep winning forever, and with pretend cards no less.
- After the event the process repeats.

Notable hacks:
- Build an all colorless deck and run whatever commander you're assigned.
- Be that guy who already has a deck for each color combo and just switch commanders.

It's being discussed but seems inevitable that we'll be playing 4-man pods rather than 1v1 games. The one thing I'm not sure about is the time limit for a 4-man pod commander event.
Would we be able to get Planeswalker Points for these events? Would that make things too competitive?

Thoughts and warnings welcome. Thanks all.

[tgva8889]

Well, Planeswalker Points have no actual value besides bragging rights, so I don't see the problem with awarding them. You can get at most 1 point for one unless you run it as an FNM, which I recommend you don't do because then you're attaching prizes. I imagine instituting a time limit is mostly to make games run faster and smoother. I think that's a good idea, especially since you'll have people playing with a lot of cards they aren't familiar with. Gotta get those games finished somehow.

The biggest problem I see with this is that it could be potentially very unfun due to fairness. If someone gets Maelstrom Wanderer and someone else gets Taniwha (the second and third rolls I just made by the way), it might be a bit mismatched. This format highly favors people with larger collections, as they'll have access to a lot of different cards for a potential deck and thus be able to meet the needs of multiple different potential strategies. They'll also get more rerolls, if needing proxies isn't required.

The easiest way to prepare for this format is to have a Commander Box which contains staples in every color. That way you have a starting point of ~60 cards for every deck (your mana base plus ~20 staples), and more if you're a multicolor deck. Then you look for Commander-specific gems to fill out your remaining cards (you can even use proxies if you're lucky). If someone wants to run an all-colorless deck, they'll probably have trouble anyways since some Commanders really want specific support cards. Savra is just going to do you no good if you don't have any green or black creatures to sacrifice, for example. With a month to build, it's just going to be a better strategy to collect some default cards for every color and fill out commander-specifics with proxies.

I would give everyone a free proxy of their commander, just so that someone isn't benefited from more from rolling a Commander they already have while someone else rolls a Xiahou Dun that they could never hope to own.

[DanaK]

So, with all the new Battle for Zendikar spoilers coming out…

Spoiler: Spoilers

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I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the title for "Sweat" and a certain band of crayon-drawn adventurers…
"Oath of the Gatewatch"… with a group of adventurers planeswalkers presumably guarding seals that hold world-destroying beasts. I'm just making conjecture here, but the similarity really made me pause.

[Duck999]

It was determined a bit ago that we didn't need to spoiler spoilers in this thread.
Thoughts:
1) I find it strange that colorless creatures have colored abilities. Are those probably from before they got taking over by eldrazi?
2) Why Eldrazi Scions now? To show they are stronger (being 1/1s instead of 0/1s)?

[ryuplaneswalker]

1) I find it strange that colorless creatures have colored abilities. Are those probably from before they got taking over by eldrazi?

I think it is the Eldrazi consuming the land and getting power from it, in the fluff Land does contain mana, Zendikar has some really odd mana in it so it might be affecting them.

[Svata]

Sounds about right.

[tgva8889]

2) Why Eldrazi Scions now? To show they are stronger (being 1/1s instead of 0/1s)?

Probably mostly that. I imagine that they're aiming to make this format a bit more aggressive than Rise, so they'd rather have tokens that can attack rather than just block (which was part of why Rise was such a slow, battlecruiser-style draft format). Growing strength is also a thing. They wanted to change the creature type to not mix up the tokens.

I wonder if we'll see any of the Eldrazi Drones we saw before. There were a bunch of Drones in Rise that were colored Eldrazi.

[Duos]

Probably mostly that. I imagine that they're aiming to make this format a bit more aggressive than Rise, so they'd rather have tokens that can attack rather than just block (which was part of why Rise was such a slow, battlecruiser-style draft format). Growing strength is also a thing. They wanted to change the creature type to not mix up the tokens.

I wonder if we'll see any of the Eldrazi Drones we saw before. There were a bunch of Drones in Rise that were colored Eldrazi.

Ask, and ye shall receive.

Spoiler

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Drone; yes. Colored; no. MaRo said at PAX that the eldrazi were all going to be colorless this time around, I believe, since that represents them growing strong enough to drain nearby mana of its power.