Magic the Gathering XXII: Where Puns Go to Die

[solidork]

While I do like the idea of a Bolas-exclusive support card, Dark Intimations doesn't quite ring the bell for me as much as Cruel Ultimatum did. And it seems like it's difficult to build 3-color decks in Standard (am I right with this?)

I will probably first try a Modern Cruel Control-ish something. Thanks for the advice!

One of the more popular decks in standard is three color energy (red, blue and green is known as RUG (Black gets to be abbreviated as B, so Blue is U) or Temur, after the R/U/G faction from Kahns of Tarkir) but it is taking advantage of the trio of Servant of the Conduit, Attune with Aether and Aether Hub along side a bunch of other cards that care about energy.

[solidork]

If you would consider Magic Online, then the Penny Dreadful custom format, while Bolas isn't legal in it, has a quite powerful deck which regularly places in tournaments, which is built around the combo of Cruel Ultimatum and Living Lore. Penny Dreadful is a format where the only legal cards are those that cost 0.01 tix (~$0.01) at the start of each season, so it's very cheap to get into. It is only really played on MTGO though, so if you want to play paper magic it won't be much help.

https://pennydreadfulmagic.com/about/

Example of a tournament winning Cruel Ultimatum list:

https://pennydreadfulmagic.com/decks/3852/

This may be my new favorite format, I looked at the list of cards by frequency and its pretty much a greatest hits of cards I've been brewing with since I got got back into Magic.

[Gastronomie]

If you would consider Magic Online, then the Penny Dreadful custom format, while Bolas isn't legal in it, has a quite powerful deck which regularly places in tournaments, which is built around the combo of Cruel Ultimatum and Living Lore. Penny Dreadful is a format where the only legal cards are those that cost 0.01 tix (~$0.01) at the start of each season, so it's very cheap to get into. It is only really played on MTGO though, so if you want to play paper magic it won't be much help.

https://pennydreadfulmagic.com/about/

Example of a tournament winning Cruel Ultimatum list:

https://pennydreadfulmagic.com/decks/3852/

Well, I so far only plan to play with IRL friends, so I think I might not play Magic Online. The format itself does seem very interesting, as well as the deck itself, though. Thanks!

One of the more popular decks in standard is three color energy (red, blue and green is known as RUG (Black gets to be abbreviated as B, so Blue is U) or Temur, after the R/U/G faction from Kahns of Tarkir) but it is taking advantage of the trio of Servant of the Conduit, Attune with Aether and Aether Hub along side a bunch of other cards that care about energy.

I do love these sorts of synergetic cards, but I assume it's difficult to throw these into a Grixis deck when there's so much Green? That gimmick does seem fun, so after trying Grixis I might try that out too as well. Thanks~

BTW, I plan to create an Eldrazi deck in addition to Nicol Bolas.dek. Probably Modern, because I plan to use the Urza lands for lamp strategies. I really am interested in playing big, scary monsters (I've played other card games in the past, but almost all my decks revolved around heavy trump cards), and the Eldrazi bosses seem really appealing to me, both in terms of effects and their flavor/illustration.

[Fable Wright]

BTW, I plan to create an Eldrazi deck in addition to Nicol Bolas.dek. Probably Modern, because I plan to use the Urza lands for lamp strategies. I really am interested in playing big, scary monsters (I've played other card games in the past, but almost all my decks revolved around heavy trump cards), and the Eldrazi bosses seem really appealing to me, both in terms of effects and their flavor/illustration.

In standard, that deck was Eldrazi Green; Joroga Treespeaker, Overgrown Battlement, and Primeval Titan were the main ramp engine for the deck, with a bit of Summoning Trap and Green Sun's Zenith to ramp better. In Modern, that deck is R/G Tron, with Sylvan Scrying, Expedition Map, and Urzatron to assemble all the pieces by turn 4, using Chromatic Star/Chromatic Sphere and Grove of the Burnwillows to get colored mana, and Ancient Stirrings to dig up the missing pieces, whether they're lands or big threats.

[LastCenturion]

I've created a deck that might actually maybe work? I haven't tested it yet, but it feels somewhat viable. Here's a link (mtggoldfish) to the list. My game plan is to use Amulet of Vigor with fast land strategies (Summer Bloom et al) to get a bunch of lands on the battlefield quickly, which we can sac to Scapeshift to get lots of Urza lands and hardcast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. In theory, we can hardcast her on turn three. It's complicated, but it's possible.

Spoiler: The dream

Show

Turn one exile Simian Spirit Guide, play Amulet of Vigor. Drop a Gruul Turf, float GR and pick it back up. Play Summer Bloom, then drop two Forests and a Gruul Turf, picking up a Forest, and play Rites of Flourishing. Pass.

EOT:
Battlefield: Forest, Gruul Turf, Amulet of Vigor, Rites of Flourishing
Exile: Simian Spirit Guide
Graveyard: Summer Bloom
Hand: Forest

Turn two draw two cards, playing two Forests. Pass.

EOT:
Battlefield: Forest, Forest, Forest, Gruul Turf, Amulet of Vigor, Rites of Flourishing
Exile: SSG
Graveyard: Bloom
Hand: Forest

Turn three draw two cards, drop a Forest, tap out (MP: G G G G GR), drop Scapeshift (MP: GR). Sacrifice everything, search for 3 Urza's Tower, one Urza's Mine, and one Urza's Power Plant. Tap out again (MP: 13GR) and cast Emrakul. Her cast trigger resolves, pass the turn to yourself.

EOT:
Battlefield: Urza's Tower, Urza's Tower, Urza's Tower, Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant, Amulet of Vigor, Rites of Flourishing, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Exile: SSG
Graveyard, Bloom, Forest, Forest, Forest, Forest, Turf, Scapeshift
Hand: Hellbent

It's fairly resilient, and as far as I can tell has decent matchups against midrangey decks. I'm worried I'm overlooking something in the sideboard, though, so if advice can be given there I'm all for it. Creeping Corrosion, maybe?

[Mystic Muse]

I've created a deck that might actually maybe work? I haven't tested it yet, but it feels somewhat viable. Here's a link (mtggoldfish) to the list. My game plan is to use Amulet of Vigor with fast land strategies (Summer Bloom et al) to get a bunch of lands on the battlefield quickly, which we can sac to Scapeshift to get lots of Urza lands and hardcast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. In theory, we can hardcast her on turn three. It's complicated, but it's possible.

Spoiler: The dream

Show

Turn one exile Simian Spirit Guide, play Amulet of Vigor. Drop a Gruul Turf, float GR and pick it back up. Play Summer Bloom, then drop two Forests and a Gruul Turf, picking up a Forest, and play Rites of Flourishing. Pass.

EOT:
Battlefield: Forest, Gruul Turf, Amulet of Vigor, Rites of Flourishing
Exile: Simian Spirit Guide
Graveyard: Summer Bloom
Hand: Forest

Turn two draw two cards, playing two Forests. Pass.

EOT:
Battlefield: Forest, Forest, Forest, Gruul Turf, Amulet of Vigor, Rites of Flourishing
Exile: SSG
Graveyard: Bloom
Hand: Forest

Turn three draw two cards, drop a Forest, tap out (MP: G G G G GR), drop Scapeshift (MP: GR). Sacrifice everything, search for 3 Urza's Tower, one Urza's Mine, and one Urza's Power Plant. Tap out again (MP: 13GR) and cast Emrakul. Her cast trigger resolves, pass the turn to yourself.

EOT:
Battlefield: Urza's Tower, Urza's Tower, Urza's Tower, Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant, Amulet of Vigor, Rites of Flourishing, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Exile: SSG
Graveyard, Bloom, Forest, Forest, Forest, Forest, Turf, Scapeshift
Hand: Hellbent

It's fairly resilient, and as far as I can tell has decent matchups against midrangey decks. I'm worried I'm overlooking something in the sideboard, though, so if advice can be given there I'm all for it. Creeping Corrosion, maybe?

Summer Bloom is banned in Modern. Specifically because of decks like this, actually.

[LastCenturion]

Summer Bloom is banned in Modern. Specifically because of decks like this, actually.

Huh. TIL. Any suggestions on replacing it? Azusa, maybe? Or maybe just fill out the playsets of Farseek and Edge of Autumn. I guess the turn 3 Emrakul dream is dead.

[The_Admiral]

I've been playing MTG for a yearish now. This is the current edition of my EDH deck.

any opinions?

[Siosilvar]

Hard to give opinions on a broken link.

[The_Admiral]

what? OOooh Fixed the link, apparantly I forgot to set it to public.

[Tvtyrant]

what? OOooh Fixed the link, apparantly I forgot to set it to public.

1. What is your budget? Always put this in.

Biggest questions I have are why are you using those particular counterspells and why you aren't running more control magic effects? In multiplayer having better, more expensive counterspells is better than 1-2 mana ones you are going to have difficulty getting value out of, and other people will just give you critters.

List of better counterspells:

Spoiler

Show

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=423698
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=382255
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=429870
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=129022
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=417625
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=416865
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=407571
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=430668

Also what does your party say about infinite combos or extra turns?

[The_Admiral]

1. What is your budget? Always put this in.

Biggest questions I have are why are you using those particular counterspells and why you aren't running more control magic effects? In multiplayer having better, more expensive counterspells is better than 1-2 mana ones you are going to have difficulty getting value out of, and other people will just give you critters.

List of better counterspells:

Spoiler

Show

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=423698
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=382255
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=429870
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=129022
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=417625
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=416865
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=407571
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=430668

Also what does your party say about infinite combos or extra turns?

Ahh sorry, it's an extra 100-150 USD on top of the current list, the budget that is. Main reason I'm running the 2-1 mana counterspells is because I don't want to have to leave 4 mana open to protect my wincon or stop someone from going off. They're okay with infinite combos. Essentially I'm not running Mother May I, I'm running, "Can I win this turn and what stops me from doing so?"

[Svata]

Disdainful Stroke and Stubborn Denial can be very useful in Commander.

[Turalisj]

At this point I'm considering gaddog teeg to counter combo decks....

[The_Admiral]

At this point I'm considering gaddog teeg to counter combo decks....

Why? Combos are fun and fair. :P

[geonova]

At this point I'm considering gaddog teeg to counter combo decks....

Luckily Teeg doesn't counter bloodchief/mindcrank combo (barring the removal the deck actually runs).

[tgva8889]

The best way to counter combos is the social contract. Discuss with your friends the type of game you want to play. Then if they disagree with your assessment, you have a few options. You can either try to convince them (good luck), you can overcompensate and play to the meta they "say" they want (by playing some ludicrous and "totally fair" combo deck), you can find a new group entirely, or you can just accept that this is the life you live and you won't get to play the Commander you want.

I've seriously considered making a "you don't get to have fun deck" to help explain to people why I don't like certain aspects of Commander. I'm not sure if it would work, but sometimes I just hate people.

[The_Admiral]

The best way to counter combos is the social contract. Discuss with your friends the type of game you want to play. Then if they disagree with your assessment, you have a few options. You can either try to convince them (good luck), you can overcompensate and play to the meta they "say" they want (by playing some ludicrous and "totally fair" combo deck), you can find a new group entirely, or you can just accept that this is the life you live and you won't get to play the Commander you want.

I've seriously considered making a "you don't get to have fun deck" to help explain to people why I don't like certain aspects of Commander. I'm not sure if it would work, but sometimes I just hate people.

Well yeah I started playing in a meta with a mostly tuned Yisan, a near complete Garbiter, Animar Combo and the like. I started playing magic in a CEDH meta.

[tgva8889]

I certainly wouldn't be playing in that meta, so I can't offer any actual constructive advice besides "you should just be trying to combo off on turn 3 every game because that's trivial, even through disruption for some decks." Commander is an easily broken format, if people are going to try to play the best things you may as well break it in half as hard as possible.

[Bucky]

Green in Ixalan

Spoiler

Show

...looks very sad. It doesn't get much color fixing or ramp, while UBR does. And the next-best ramp after Treasures is in transform artifacts.

[The_Admiral]

Green in Ixalan

Spoiler

Show

...looks very sad. It doesn't get much color fixing or ramp, while UBR does. And the next-best ramp after Treasures is in transform artifacts.

Bah our goal in Ixilan should be going for a pirate treasure win. :P

[Gauntlet]

Green has a ton of dinosaurs with high mana costs. I'd be very surprised if there weren't a reasonable number of decent ramp cards.

[JBPuffin]

Got bored and checked the Magic website...huh. Next set features a Hearthstone mechanic, the return of raid, and action word "get a land on your hand or a +1/+1 with the possible cost of a card." That scared me before the "multiple Jaces" thing appeared. Oh man, that'll turn some folk in their graves...

[Bucky]

As if Doubling Season planeswalker decks needed an easier way to go infinite

[Shadow of the Sun]

Since I generally prefer to pretend Heathstone exists, what is the "Hearthstone mechanic"?

Also Doubling Season decks are just sort of generically bad in the first place; having infinite Jaces doesn't make them any better. I just want to do it against one of my friends, who despises Jace.

[tonberrian]

Since I generally prefer to pretend Heathstone exists, what is the "Hearthstone mechanic"?

Also Doubling Season decks are just sort of generically bad in the first place; having infinite Jaces doesn't make them any better. I just want to do it against one of my friends, who despises Jace.

I guess it's Enrage, but given the huge engine differences between Magic and Hearthstone, Enrage in Magic is much more flexible and interesting than in Hearthstone, which can only passively buff minions that have damage on them (and damage doesn't go away at end of turn). In Magic you can do things like damage other creatures and target things.

[tgva8889]

It's mostly funny that Jace makes infinite Jaces with Doubling Season, which means you just have several million Jaces. Also probably some illusions afterwards, but still, a million Jaces.

[Gauntlet]

Let's be honest, if you have Doubling Season you probably have better things to be going infinite with than new Jace. After all, it's not like we are lacking in planeswalkers that do absurd things with doubling season, and this Jace gives your opponent a whole turn before he actually kills them. Jace AoT is where it's at.

They actually talked about Jace being a polarising character recently. The basic idea was this:

- If you like Jace, you're happy - this set's story is about Jace.
- If you don't like Jace, you're happy - Jace is having an awful time.

The first story article on the site has gone up, incidentally, and actually wasn't bad, in my opinion. Here's hoping Jace becomes a bit less smug as a result, which seems like a plausible outcome.

[Shadow of the Sun]

I'm hoping that we'll see less focus on the main 5 planeswalkers since they got stomped on by Big Daddy Bolas.

...admittedly, going straight into a Jace block after Bolas laid the smackdown causes a small amount of bile for me, but I'm okay since everything else in the set is sweet, what with the pirates, dinosaurs, and a bunch of good reprints.

I am sad that it's been confirmed that we're not getting any Vampirates, though.

[Svata]

Let's be honest, if you have Doubling Season you probably have better things to be going infinite with than new Jace.

I'd far rather use Samut. Go get Emrakul, The Aeons Torn and Dragonlord Kolaghan. Swing 21 in the air immediately. Annhilate 6.