Magic the Gathering XXII: Where Puns Go to Die

[Gauntlet]

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

Yeah if you get Samut there are plenty of targets that just end the game immediately. Kiki-Jiki + Zealous Conscripts if you want to stay straight green-red (you also get to steal all your opponents' permanents). Samut -> Kiki-Jiki + Felidar Guardian makes infinite creatures and lets you put every creature and walker in your deck into play, too.

[Bucky]

Walking Ballista + Dinosaurs = mega value?

[ImperiousLeader]

I'm just glad to see a Jace more focused on his gift with illusions, over all the previous incarnations that were more mind mage.

[tgva8889]

I mean, can't Samut get...Jace, Architect of Thought? Then you do the Jace thing? Then you don't have to even bother playing Emrakul in your deck. Samut gets Jace and Samut, Jace gets another Season, Samut gets Jace and Samut, eventually you end with whatever ludicrous planeswalker strikes your fancy.

[Togath]

So... been away a... wow. Quite a while now. But I think I want to get pack in to magic. Given I've been away a while, I'm thinking commander/EDH might be worth trying to make a deck for, since it lets me use older cards.
Is it weird that I kind of want to make a deck with Jacques le Vert as the commander? I mean, pretty bad stats(I think? Mostly played Hearthstone and Shadowverse these past few years), but his effect seems like it could be fun if he'll be seeing play a lot.
Obviously not the best of decks, but he's one of the few green legendaries I have and I kind of enjoy the novelty of using obscure/old cards sometimes. Any advice for stuff that might be fun alongside him?
I'd also considered trying Kami of the Cresent Moon and perhaps going for a combo heavy or mill-ish deck.

[mythmonster2]

So... been away a... wow. Quite a while now. But I think I want to get pack in to magic. Given I've been away a while, I'm thinking commander/EDH might be worth trying to make a deck for, since it lets me use older cards.
Is it weird that I kind of want to make a deck with Jacques le Vert as the commander? I mean, pretty bad stats(I think? Mostly played Hearthstone and Shadowverse these past few years), but his effect seems like it could be fun if he'll be seeing play a lot.
Obviously not the best of decks, but he's one of the few green legendaries I have and I kind of enjoy the novelty of using obscure/old cards sometimes. Any advice for stuff that might be fun alongside him?
I'd also considered trying Kami of the Cresent Moon and perhaps going for a combo heavy or mill-ish deck.

A three color, 4 mana 3/4 isn't the best, yeah, especially considering its ability is only for green creatures. Still, Assault Formation could be a fun card to pick up, though you'd have a tough time guaranteeing drawing it out of the 99.
Edit: And you could actually play Force of Savagery! If you wanna go all-in on toughness boosting for the hell of it, you could also pick up Leyline of Vitality and Veteran Armorer. Painter's Servant lets you bypass the green restriction by making EVERYTHING green.

[tilionvevfet]

Painter's Servant lets you bypass the green restriction by making EVERYTHING green.

Sadly, Painter's Servant is banned in commander.

[Svata]

for good reason.

[tgva8889]

I mean, not as good reason as just banning Iona and Grindstone.

[Svata]

Why ban 2 cards that are only oppressive when combined with this one, when you can just ban the one that also has ridiculous potential to combo with pretty much everything else too? Painter's Servant was the right card to ban. Keep the banned list as small as possible. Ban the combo ENABLER, not the payoff. It'll save you a lot of time banning payoffs in the future every time a new one is printed. Same reason Pod had to go in Modern.

[tgva8889]

The thing is, Iona is just not a card you should probably be playing with anyways, because it's just not fun. And Grindstone (and I guess Sphinx's Tutelage?) don't really do anything if you're not comboing, so they're not played anyways so banning them doesn't really hurt anyone. Meanwhile Painter's Servant can be used in a bunch of entirely reasonable, not broken, fun ways.

Sure, it's probably better to ban Painter's Servant, but the actual effect is cool, and if they ever do it again, you'll have to ban that too. They do like to repeat effects, so I can easily imagine it coming up again and then we have to decide how much we care. It's not like this infinite combo is more ridiculous than the other ones that exist in the format, after all, so why are we banning this combo and not the other ones?

[Svata]

Because both halves are artifacts, which are notoriously easy to tutor/cheat out/recur, and both are very cheap mana-wise. It's probably the easiest to assemble and cheapest combo that there is. Also, you can't combo with Tutelage, as it specifies nonlands. And I've known people to play Grindstone in dedicated Mill decks, because a large percentage of the meta they regularly played in was mono or dual color. And one guy had a Krenko deck with a Goblin Recruiter. I borrowed their deck once, and managed to mill away all of their gas.


Also: is Iona annoying? Sure, very. But. Unless you're monocolored and they choose your color, there are ways out in every color. She's a creature, which is the easiest type of permanent to remove. Heck, someone might do it incidentally at some point by wiping the board. Commander IS a multiplayer format after all.

[tgva8889]

It doesn't really fix the problem I've stated, which is that EDH is already a combo format if you want it to be, so banning this particular combo piece doesn't really change that if that's what people want to do. It's trivially easy to win on turn 3 if you want, probably reasonable to win on turn 2, I haven't watched ridiculous combo games in a while. Everyone has to come prepared if they don't want that to happen, so it shouldn't really matter what combos are legal if any are at all. There's lots of fun things one can do with Painter's Servant, but we'll probably never know.

There are "ways out" of every card. There are ways out of all the cards on the banned list. That doesn't really mean it a card shouldn't be banned. I'm fine with Iona not being banned in particular because most people don't really play it anyways, but your argument doesn't really fly in this Vintage-legal format. Is it worth allowing a card that makes one player not play the game at all? I don't know that that's the case. We've certainly banned other cards that do just that.

[The_Admiral]

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/izzet...-new-standard/ so I've built this after noticing the local standard meta was about emptying hands into giant 5/5 monsters by turn 5. I'm hoping to use it to shut down the gameplan and grind out hand and board advantage with counterspells and removal sealing the deal with glorybringers to the face.

Also as for Iona, nah, I run Teferi Chain Veil, I have no right to complain if an Iona drops and names Blue. :P

[Ionbound]

Opinion on a Licia deck? It's something I brewed up after seeing her spoiler card and falling in love.

Spoiler: Raw Decklist

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COMMANDER: Licia, Sanguine Tribune
Land (35)
1x Akoum Refuge
1x Arid Mesa
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Boros Garrison
1x Cabal Coffers
1x Canyon Slough
1x Command Tower
1x Dragonskull Summit
1x Fetid Heath
1x Graven Cairns
1x Isolated Chapel
1x Marsh Flats
3x Mountain
1x Nomad Outpost
1x Orzhov Basilica
2x Plains
1x Rakdos Carnarium
1x Rocky Tar Pit
1x Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
4x Swamp
1x Tainted Field
1x Tainted Peak
1x Temple of Malice
1x Temple of Silence
1x Temple of the False God
1x Temple of Triumph
1x Transguild Promenade
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Enchantment (4)
1x Exquisite Blood
1x Necropotence
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Sanguine Bond
Artifact (24)
1x Aetherflux Reservoir
1x Basalt Monolith
1x Boros Signet
1x Charcoal Diamond
1x Chrome Mox
1x Doubling Cube
1x Dreamstone Hedron
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Hedron Archive
1x Helm of Awakening
1x Lashwrithe
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mind Stone
1x Orzhov Signet
1x Paradox Engine
1x Rakdos Signet
1x Scroll Rack
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Veinfire Borderpost
1x Whispersilk Cloak
Instant (7)
1x Ad Nauseam
1x Cabal Ritual
1x Dark Ritual
1x Pyroblast
1x Seething Song
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Vampiric Tutor
Planeswalker (3)
1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
1x Sorin Markov
Sorcery (20)
1x Austere Command
1x Beseech the Queen
1x Dark Petition
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Diabolic Revelation
1x Diabolic Tutor
1x Exsanguinate
1x Gamble
1x Incendiary Command
1x Increasing Ambition
1x Mana Geyser
1x Mizzix's Mastery
1x Past in Flames
1x Profane Command
1x Reforge the Soul
1x Steelshaper's Gift
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Toxic Deluge
1x Vandalblast
1x Yawgmoth's Will
Creature (6)
1x Agent of Stromgald
1x Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1x Bog Initiate
1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
1x Neheb, the Eternal
1x Serra Ascendant

[Techwarrior]

As far as the standard deck, I'm not sure I see the reasoning behind the Lightning Strikes, in particular over the 4th Lightning. You're not going to be presssuring their life total quickly, especially with Fumarole leaving the format, so the face damage won't usually help. Even if you were, 3 is only going to be changing your clock in fringe situations where they're taking pain off of their own abilities. As a removal spell, Abrade is strictly better, as it does the same 3 to a creature or shatters, which matters against opposing control decks (Gearhulk) and various other targets.

The other question I have is in your finisher, Glorybringer is a great card, but it's so hard to play in a draw-go control deck as you have to tap the 5 mana on your own turn. Gearhulk (while being an artifact) has flash and nets you a spell from your yard, while killing your opinion in 5 damage chunks as opposed to 4, this seems small, but a 4 turn clock is significantly different from a 5 turn clock.

If big-mana creature decks are your main concern, the Unsummon and Spell Pierces really aren't helping your gameplan either. Spell Pierce is not a control card, and Unsummon is a card that trades card advantage to help you win a damage race, which isn't what a control deck wants to be doing. They're both tempo (think Delver, or modern Merfolk) cards. I would probably just run 3-4 Dissolve in place of them.

As far as your sideboard goes, you should look to be trying to figure out what problems those cards are solving, because in general you'll be siding out answers that are bad in certain matchups (removal against New Perspectives) for answers that are great or lock pieces that don't let your opponent do their thing. Essence Scatter is a good example of this, with your remaining two being in the sideboard, you can bring those in against the decks playing the glorybringers and the like.

A couple of last notes, Highland Lake (Amonkhet) is just better than Evolving Wilds if you aren't trying to turn on Revolt or splash a third color (most commonly Black for Bolas) and you have a 5th copy of negate in your sideboard. I've been playing a lot of blue control since Copter standard, so if you have any other questions or suggestions, feel free. I wouldn't say I'm the best player ever, but I have been playing a lot of this standard.

[The_Admiral]

As far as the standard deck, I'm not sure I see the reasoning behind the Lightning Strikes, in particular over the 4th Lightning. You're not going to be presssuring their life total quickly, especially with Fumarole leaving the format, so the face damage won't usually help. Even if you were, 3 is only going to be changing your clock in fringe situations where they're taking pain off of their own abilities. As a removal spell, Abrade is strictly better, as it does the same 3 to a creature or shatters, which matters against opposing control decks (Gearhulk) and various other targets.

The other question I have is in your finisher, Glorybringer is a great card, but it's so hard to play in a draw-go control deck as you have to tap the 5 mana on your own turn. Gearhulk (while being an artifact) has flash and nets you a spell from your yard, while killing your opinion in 5 damage chunks as opposed to 4, this seems small, but a 4 turn clock is significantly different from a 5 turn clock.

If big-mana creature decks are your main concern, the Unsummon and Spell Pierces really aren't helping your gameplan either. Spell Pierce is not a control card, and Unsummon is a card that trades card advantage to help you win a damage race, which isn't what a control deck wants to be doing. They're both tempo (think Delver, or modern Merfolk) cards. I would probably just run 3-4 Dissolve in place of them.

As far as your sideboard goes, you should look to be trying to figure out what problems those cards are solving, because in general you'll be siding out answers that are bad in certain matchups (removal against New Perspectives) for answers that are great or lock pieces that don't let your opponent do their thing. Essence Scatter is a good example of this, with your remaining two being in the sideboard, you can bring those in against the decks playing the glorybringers and the like.

A couple of last notes, Highland Lake (Amonkhet) is just better than Evolving Wilds if you aren't trying to turn on Revolt or splash a third color (most commonly Black for Bolas) and you have a 5th copy of negate in your sideboard. I've been playing a lot of blue control since Copter standard, so if you have any other questions or suggestions, feel free. I wouldn't say I'm the best player ever, but I have been playing a lot of this standard.

Thanks I normally play combo stax in EDH so I'm not very familiar with this thing. I should cut strikes for Abrade? Also Gearhulk isn't in the deck because it's 20 usd a pop, Sadly buying Gearhulks will dig into the cash for my main EDH deck.

Fair, to the highland lake, I've been trying to force my deck to shrink. As for suggestions, Cryptic Drake is it playable?

[Bucky]

Ixalan has an obvious single-set combo.

Spoiler

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3x Hostage Taker + Verdant Sun's Avatar => Infinite Life. The classic Champion loop is back.

For infinite damage, replace the Avatar with River Sneak and add Arcane Adaptation.

[Svata]

loadingreadyrun's Pre-prerelease for ixalan is going on right now! Do you like sealed? go watch it!

https://www.twitch.tv/loadingreadyrun (also, you get to see the cards being played and actually interacting before other people, so that'll be useful for your pre-release ext week)

[Androgeus]

Ixalan has an obvious single-set combo.

Spoiler

Show

3x Hostage Taker + Verdant Sun's Avatar => Infinite Life. The classic Champion loop is back.

For infinite damage, replace the Avatar with River Sneak and add Arcane Adaptation.

At least they errataed it so you need 3 hostage takers instead of just 1.

[ImperiousLeader]

So, weird question, is mill viable in standard? I've noticed that I've managed to get from various sealed and drafting nearly a complete set of Fraying Sanity. I don't play standard, and haven't really thought about it, but I'm now vaguely intrigued.

[Shadow of the Sun]

Depends what you mean by "viable". I don't think you'll be able to win a GP with mill, but you could probably do reasonably well at a more casual FNM.

The biggest issue is that mill is usually just worse Burn and this is one of the most RDW oriented standards in quite a while.

[Dhavaer]

So, weird question, is mill viable in standard? I've noticed that I've managed to get from various sealed and drafting nearly a complete set of Fraying Sanity. I don't play standard, and haven't really thought about it, but I'm now vaguely intrigued.

It will be pretty good until next Friday when Startled Awake rotates. Ixalan doesn't have any good mill cards, unfortunately.

[Silfir]

Ixalan doesn't have any good mill cards, unfortunately.

Well, it does have Fleet Swallower, the 7 mana 6/6 that mills half your opponent's library rounded up, and happens to form a two-card auto-win combo with Fraying Sanity. It may not be good, per se, but at least worth mentioning!

Yes, there is the small matter of having to ramp up to seven mana to play it... Also for 5 mana, Liliana, Death's Majesty can straight up reanimate it. For nine mana spread over two turns, you can fetch its effect with the Scarab God. God-Pharaoh's Gift costs 7, but it can itself be cheated into play - though there probably is a very good reason nobody does it!

So there could be a ridiculous but kind of sick self-mill deck that starts by getting the Swallower and a bunch of other creatures in your own graveyard with cards like Champion of Wits, Strategic Planning or just straight up Minister of Inquiries (for bonus jank points, use Perpetual Timepiece), then activates Gate to the Afterlife to get an early God-Pharaoh's Gift from your deck, and kills your opponent in the same turn provided you have the Fraying Sanity out.

The boring, and much better alternative would be a U/B combo mill deck that uses Liliana, Death's Majesty, since she is actually a good Magic card, doesn't require the additional five creatures in your graveyard that the Gate does, and is twice as good at self-milling (but unlike the Gate can't discard a Swallower in your hand) while throwing up zombies to protect herself. You could put in the Scarab God as well. The big weakness of the Lilly plan is that she can't give the thing Haste like Gift does, so your opponent gets to react.

What's unlikely to work is a straight-up mill deck that doesn't try to win with the Swallower; the loss of Manic Scribe and Startled Awake are hard to work around. Fraying Sanity can boost your Minister of Inquiries and Compelling Arguments, but you'll end up filling your deck with so many subpar milling cards that you'll likely just die.

[Svata]

Went 3-1 at the Prerelease. 15th out of 45 people (not counting the ones who dropped over the course of the day).

Spoiler: deck

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[Ninjaman]

Went 4-1 out of 13 people (record low number). I opened a Vraska as my promo and ended up playing BW vampires splash Vraska.

[tgva8889]

I learned that Repeating Barrage is a completely bonkers card. I cast that card about 12 times during my prerelease, and found that I just wanted to slowly turn all my creatures into Repeating Barrages.

[Ninjaman]

I learned that Repeating Barrage is a completely bonkers card. I cast that card about 12 times during my prerelease, and found that I just wanted to slowly turn all my creatures into Repeating Barrages.

I don't know how I overlooked that card existing, looking at it now I can see it being good.

[Svata]

Raid Hammer of Bogardan is pretty sweet, yeah.

[Gastronomie]

I have a question: If you use Oath of Druids and flip Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger (thus "putting it onto the battlefield"), would its "when cast~" effect activate?