Magic the Gathering XXII: Where Puns Go to Die

[ryuplaneswalker]

I remember MTGSalvation did a write-up of the Weatherlight Saga a while back and kept a running tally of global cataclysms and other massive devastating events that Urza caused. IIRC, it got close to double digits.
Edit: I just checked and it was five: the Sylex Blast, collapsing Serra's Realm, destroying the Phyrexian sleeper agents by causing everyone on Dominaria to have excruciating headaches, fracturing the time stream on Tolaria, and finally the use of the Legacy Weapon. They didn't count him bringing the initial Phyrexian corruption to Serra's Realm, the soul bombs used on Phyrexia or indirectly causing the obliteration of Tolaria because of his insensitive douchery towards Barrin.

Add to the pool, "Getting all but 2 of his bloodlines projects Famlicided" and "Causing Crovax" since Crovax and Gerrard were the only two remaining Bloodlines, and the Phyrexians decided to make Selena specifically to Corrupt him.

[Dhavaer]

* Markov Dreadknight, as expected, is an absolute house. Bit of advice for anyone playing with him: Do not pump him up before he hits if you have a Madness card in hand. Let him go through and use him to give the Madness card flash. You might lose a few points of damage, but the benefits of instant speed are too numerous to count.

Can you explain this in a little more detail? I don't think I'm following.

[Androgeus]

Can you explain this in a little more detail? I don't think I'm following.

Took me a minute to work out what fable meant. I think he's saying, don't just activate Dreadknight to do more damage, save the ability so you can use it on your opponents turn and respond to things they do with madness cards.

[Ebon_Drake]

Random question....

How many named planes are there? I count 43 that have Plane cards for them, but that's probably not a full list.

Alternatively, how many significant planes are there - planes in which a plotline or expansion set has been centered, planes that a veteran player would know something about? Alara, Dominaria, Innistrad, Kamigawa, Theros, Lorwyn, Shadowmoor, Phyrexia New Phyrexia, Mirrodin, Rath, Ravnica, Shandalar, Zendikar, Tarkir... those are about all I'd recognize in passing. Any others?

Just thinking about this again and looking over the locations on the Plane cards, there's also the old World Enchantments that were an early attempt at something similar to planechase - the idea behind the rules on them was that casting a World Enchantment was effectively taking the battle to a new plane, which is also why they tend to affect both players equally. The actual cards are a mixed bag and don't all properly deliver on that concept: the likes of Koskun Falls and Pillar Tombs of Aku are just places within a plane, the likes of Concordant Crossroads and Caverns of Despair could be anywhere, while the likes of Revelation and Mystic Decree just seem like regular spells that have had the World supertype tacked on.

However, I'd say Arboria, The Abyss, In the Eye of Chaos, Eye of Singularity, Living Plane, Nether Void, Storm World and Teferi's Realm are all either depicting different planes, or the spaces between planes in the Blind Eternities. You could possibly add Chaosphere, Land's Edge, Null Chamber, Forsaken Wastes and Elkin Lair too. YMMV on what the heck the rest of them are meant to be depicting.

[Ionbound]

Add to the pool, "Getting all but 2 of his bloodlines projects Famlicided" and "Causing Crovax" since Crovax and Gerrard were the only two remaining Bloodlines, and the Phyrexians decided to make Selena specifically to Corrupt him.

You forgot Hanna (Though, to be fair, Barrin's response to her death was his fault, as mentioned). And neither of those other two were even close to directly Urza's fault, unless you count Phyrexia's actions to try to stop him as his fault.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

You forgot Hanna (Though, to be fair, Barrin's response to her death was his fault, as mentioned). And neither of those other two were even close to directly Urza's fault, unless you count Phyrexia's actions to try to stop him as his fault.

Wasn't Captain Sisay part of the Bloodlines project as well? And, further, the only one to survive the invasion?

[ryuplaneswalker]

You forgot Hanna (Though, to be fair, Barrin's response to her death was his fault, as mentioned). And neither of those other two were even close to directly Urza's fault, unless you count Phyrexia's actions to try to stop him as his fault.

If I recall properly, Urza didn't even really keep an eye on his bloodlines after he first set them up so once the phyrexians figured out what was going on the Bloodlines they were basically screwed. I forgot Hanna and Sissay were part of it as well.

[Fable Wright]

Can you explain this in a little more detail? I don't think I'm following.

Sorry, it was 5am when I wrote the post; clarity isn't the easiest thing at that time. Androgeus is correct:

Took me a minute to work out what fable meant. I think he's saying, don't just activate Dreadknight to do more damage, save the ability so you can use it on your opponents turn and respond to things they do with madness cards.

Using Markov Dreadknight to cast Muderous Compulsion at Instant speed has resulted in more than one blowout for me. When my opponent also had a Dreadknight, the only way I won the game was saving my Dreadknight's activation to cast Avacyn's Judgement in response to his trigger at the end of my turn. That's not even mentioning how devastating Biting Rain can be during combat on your opponents' turn. Losing 2-4 points of damage on opponents is almost always worth the benefit of blowouts like this.

[IthilanorStPete]

Went 3-0 at the prerelease with a RB Vampires/Wolves deck. Westvale Abbey is a pretty savage beating, it won me 3 separate games.

[Ionbound]

I believe I may have gotten the two crappiest Sealed pools in existence. Both sets, I was forced into Blue, with the first adding in B and splashing W, and the second being full-on Bant.

In the first, my lone win-con was Startled Awake, with a Jace to support it. I won one match, and got blown out the rest of the time by decks that were on the stompy plan and my lack of enough answers to survive and execute the mill plan, ending 1-3

In the second, I got absolutely no bomb rares at all, and ended up on the 1/1 spirit token supported by fliers plan. This ended up a little better, and my final opponent agreed to split the prize, ending the day 2-1-1, for a total of 3-4-1.

I swear, I must have pissed off the god LSV has in his pocket. This is the third straight pre-release my pulls have been utter crap.

[Bucky]

For those of you looking for impractical infinite combos in other environments. here are the types of things to look for.

Ritual Recursion is the most common type of combo, but also the most complex. How it works is one set of cards generates a lot of mana off a single spell cast (the Ritual) and the other component gets back that spell as well as itself (the Recursion). This results in infinite mana when the Ritual generates more than the Recursion consumes, and often also results in infinite triggers of something useful. Example: Rise of the Dark Realms + Manaweft Sliver + Blur Sliver + 7 other slivers + Archaeomancer + Blood Bairn -> Infinitely large Blood Bairn

There is a rare variant that makes copies of a Ritual on the stack, never letting it resolve until the end of the combo, instead of using a recursion piece to retrieve it after it resolves.

TQ or Tap-Untap is next most common. An activated ability requiring tapping a permanent generates either a trigger to untap that permanent or enough resources to untap it with another ability. This sort of combo can be complex but usually doesn't involve casting any spells. Example: Myr Galvanizer x2 + Palladium Myr -> Infinite mana

Trigger Loops are the simplest combos, but relatively rare in their pure form: Ability A triggers Ability B, which triggers Ability A. Example: 2x Enduring Scalelord
+ Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit -> infinitely large Enduring Scalelords.

A subset of Trigger Loops that used to be fairly common is the Champion Loop. Some permanents exile other permanents for as long as it's on the battlefield. When one of them can target other copies of itself, it's possible to loop three of them such that one of them enters, removing a second to return a third, which takes the place of the first in the next iteration. This in turn causes unlimited enters-the-battlefield triggers. Example: 3x Changeling Berserker -> Battlewand Oak

Finally, Infinite Turn combos are closely related to Ritual Recursion and TQ; the untap step of the extra turn is a giant Ritual and also resets any other tap abilities. Extra turns also have the unique ability to reset planeswalker abilities. Just be sure have a way to avoid decking during your infinite turns!

[Fleeing Coward]

Went to my first prerelease in a long time and had one of the best prereleases I can remember.
Pulled:
Gitrog Monster
Ulvenwald Hydra
Arlinn Kord
Avacyn's Judgement
Devil's Playground
Geier Reach Bandit
Falkenrath Gorger
for rares that I played (also had a From Under the Floorboards that I decided not to play because that'd be too greedy). Was essentially a red deck splashing green for mana fixers (Fork in the Roads), utility (Aim High/Rabid Bite) and to play my 3 Mythics plus a lone swamp to play Gitrog/Throttle (I had 4 ways to fetch the swamp - 2 Forks, a Warped Landscape and the Hydra).
Then, in the packs I got at the end, I pulled Foil Mindwreck Demon, Sigarda and Port Town.
Overall, a very good couple of hours considering I decided to go at the last minute on a whim.

[ryuplaneswalker]

Gitrog Monster

I wanna make a huge joke about All Hail the Hypno Toad...but Gitrog doesn't really Hypnotize as a card (real odd disconnect between the Card's effects and the Lore there as it can do it in Story)

So instead.

ALL HAIL FRED (who made a sink hole when he mutated)

[Bucky]

Let's try to build a Clue deck.

First, Clues turn extra mana into card advantage, so we want a mana engine that scales with card advantage. Cryptolith Rite does that.

3 Cryptolith Rite

Secondly, we need cheap creatures to power the Rite. We'll run some creatures natively, but what we really want are a bunch of tokens while we're going off. Conveniently, there's a card that does just that.

4 Ulvenwald Mysteries

We also want to convert the other cards we draw into more clues. Say, lands and and cheap creatures.

4 Tireless Tracker
4 Bygone Bishop

We also want our complement of cheap Investigate-friendly creatures to trigger the Bishop:

4 Erdwhal Illuminator
0 Thraben Inspector (white is our splash)
4 Byway Courier

As well as some cheap and efficient cards in general:
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Sylvan Advocate
1 Herald of the Pantheon


We can spare a couple of slots on a Tamiyo's Journal toolbox
2 Tamiyo's Journal
1 Confirm Suspicions (for when only one spell can keep us from winning)
1 Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger (general answer)
1 Seasons Past (inevitability)
1 Westvale Abbey (cheese)

And the mana base is fairly simple. We want 13 blue, 17 green and 6 white in 22 land slots, and we can afford a tapped land on turn 1. Thus:

4 Lumbering Falls
3 Yavimaya Coast
4 Fortified Village
2 Port Town
1 Evolving Wilds
3 Island
5 Forest

Spoiler

Show

3 Cryptolith Rite
4 Ulvenwald Mysteries
2 Tamiyo's Journal
1 Confirm Suspicions
1 Seasons Past

4 Hangarback Walker
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Sylvan Advocate
4 Erdwhal Illuminator
3 Herald of the Pantheon
4 Byway Courier
4 Tireless Tracker
4 Bygone Bishop
1 Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger

4 Lumbering Falls
3 Yavimaya Coast
4 Fortified Village
2 Port Town
1 Evolving Wilds
3 Island
5 Forest

I'd like to fit Ongoing Investigation in as well, but can't find the slots. Maybe shave Sylvan Advocate? Thoughts?

[Avaris]

Today in the prerelease I learned that Ulvenwald Hydra is very good when the land it searches for is Westvale Abbey...

[sonofzeal]

With all this talk of Urza and how terrible he is...

....what would you guys recommend as the top MtG novel? Brothers' War?

[Mystic Muse]

I personally preferred "The Thran" but "Brothers' War" is good as well.

[sonofzeal]

I personally preferred "The Thran" but "Brothers' War" is good as well.

I haven't heard much about The Thran, what did you like about it?

And has anyone read the Lorwyn/Morningtide/Shadowmoor/Eventide books? That's my favorite cycle from a card perspective, so I'm curious how the novels hold up.

[Mystic Muse]

I haven't heard much about The Thran, what did you like about it?

The Thran introduces us to Yawgmoth, who I really enjoyed as a villain. That's pretty much all I can say in my sleep-addled state.

Pre-release went okay. We were just knocked out of prize Contention. I Pulled an Arlinn Kord which I want to trade for 2 Nahiri, or an Avacyn.

[tgva8889]

The Gathering Dark is one of my favorite Magic novels. It's got good writing, good characters, and it is one of the few books that really builds a world and a way of using magic that's unique to the Magic: the Gathering universe.

[ryuplaneswalker]

With all this talk of Urza and how terrible he is...

....what would you guys recommend as the top MtG novel? Brothers' War?

Both the Legend's Cycles and Kamigawa are fun sets.

Legends 2 in particular are fantastic, it is one of the reasons Nicol Bolas is my favorite MTG villain.

Edit : And yes The Gathering Dark is 100% required reading for understanding how Basic Magic in the MTG verse works it explains Land Tapping making mana in a fantastic way.

[Dhavaer]

Looking through my prerelease haul I found I have the full set of Tamiyo's Journals: one normal, one foil, one promo.

I've being converting Prayer of Bloody Chains to the new standard; unfortunately I only have one Anguished Unmaking to replace my poor Utter Ends, but I did pull a Sorin and Tamiyo's Journal might come in handy for when I inevitably end up topdecking. Ormendahl should make for a nice win condition and a cutthroat enabler, too. Unfortunately I swapped out the Chainmages for the Cutthroats, so I'll have to think up a new name too.

[Bucky]

Unfortunately I swapped out the Chainmages for the Cutthroats, so I'll have to think up a new name too.

Prayer of bloody throats?

[ChaosOS]

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles...ent-2016-04-04


B&R list update

Modern:

Eye of Ugin banned

Ancestral Visions unbanned

Sword of the Meek unbanned

Vintage:

Lodestone Golem restricted

[Bucky]

Sword of the Meek is unbanned to... help Lantern Control.

[ChaosOS]

Honestly Lantern will barely use it, I see SotM being more relevant in some form of Tezzerator

[Ebon_Drake]

With all this talk of Urza and how terrible he is...

....what would you guys recommend as the top MtG novel? Brothers' War?

The Brothers' War is definitely a top pick. The Thran and the rest of the Artifacts Cycle (Planeswalker, Time Streams and Bloodlines) are all pretty decent too. Nemesis is my personal favourite though. Much like the set itself, it's by far the best part of Masques block. However, it's right in the middle of the Weatherlight Saga so probably wouldn't make a lot of sense going in cold. The rest of the Weatherlight Saga books range from average to unreadable.

Of the non-Weatherlight books, I'd agree with The Gathering Dark and also include The Eternal Ice and The Shattered Alliance (i.e. The Dark, Ice Age and Alliances). I've not read the Legends books, but I've heard good things.

Chainer's Torment is pretty well regarded too. Odyssey and Judgement don't quite match it, but overall I thought it was an alright trilogy. We don't talk about Onslaught or its sequels though. The Kamigawa books are the best thing about that set, which isn't just damning with faint praise.

To look at it another way, anything by Jeff Grubb and most things by Scott McGough tend to be good. J Robert King meanwhile is very hit-and-miss.

[Svata]

On the subject of the books, I was rereading the Mirrodin cycle (which are... okay) and the Phyrexian presence was on that plane frim the end of the first book's prologue.

[Fable Wright]

...My god. Control might be viable in Modern again. Thing in the Ice + Ancestral Visions, with slow combo engines finishers getting the Wizards go-ahead? It's finally happening.

[Dhavaer]

Gravepurge + Liliana's Indignation seems like a fun combo. Probably have Mindwrack Demon, Graveblade Marauder, Fleshbag Marauder... what other good self mill/auto-dying/graveyard matters creatures are there?

Edit: Grave Indignation. Needs more creatures, and maybe something more to help enable the demon's delirium. Maybe Sinister Concoction?