I got contents insurance a few months ago, and my whole collection is covered under my contract. ($4000 cube, Standard UW, Modern stuff, multiple folders, many shocks and fetches).
However, this was pretty simple to do because nothing in my collection in over $500. I'm not worried that much about crime in my area, but if I travel anywhere in NZ I'm covered for theft, and non intentional damage etc. Insurance is just a handy thing to have. If I need to replace all of my possessions because of a fire or whatever, I'm going to be alright. I mostly got it for my laptop and phone though, not Magic. But realistically, having my Magic under cover makes a lot of sense.
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[center]The best combo in Modern is now unbanned, yay!!!
Drafting is obviously quite difficult. Probably harder than constructed in a tournament sense because you have to metagame the limited section (yes), and then also draft well and accordingly.
I'm personally a constructed player, but I do enjoy limited a lot. I wish I was better at draft and limited in general.
My positive results in Magic have all been in Constructed (mostly Modern).
Oh and "Netdecking" isn't that bad. It still requires a lot of practice and skill to get good with a deck and perform well in a tournament setting, not to mention tuning it to the local metagame.
TL;DR: Magic at a competitive and professional level is hard, players that do well, tend to have practised a lot, and have a lot of skill.
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[center]The best combo in Modern is now unbanned, yay!!!
Variance is a thing you know, and your sample size is very very small.
If you had opened >1000 booster (probably need a lot more for a reasonable sample size) and the ratios were the same, then maybe you'd be on to something.
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[center]The best combo in Modern is now unbanned, yay!!!
Played in a random standard at my LGS last weekend, I got beaten by my GF in the semis. She, and another girl that plays are very good players, but they get very little flak. I think this is because they are very active in the local casual playgroup, and my GF even goes so far as to organise EDH events about every second week.
I'm glad that there's more representation of the fairer sex, but I understand why they get turned off from Magic (especially when they reach PTQ skill levels). The kind of dickiness and macho must-win attitude turns most people off at that stage. I think its just that most guys have put up with it for so long that they are used to it.
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The main thing is, with Storm and Cascade et al, they say:
"When you cast this spell"
And are not part of the spell's effect text. Which means it is a triggered ability, and goes on the stack before the rest of the spell resolves. This is why the spell you cascade into resolves before the one with cascade.
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[center]The best combo in Modern is now unbanned, yay!!!
The maindeck is pretty normal, if you haven't tried Last breath in straight UW yet, try it, its very very good (Master of Waves, Nightveil Specter, everything in Monored, Pack Rat (sometimes), most of the rest of Monoblue).
The decks I beat were:
GW tokens
-a bad deck, terrible RW aggro, he got the bye first round.
Monoblue
Monoblack
And I IDed with a friend.
In the Top8, I played:
Monoblack again, win
Tom Ross's 17 land Monored deck, played by my GF. She beat me due to me mulling a lot in game 3, and drawing quite badly, also she had burn for days and I couldn't stop it.
The GW tokens deck won in the end. It had a really good Monored matchup.
In the practice games I played with my GF at home, I won about 70% of the time.
The only change I would make is to take out the Pithing Needle from the sideboard. I'm not sure what to bring in though.
Medomai might look a little weird, but I put him in for the Esper and Monoblack Matchup. He's a huge beating, and they usually take out their Doom Blades. The idea is that if they don't deal with him on the turn you cast him, you probably win. He can block forever against nightveil, and letting him soak up a Hero's Downfall that would otherwise be aimed at and Elspeth or a Jace is usually pretty good.
You don't need quicken against this deck, you will always want to play Verdict whenever you get it, so you might as well just have more removal and good counters.
Quicken is an interesting card, against some decks (such as Monoblack and token decks), it is one of your best cards, as being able to instant speed wrath is a complete blowout.
I probably could have won the whole thing, but the 17 land monored deck is a huge beating and had really swingy draws against you. Sometimes you just have infinite Last Breaths, and you win easily, and sometimes you get burnt out for 12 (as is what happened to me).
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[center]The best combo in Modern is now unbanned, yay!!!
A lot of magic lingo comes from other games, such as poker: "being on tilt", "I had like 7 outs".
Tech tends to mean Technology, in the sense that someone finds a card that solves a problem in the format. Its usually a card or strategy that others overlooked at first, or though wasn't good enough.
A good example of tech is during the Cawblade format, some people were still playing monored, and occasionally, you'd play a mirror. In the monored mirror, a really good card to bring in was Wurmcoil Engine, which was oft overlooked because it cost too much. The high cost of the card was offset by the way a monored mirror plays out, you burn all of each others' guys until someone has a threat stick around for long enough to win the game. Games took usually about 12 or so turns because of the amount of removal involved. Wurmcoil was perfect for the matchup because it was very hard to kill, gained a bunch of life, and won the game quickly.
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[center]The best combo in Modern is now unbanned, yay!!!
While I've encountered my fair share of this kind of behavior both on MODO and other games, it always makes me wonder about the people on MODO more, I mean, this is a luck based game, people are gonna get lucky.
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[center]The best combo in Modern is now unbanned, yay!!!
Modern Masters because of the power lever, and the good Ramp. Rise of the Eldrazi because of the huge power level of the massive cards. Theros because of the sweet anti-flood mechanics of Bestow and Monstrosity.
Hopefully you get a bunch of the good green cards (Kodama's Reach, Overgrown Battlement, and other good stuff) from MM and RoE. You'll then be in a good position to cast all your rares.
Instead of Theros you could have Alara Reborn because the power level in that set was insane (Honorable mention for New Phyrexia).
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[center]The best combo in Modern is now unbanned, yay!!!
However, this was pretty simple to do because nothing in my collection in over $500. I'm not worried that much about crime in my area, but if I travel anywhere in NZ I'm covered for theft, and non intentional damage etc. Insurance is just a handy thing to have. If I need to replace all of my possessions because of a fire or whatever, I'm going to be alright. I mostly got it for my laptop and phone though, not Magic. But realistically, having my Magic under cover makes a lot of sense.
I'm personally a constructed player, but I do enjoy limited a lot. I wish I was better at draft and limited in general.
My positive results in Magic have all been in Constructed (mostly Modern).
Oh and "Netdecking" isn't that bad. It still requires a lot of practice and skill to get good with a deck and perform well in a tournament setting, not to mention tuning it to the local metagame.
TL;DR: Magic at a competitive and professional level is hard, players that do well, tend to have practised a lot, and have a lot of skill.
never played it in anything else.
If you had opened >1000 booster (probably need a lot more for a reasonable sample size) and the ratios were the same, then maybe you'd be on to something.
or maybe
Worship
I'm glad that there's more representation of the fairer sex, but I understand why they get turned off from Magic (especially when they reach PTQ skill levels). The kind of dickiness and macho must-win attitude turns most people off at that stage. I think its just that most guys have put up with it for so long that they are used to it.
"When you cast this spell"
And are not part of the spell's effect text. Which means it is a triggered ability, and goes on the stack before the rest of the spell resolves. This is why the spell you cascade into resolves before the one with cascade.
3 Jace, Architect of Thought
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Aetherling
Draw
2 Quicken
3 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Divination
Removal
4 Supreme Verdict
4 Detention Sphere
3 Azorius Charm
3 Last Breath
2 Dissolve
2 Syncopate
1 Essence Scatter
Lands
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Azorius Guildgate
2 Mutavault
9 Island
8 Plains
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Medomai, the Ageless
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Negate
2 Celstial Flare
2 Glare of Heresy
1 Pithing Needle
3 Gainsay
The maindeck is pretty normal, if you haven't tried Last breath in straight UW yet, try it, its very very good (Master of Waves, Nightveil Specter, everything in Monored, Pack Rat (sometimes), most of the rest of Monoblue).
The decks I beat were:
GW tokens
-a bad deck, terrible RW aggro, he got the bye first round.
Monoblue
Monoblack
And I IDed with a friend.
In the Top8, I played:
Monoblack again, win
Tom Ross's 17 land Monored deck, played by my GF. She beat me due to me mulling a lot in game 3, and drawing quite badly, also she had burn for days and I couldn't stop it.
The GW tokens deck won in the end. It had a really good Monored matchup.
In the practice games I played with my GF at home, I won about 70% of the time.
The only change I would make is to take out the Pithing Needle from the sideboard. I'm not sure what to bring in though.
My sideboarding plan against Monoblack was:
-2 Divination
-3 Azorius Charm
+2 Jace, Memory Adept
+1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
+1 Medomai, the Ageless
+1 Pithing Needle
I planned to max out my win cons, as well as keeping in the Last Breaths for early Pack Rat / Nightveil Specter plays. Pithing Needle names things that are in play, because it is better to wait and get value. It can effectively name: Mutavault, Swamp (for Underworld Connections), Pack Rat, as well as Erebos, God of the Dead if they have it in their list.
Medomai might look a little weird, but I put him in for the Esper and Monoblack Matchup. He's a huge beating, and they usually take out their Doom Blades. The idea is that if they don't deal with him on the turn you cast him, you probably win. He can block forever against nightveil, and letting him soak up a Hero's Downfall that would otherwise be aimed at and Elspeth or a Jace is usually pretty good.
My Monoblue sideboarding was:
-2 Divination
-2 Quicken
-1 Dissolve
+2 Ratchet Bomb
+3 Gainsay
You don't need quicken against this deck, you will always want to play Verdict whenever you get it, so you might as well just have more removal and good counters.
Quicken is an interesting card, against some decks (such as Monoblack and token decks), it is one of your best cards, as being able to instant speed wrath is a complete blowout.
I probably could have won the whole thing, but the 17 land monored deck is a huge beating and had really swingy draws against you. Sometimes you just have infinite Last Breaths, and you win easily, and sometimes you get burnt out for 12 (as is what happened to me).
Tech tends to mean Technology, in the sense that someone finds a card that solves a problem in the format. Its usually a card or strategy that others overlooked at first, or though wasn't good enough.
A good example of tech is during the Cawblade format, some people were still playing monored, and occasionally, you'd play a mirror. In the monored mirror, a really good card to bring in was Wurmcoil Engine, which was oft overlooked because it cost too much. The high cost of the card was offset by the way a monored mirror plays out, you burn all of each others' guys until someone has a threat stick around for long enough to win the game. Games took usually about 12 or so turns because of the amount of removal involved. Wurmcoil was perfect for the matchup because it was very hard to kill, gained a bunch of life, and won the game quickly.
MM x2
RoE x2
THS x2
Modern Masters because of the power lever, and the good Ramp.
Rise of the Eldrazi because of the huge power level of the massive cards.
Theros because of the sweet anti-flood mechanics of Bestow and Monstrosity.
Hopefully you get a bunch of the good green cards (Kodama's Reach, Overgrown Battlement, and other good stuff) from MM and RoE. You'll then be in a good position to cast all your rares.
Instead of Theros you could have Alara Reborn because the power level in that set was insane (Honorable mention for New Phyrexia).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAQSZhazYk8
Alternatively, you could write it in sharpie on a Land or something and then laminate it or put tape over it.