MTG Salvation

Quote from minsarker

With something like this, its really whatever you can fetch. The price on ebay may be 140$ but you might be able to find more or you might have a hard time finding 100$ depending on the demand in your area.

My guess would be start by asking the other person to offer or just put it on ebay or on the sales lot here with OBO written next to it.

It's already on there.

$100 AFAIK, but I guess it could easily be more now especially since one did go for $140.

I assume that as they were in every Helvault there will be plenty to go around.

Quote from sdematt

There's no modifier for this kind of stuff. You literally put a pricetag on it and wait for a buyer, and lower it if there's no interest.

-Matt

Truth. Nobody knew how much Russ foil Bobs were until somebody stuck a set on eBay with a crazy reserve. The highest bidder got up to around $800 so I think they relisted at $1000, which is now the baseline for Russ foil Bob.

Rafiq is probably in the $90-100 range though.

Quote from cuthbertthecat

I'm not actually sure Bob is right for that matchup, I was thinking that 2 O-Stones, a Tormod's Crypt, and Cop-Red would be better to board in. O-Stones are clunky, but they kill the goose, crypt stalls the goose for a bit, and cop-red is another way not to die to burn after the board is locked up.

I usually board in Crypt against RUG anyways. Can't hurt. I don't know. The life loss can be relevant with Bob, but I'm still running Top and he a) blocks Goyfs if necessary and b) digs us through enough cards to hold them off. Just hope to get Waste + Loam and hope they can't find Surgical.

Oh my ****ing Blood Moon.

No, French is just worth less everywhere except to the dedicated French collectors.

Same as English if not a tiny bit less.

Russian nonfoil Crucible is $20-25. Russian foil Crucible is probably $300+, maybe $350+. The last Jap foil Crucible finished for $300 and Russian is way way way rarer.

EDIT: Looks like we were checking our sources at the same time.

Quote from cuthbertthecat

After losing yesterday to RUG Tempo in the finals of an SCG IQ, I really think factory is necessary again in this deck in some number, not just a flex slot. The two games I lost were to Mongoose damage, with the one that I won being at two life from mongoose damage with a bob in play over five turns and somehow not dying. I think I'm going to cut an intuition and one other card, maybe a manabond for two factories. Thoughts?

Yeah, that's the reason I've been running 2 Factories forever. RUG also tends to like doing Waste Maze -> Extract Maze against me, and it's really hard to beat RUG without Maze of Ith. I managed to resolve a Crucible one game and won at 2 life by continually fending off a 6/7 Goyf before I got the EE lock.

You know I'm not a huge fan of Intuition, so I think that's fine. I generally like having 2 Manabonds but you've got the extra tutors so I think 1 is fine.

Boarding in Bob vs. RUG can be really dangerous but it's gotta be the right play since they can attack Loam so aggressively.

Quote from cuthbertthecat

Port is also good against enchantress. If burn holds prices for when chasm dies, they can get you.

For boarding out tutor, I think its right to board some number out againts most blue decks because of how terrible they are against counters, and because chalices of the void often come in.

Port is basically the only way we can win G1 against Enchantress, but if they keep a 2 lander and we get a Port on their Growthed land, they can't do anything and you can Stax them out before they get their engine going. Post-board it can be really bad since they have Wheel of Sun and Moon, Ground Seal, Sacred Ground, and tons of other terrible things.

Quote from Beekhead

I was also wondering about Crop Rotation for an added toolbox effect to grab lands.

Crop Rotation is generally too narrow. Our other tutors (Enlightened, Entomb, Intuition) are far more flexible and can really get any answer. Tolaria West is enough tutoring for Lands. While it's a very powerful effect, it can be played around (opponents don't fall for the surprise Glacial Chasm more than once) and is generally redundant, plus is dead when milled. It also dilutes the land count.

Quote from cuthbertthecat

Wow, those are some rough matchups. I'm honestly feeling about the same way about lands right now after SCG Des Moines. I played against 2 combo decks in the swiss which eliminated my chance of top 8ing, just based on matchups alone. I'm finding it harder to just accept this decks awful combo matchup. It doesn't even matter if the combo pilot is good at their deck or not, lands is still getting crushed. Frustrating, to say the least. I was considering running the BUG control deck that's been doing decently lately, it has the same positive matchups against the top 3 decks, but it at least has a fighting chance against combo, especially postboard. It looks to have a similar playstyle to lands also.

If you want a deck with a positive combo and control matchup, you should look into the 4 orim's chant 3 silence lists of doomsday. You have too many chants for combo to go off profitably and enough protection and resilience to beat control. Maverick and RUG Delver are rough matchups, but you beat blade variants handily and can sideboard dread of night and the like to beat maverick.

I also think it's a pretty hostile environment right now, but I've been having relatively good MUs against combo. Not positive, but recently I've been 3/3 and that's as good as Stoneblade in some scenarios. TES has terrible mana. ANT is also somewhat mana-vulnerable, and also has problems getting rid of multiple hatebears. Doomsday is the only Storm deck I have consistently lost to recently, and I went 1-2 against it at GP Indy only because he ripped one of those many Chants off the top and delayed me casting Canonist for a turn. The burn matchup, however, sucks unless you can stick a really fast COP. UR Delver can be even worse at times.

Quote from TheAirborneMoxenEvent

Quick Aside - I find that Malacoda's deck works very well! I felt I had the right tools in my matchups, but I really didn't know how to use them right.

Thanks!

Lesson Learned - Use Loam to help you play through your own Ensnaring Bridge.

Yeah. This is very important in grindy matchups like BUG with Jace, as you can't break through a wall of Goyfs with Factory but need the Bridge to hold back their offense. It's also a good way to push damage through stubborn opponents who don't scoop when they should. Ob Nixilis sounds rough, damage we can't prevent is terrible. It's hilarious that you Quarter-Locked a mono green deck. I did it once to Merfolk. Took ages.

I get paired against UW Stoneblade. Game 1 I get beat down by Snapcasters and Stoneforeges. I didn't draw any mazes, tabernacles, or anything to interact with his creatures. My loam dredges were terriblle. I sided in 4 Bob, 1 Revoker, 1 Tower of the Magistrate, and 1 Cursed Totem for 2 Manabond, 1 Loam, 1 E Tutor, 1 Diamond, 1 Karakas, and 1 Other card. G2 I land Bob and he looks at it weird before letting it resolve. We play draw go for a bit, I land tower to counteract his batterskull, find a maze to deal with his guys, and then he lands Jace. This is where things go bad. He fateseals me, leaves it on top. I am at 2 life. I know the card will kill me. I untap, flip it, and die. Then I try to sac a land with Zuran Orb only to find out I can't do that because the trigger has to resolve. Oops. I probably would have won that one too. I also could have academy ruins a mox diamond on top, but didn't count my mana correct.

Yeah, just sounds like you need more experience. Were you not able to punch Jace with Bob once you had handled the Batterskull? Or did he have a clog of guys and you had no Tar Pit? Cursed Totem is generally bad against Stoneblade since we have a ton of more effective things. Snapcaster is triggered and we don't really care about Batterskull.

Also, what is our game plan against Nic Fit? I saw two people playing it there, and it looks like a horrible matchup for us. Am I mistaken in this, or is this bad news bears for us?

I beat it once, but only because of an inexperienced pilot. Mana Denial is basically useless since they have tons of basics and ways to ramp into them. They have Pulse and sometimes Vindicate to deal with our things, and Deed can be terrible for us. They also have Witness, Ooze, and Thrun. It can be really rough. The game plan, sad to say, is "hope they draw badly." You can win if they somehow get mana screwed and you can lock them early enough, and Bojuka Bog helps, but usually they just have the answers.

Yeah. I tried testing Food Chain Exile Bird with a friend and the fact is that Food Chain is terrible without tutors. If you want to play bad creature-combo decks just roll with the Fierce Empath/RSD/Imperial Recruiter -> Emrakul Food Chain, or play Aluren.

Cavern of Souls is marginally playable in Legacy at best. The tribal decks have been uncounterable for ages anyway thanks to Vial in Merfolk/Goblins and incredible redundancy in Elves. It is not going to see play in the already-stretched manabases of Maverick, which already stomps on blue. Card is overhyped beyond belief.

Symmetrical Smokestack? Meh.

$80 also seems about right to me.

Yeah, people can be really slimy. I ordered a few sets of Personal with a friend before the spike and while they all did come in, one store sent me a set that was clearly not NM, but closer to EX-/MP. I messaged them and they sent me a partial refund of.... $3. So Top Deck Hobbies is not the best place to buy from.

Also - thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! I honestly had barely even thought about it considering all the craziness leading up to now, but it was pretty solid. I went to see Converge in Cleveland and they crushed

I like everything in AVR except for Miracle Walk and Hexproof Angel.

Picked up a few more things recently. Sorry for cell phone pictures.