I second OP's opinion that this format is much faster than it first appeared. I won one game off turn 3 Emancipation Angel followed by turn 4 Silverblade Paladin and never looked back. In my first round matchup I miracled my Temporal Mastery and attacked for 10 two turns in a row for the win.
I ended up 4-0-1, good for 1st out of 36, splitting top prize with another store regular (the same person who I split with at the Innistrad pre-release, oddly enough). Got some Dark Ascension packs mixed in with my prize packs, which produced a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Out of my AVR packs I got a Tamiyo, the Moon Sage. Quite a good group of early birthday presents.
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Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
I do, and I don't care who's looking when I do it. I think I may have picked it up from my fourth-grade teacher who always loved to smell new books. Books were never my thing, but cards certainly are.
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Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
If a spell is countered this way, exile it and put 3 time counters on it instead.
Remove 1 time counter during the spell's controller upkeep, when there's no more time counter on it, the spell is resolves.
I'm assuming you're unaware of it, and you know what they say about assuming... They already made that exact card. It was called, wait for it... Delay.
(Or perhaps you were aware of it and were just making a Suspend-free version of the same card.)
Anyway, I'm of the opinion that counterspells are only bad when they're backed up by a relatively fast clock, like Delver is now. Since I started playing competitively it has really felt like fish strategies have historically been the strongest (Jund and TSP-era Dragonstorm being the major exceptions in my experience).
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Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Really interesting how Black only gets two cards in this set: A functional reprint of Yawgmoth's Will and Chimney Imp. "Ignite the Dawn," indeed.
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Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
7-1 in the last two events, with a meta full of Solar Flare/Esper Superfriends and White Weenie/Tokens. The better players around tend towards control, so I've tailored it to have an improved late-game with maindeck Koth of the Hammer, the obvious choice in Shrine of Burning Rage, and Runechanter's Pike, which make attacking Phoenixes or Spikeshot Elders a legitimate big-damage threat.
In the board, Manabarbs is a house against control, but a tad underwhelming against decks packing mainboard Revoke Existence (and with 90% of decks packing things like Shrines, Wurmcoil Engine, and Oblivion Ring, not a terrible idea). However, if an answer isn't present it's an excellent source of continuous damage that makes those end-of-turn Think Twice and Forbidden Alchemy castings much less desirable. Spellskite hasn't done too much for me yet, though I can still see a reason to keep it around, as protection for my Shrines and 'Barbs.
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
You can flash in your four-mana 2/3 blocker, but the WU Delver player will be more than happy to Vapor Snag it and set you back even further.
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Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Hey, who saw this coming when they saw the name of the topic? I did, I did!
It only takes one ignorant remark to set it off, and look what we have. We're one thinly-veiled insult away from people using the word "scrub". Good job MTGS!
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Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Of course, the curve was not as good as it could have been, with only 3 creatures that cost two mana or less, and some of the three-drops requiring creatures in my yard. That lack of an early game really cost me against two rather fast Werewolf/Vampire decks. I'd also have gone back and threw in a 7th Swamp instead of that Shimmering Grotto. I ended up 2-3 overall.
However, one can see the silly combo potential here, and my two wins were the result of those silly combos.
Win 1: Me at 7 life, Opponent at 4 life. I had Gravecrawler, Stitched Drake, Headless Skaab, and Diregraf Captain on the board. My opponent has Darkthicket Wolf and five 1/2 Spider tokens with reach. Can't get through with damage, and if he drew a land, I'd be hit with a lethal Devil's Play flashback. I draw Grimgrin and cast it. I attack, my guys are blocked, of course. Before damage is assigned I sac my entire team except Diregraf Captain to Grimgrin, and cast Gravecrawler from the yard, and sac it for the win due to the Captain's life-loss triggers.
Win 2: Irrelevant life totals. Board is hopelessly gummed up with his human tokens and my zombie tokens from Runebinder's ability. I also have Grimgrin, a Soul-Seized Undead Alchemist, and Gravecrawler. My library is at less than six cards. I draw Murder of Crows. I look over my graveyard and exile zones, notice there's no Laboratory Maniac, and begin digging with Murder/Grimgrin/Gravecrawler. Find my Maniac third from the bottom, cast it, and proceed to deck/draw myself into the win.
So, all in all, a little disappointed I didn't do better, but those wins really made my inner Johnny weep with joy.
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Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Destroy target land if that land is tapped and it's a Thursday
Flashback 7RRRRRRRRRRR
Sigged.
But anyway, I'm gonna also guess that Scorch the Fields is a combination LD and sweeper that will be 'competitively costed' at six or seven mana. Fantastic art, at least.
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Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
I don't really keep track of how many times I win or lose, never have. But I suppose if I were to venture a guess, I'd say I'd be somewhere in between a 2 wins:1 loss to a 3 wins:2 losses ratio, with a small variety of decks (RDW, UR Delver, Mono-U Humans, Grixis Burning Vengeance, Mono-W Puresteel).
Our store usually only has an average(sad) turnout of 10-12 players, sometimes more. I'd say I'm in the top four or five players there, give or take depending on randoms showing up.
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Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Why people keep listing Reckless Waif and omitting Hero of Oxid Ridge is totally lost on me. Hero and Koth are RDW's curve-toppers and game-enders. Reckless Waif is a 1/1 far too often for an aggro player's taste (or at least mine), is a far worse topdeck than Spikeshot Elder or Grim Lavamancer, Waif's one-cc competition, and I don't recall seeing a single one in red decks that have placed well.
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Don't know if it has been pointed out, but you can't do your combo if your tree is equipped with SoWaP since it gives Prot. from Red and Fling is... well... Red.
But Fling isn't asking you to target the creature you're sacrificing, it's just an additional cost. You can sacrifice it.
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Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
I control a creature with Exalted (Sigiled Paladin, for example) and Nacatl War-Pride. If I attack with only the War-Pride and the token copies are made, do they also copy the temporary effects given by Exalted, or do they simply enter as 3/3s?
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Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
I second OP's opinion that this format is much faster than it first appeared. I won one game off turn 3 Emancipation Angel followed by turn 4 Silverblade Paladin and never looked back. In my first round matchup I miracled my Temporal Mastery and attacked for 10 two turns in a row for the win.
I ended up 4-0-1, good for 1st out of 36, splitting top prize with another store regular (the same person who I split with at the Innistrad pre-release, oddly enough). Got some Dark Ascension packs mixed in with my prize packs, which produced a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Out of my AVR packs I got a Tamiyo, the Moon Sage. Quite a good group of early birthday presents.
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
I'm assuming you're unaware of it, and you know what they say about assuming... They already made that exact card. It was called, wait for it... Delay.
(Or perhaps you were aware of it and were just making a Suspend-free version of the same card.)
Anyway, I'm of the opinion that counterspells are only bad when they're backed up by a relatively fast clock, like Delver is now. Since I started playing competitively it has really felt like fish strategies have historically been the strongest (Jund and TSP-era Dragonstorm being the major exceptions in my experience).
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
4 Stromkirk Noble
3 Spikeshot Elder
4 Stormblood Berserker
3 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Gut Shot
3 Galvanic Blast
2 Shock
3 Arc Trail
3 Volt Charge
4 Shrine of Burning Rage
2 Runechanter's Pike
3 Koth of the Hammer
18 Mountain
4 Copperline Gorge
3 Ratchet Bomb
3 Whipflare
3 Spellskite
3 Manabarbs
In the board, Manabarbs is a house against control, but a tad underwhelming against decks packing mainboard Revoke Existence (and with 90% of decks packing things like Shrines, Wurmcoil Engine, and Oblivion Ring, not a terrible idea). However, if an answer isn't present it's an excellent source of continuous damage that makes those end-of-turn Think Twice and Forbidden Alchemy castings much less desirable. Spellskite hasn't done too much for me yet, though I can still see a reason to keep it around, as protection for my Shrines and 'Barbs.
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
It only takes one ignorant remark to set it off, and look what we have. We're one thinly-veiled insult away from people using the word "scrub". Good job MTGS!
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
10 Island
6 Swamp
1 Shimmering Grotto
Creatures (14)
1 Gravecrawler
1 Mindshrieker
1 Shriekgeist
1 Screeching Bat
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Headless Skaab
1 Stitched Drake
1 Diregraf Captain
1 Abattoir Ghoul
1 Tower Geist
1 Havengul Runebinder
1 Soul Seizer
1 Murder of Crows
1 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
1 Tragic Slip
1 Dead Weight
1 Think Twice
1 Reap the Seagraf
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Divination
1 Chant of the Skifsang
1 Tribute to Hunger
1 Griptide
1 Death's Caress
Of course, the curve was not as good as it could have been, with only 3 creatures that cost two mana or less, and some of the three-drops requiring creatures in my yard. That lack of an early game really cost me against two rather fast Werewolf/Vampire decks. I'd also have gone back and threw in a 7th Swamp instead of that Shimmering Grotto. I ended up 2-3 overall.
However, one can see the silly combo potential here, and my two wins were the result of those silly combos.
Win 1: Me at 7 life, Opponent at 4 life. I had Gravecrawler, Stitched Drake, Headless Skaab, and Diregraf Captain on the board. My opponent has Darkthicket Wolf and five 1/2 Spider tokens with reach. Can't get through with damage, and if he drew a land, I'd be hit with a lethal Devil's Play flashback. I draw Grimgrin and cast it. I attack, my guys are blocked, of course. Before damage is assigned I sac my entire team except Diregraf Captain to Grimgrin, and cast Gravecrawler from the yard, and sac it for the win due to the Captain's life-loss triggers.
Win 2: Irrelevant life totals. Board is hopelessly gummed up with his human tokens and my zombie tokens from Runebinder's ability. I also have Grimgrin, a Soul-Seized Undead Alchemist, and Gravecrawler. My library is at less than six cards. I draw Murder of Crows. I look over my graveyard and exile zones, notice there's no Laboratory Maniac, and begin digging with Murder/Grimgrin/Gravecrawler. Find my Maniac third from the bottom, cast it, and proceed to deck/draw myself into the win.
So, all in all, a little disappointed I didn't do better, but those wins really made my inner Johnny weep with joy.
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Sigged.
But anyway, I'm gonna also guess that Scorch the Fields is a combination LD and sweeper that will be 'competitively costed' at six or seven mana. Fantastic art, at least.
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Our store usually only has an average(sad) turnout of 10-12 players, sometimes more. I'd say I'm in the top four or five players there, give or take depending on randoms showing up.
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Anyway, my list:
W: Sun Titan, Champion of the Parish, Hero of Bladehold, Oblivion Ring, Angelic Destiny.
U: Snapcaster Mage, Mana Leak, Dissipate, Consecrated Sphinx, Phantasmal Image.
B: Dismember, Grave Titan, Liliana of the Veil, Black Sun's Zenith, Doom Blade.
R: Koth of the Hammer, Hero of Oxid Ridge, Stromkirk Noble, Stormblood Berserker, Slagstorm.
G: Primeval Titan, Garruk, Primal Hunter, Beast Within, Thrun, the Last Troll, Green Sun's Zenith.
X: Wurmcoil Engine, Shrine of Burning Rage, Shrine of Loyal Legions, Sword of Feast and Famine, Spellskite.
Everything else: Inkmoth Nexus, the Innistrad lands, and Geist of Saint Traft.
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
But Fling isn't asking you to target the creature you're sacrificing, it's just an additional cost. You can sacrifice it.
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result:
Several years ago, WotC apparently surveyed Magic players across the globe. They found that people liked turning things sideways, and hated LD. This is the result: