MTG Salvation

I'm sure I'm one of many to design this rather obvious mechanic, but I already designed something pretty close to Tribute.

(The OP version and the version in post #4)

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=398921

Is there another precedent for where an alternate cost ability would be placed on a card? I had assumed my mechanic would work the same as Evoke and come last on the card.

Aw but my mythic was going to be so sweet.

Can you say what you mean by "opposes or hoses"? Does oppose mean it actually has to interact negatively with the mechanic, or simply function on the opposite side of the spectrum?

I voted too hastily and missed Oblivion Ring on the list. O-Ring effects are pretty awful in a format where boards get blown up all the time. Especially in a colour with plenty of decent substitutes.

Reverse the Sands is pretty damn narrow, but I at least have a deck designed to win with it. Whereas I would never play with O-Ring.

It's possible that this is the set where they finally start unblurring the lines between artifacts and enchantments.

Enchantments = coloured; no tap abilities
Artifacts = colourless; no static abilities

In which case this card would HAVE to be an artifact enchantment

I made these changes to my deck for FNM last week:

- 4 Dimir Charm
- 4 Cyclonic Rift
- 4 Entreat the Angels

+ 4 Doom Blade
+ 4 Diabolic Tutor
+ 4 Ratchet Bomb

Dimir Charm has just be OK and I figured Doom Blade was an obvious upgrade. Cyclonic Rift is awesome versatility, but I found it unhelpful a lot of the time. Entreat is amazing, but it's just been awful so many times.

I went 3-1, playing against a Sphere of Safety deck, Orzhov Midrange, Junk, and Selesnya Tokens. Loss was to Junk, but I deserved it because I was at 8 and he had a phased out Obzedat, I tutored and could have gotten a Battle of Wits to go for the win, but I was paranoid about something like Oblivion Ring or a way to get an extra damage through on me like Selesnya Charm or another Obzedat. So I get a Far//Away to deal with Obzedat instead. Stupid of me to not just go for the win.

Sphere of Safety was a bad matchup for him, obviously, because I can easily play around his enchantments and I have stuff like Merciless Eviction. And his wincon Jace doesn't mill me very quickly. As long as I won the counter war over his Aetherling, he couldn't reasonably beat me.

Orzhov was a fun matchup. I actually came back from a game where I was at 1 life facing a phase-out Obzedat. Sphinx's Rev for 4, chump Ob with a spirit token. Snappy to flash back Rev for 3. Hit a Geist of Saint Traft and Vault of the Archangel. Vault proceeds to completely take over the game, as Obzedat attacks into a deathtouching token and Geist starts gaining me 6 a turn.

Doom Blade was pretty terrible, as I always seemed to have 1 or 2 of them in hand against a bunch of black creatures or the creatureless-except-Aetherling SoS deck. So maybe that was just bad luck, but I found myself wishing it was Dimir Charm all night.

I only drew Ratchet Bomb once, but it was against the Tokens deck, so yeah it was good.

Diabolic Tutor was as excellent as expected. My BoW win rate went up, and I was way more efficient. With so many tutors, I might add some 1-ofs to my deck. Entreat and Angels, Aetherling, Angel of Serenity are all reasonable when tutoring for BoW just isn't right.

Quote from silph

we ain't paying judges anything

Speak for yourself

Here are our July results......

BaconCatBug 22 + 16 + 21 + 19 + 19 + 16 = 113
Vertain 20 + 15 + 22.5 + 18 + 17 + 20.5 = 113
aftermarketradio 20 + 13 + 21 + 19 + 18 + 19.5 = 110.5
Tesco(black)lotus 18 + 16 + 20 + 16 + 17.5 + 18.5 = 106

That's right! A tie!

Congrats BaconCatBug and Vertain!

Thanks for getting judgments done. I'll have round 4 up tomorrow morning!

My hasty judgments are up

I notice we are still missing judgments from two judges. So I'm going to ping those guys and extend the judge deadline by one day.

This actually works out, because I haven't had time to prepare a Round 4 yet. I just got back from a trip and my flight was delayed several hours and I'm all jetlagged and stuff.

So, yes, deadline for judges is now 24 hours from now and players can expect Round 4 shortly thereafter!

Now that's I'm over the tragedy of no BoW reprint in M14 and my inevitable resignation from Standard as a result, I'm working out how I want to update this deck for its last 3 months of legality.

M14 has some sweet cards. The most likely ones to crack my deck are Diabolic Tutor, Doom Blade, and Ratchet Bomb.

I used to run Diabolic Revelation, but it was so horribly slow that it wasn't worth the slight increase on my hits to BoW. Diabolic Tutor, however, might make me consider going back up to 8 tutors. Casting that thing on turn 4 is pretty nuts, especially if you were able to do something on turn 2-3 to stall agro for a couple turns. I do think 8 tutors is a lot, but possibly not too much. We'll see. If it comes down to it, I think this would replace Increasing Ambition.

Doom Blade is just an efficient and convenient removal spell. I think I want it over Dimir Charm.

Ratchet Bomb is just a favourite of mine from Mirrodin block. It always made the cut in my janky standard decks back then, so why not now?

Other cards worth considering include Banisher Priest (so much worse that Fiend Hunter), Tidebinder Mage (not sure if it's awesome enough to warrant a SB slot), and maybe Wall of Frost. That last one is a bit janky, but it does seem like a solid pain in the neck.

Quote from 8buffalo

Challenge clarification for round two: Does "~ enters the battlefield with a blahblah counter on it" count as an etb ability?

Um, sure, let's say yes.

My judging is done, too.

It was fun to judge because everyone had such cool flavour concepts and did a great job designing mechanics for them. I wish folks would start using a thesaurus to come up with spicier card names, though.

I'm happy reading feedback on my judgments, but don't be offended if I don't have time to reply.

Yeah, it's fine with me, since in a set that's how the card would likely be templated.

The harbor itself, but designs can focus on a specific element of it if they wish.

Actually, people can do whatever they want, as long as it's inspired by and clearly reflects the paragraph. That's a better idea, I'd say.