First of all, this is the Standard Forum where we talk about Standard Legal decks (What's in standard? Well I'm glad you asked. Click me). Standard is a format where only the most recent sets are used to build decks and play in tournaments. Most local constructed tournaments in your area will likely be standard, because it's usually the cheapest format to start learning how to play.
Unfortunately, Vraska, the Unseen rotated out of standard a while back, so you won't be able to play her in a standard tournament. You can, however, play her against your friends in the living room, since there are usually few restrictions in casual play groups. If you want to learn about Casual decks and suggestions for them, we have a forum for that.
You can also play Vraska in the Modern format, if you wish to play competitively with her. However, she's not particularly strong in Modern, simply because of the card pool.
Finally, if you want to start building a collection, my suggestion is to start with a Theme deck from your local game shop or Walmart/Target/Kmart (preferably your local game shop since supporting local businesses is great as well a great resource of people who also want to play Magic w/ you).
Finally, buying singles from the internet or your local game shop are great ways to build decks but sometimes can be cost prohibitive if you don't know exactly what you're looking for.
Hey guys, looking to maybe get into Standard. The modern scene at my LGS isn't too big, thinking I might have better luck in Standard.
I've never played Standard before, but I've opened a lot of BfZ, so much that I've got 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. It'd be nice to use them, but if there are no viable decks that use him that's ok. I also have a good number of the Tangolands, but no fetches. If they're absolutely necessary I can get some.
So are there any good decks that can use a set of Gideons and preferably are not too financially painful otherwise? (I'm not willing to dish out for Jace.)
Ramp's metagame share is going up with Jim Davis taking down the SCGPC with it. Both decks have abysmal matchups with ramp but Esper Dragons is better off due to Ojutai.
The rise of Mentor in Jeskai Black probably pushes you toward Esper Control though. I'd be more inclined to respect Jeskai Black over Ramp.
Both decks are favored vs Abzan so you're in a decent place there.
so which deck would people here say is a better meta call right now, esper control or esper dragons?
I have access to both right now
I am going to be running the dragons variant for Oakland and I recommend going that route. I am worried about a lot of slow players for the first few rounds and non-dragons honestly takes a while to win unless you are working on a flawless victory.
I main deck 3 ultimate price and 1 complete disregard as well as 4 duress. Against ramp,I am soft to an early Ulamog game 1 but losing two permanents isn't game breaking(usualyl counter it). I am 4-1 against it locally. In my meta, Jeskai black hasn't been running Mantis Rider so I've been cruising past that easily. My closest match-up has been 4 color rally. They usually leave up dispel and that hurts me.
All the ultimate prices and duress really shuts down atarka red also.
Cards you already own
-Very little. Recently got back into it. Built a B/W token modern, and Alesha EDH deck from singles. Preordered a box of OGW and prerelease to start building a collection.
Colors you like to play
-B/W are my favorite colors, but only slightly. I would prefer black in most of my decks for flavor reasons.
Style you like to play (control, combo, aggro, midrange, tempo, ramp, rogue)
-I am not the biggest fan of reactive/slow/complete control play. Everything else is great. Rogue decks seem fun. Just something not many people play. But that usually means there is a reason no one is playing it. Midrange, tempo, ramp are probably my desired styles, enough reaction to deal with huge threats while still putting pressure.
Budget you have
-Would prefer <$100 right now and room to build with trades
Level you want to play at, or aim to build up to (causal, fmn, ptq)
-FNM, really doubt I will try anything higher for a while
B/W Allies looks like its alright right now on a budget, and has room to grow with OGW. I also like the idea of putting something together with Demonic Pact and bounce just to be cheeky. I am looking for something interesting and mostly fun to play with moderate success. Lol, dream deck.
Cards you already own
Most anything modern (all fetches, etc). assume I'm able to access most anything but would prefer not to invest into staples that won't retain a good fraction of their value once rotated (Jace, Deathmist, Den protector, Gideon etc)
Colors you like to play
Anything. I'm a spike. I am that guy.
Style you like to play (control, combo, aggro, midrange, tempo, ramp, rogue)
See above
Budget you have
Going to have to trade/borrow most of this so budget is a consideration but see point #1.
Level you want to play at, or aim to build up to (causal, fmn, ptq)
I've been out of standard since Khans - ptq.
Store I've just moved to has 50% dromoka's command decks, 25% esper control and 25% garbage. as I've been out of the meta so long, no idea of what beats what. Help?
2. Mardu Tokens - based off of the grand prix list, but cheaper. Notice the addition of reckless bushwhacker, love that card. Also, considering dropping white, but thats a question for standard deck creation. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/budget-mardu-tokens-2/
So I've recently gotten back into Magic after 9 or 10 years playing more casually off and on thanks to an awesome group me and my fiancee encountered while living in Alabama. I found a "decent" paying job and told her that I wanted to start playing again so since I have Fridays/Saturdays off I started doing FNM again (mainly draft) but would like to get back into constructed. I have been away from constructed for 10 years or so aside from casual EDH. I basically got my collection rolling after my first night doing FNM where I bought a fatpack and 2nd pack in opened a Wasteland expo & Drafted Mana Confluence. I traded off the Wasteland to a friend of mine for 2 boxes of Oath + an altered consecrated sphinx and sold off the Confluence for about $60 that night. So now I have a pretty decent collection of Oath and want to build a devoid deck with the smasher/knot/mimic/reshaper shell but i'm not sure which direction to take devoid and don't want to add too many colors 2-3 max since I would be using Corrupted Crossroads to color filter colored spells. Maybe R/B/G for World Breaker/Bearer/Obligator/Kozi Return?
So I've recently gotten back into Magic after 9 or 10 years playing more casually off and on thanks to an awesome group me and my fiancee encountered while living in Alabama. I found a "decent" paying job and told her that I wanted to start playing again so since I have Fridays/Saturdays off I started doing FNM again (mainly draft) but would like to get back into constructed. I have been away from constructed for 10 years or so aside from casual EDH. I basically got my collection rolling after my first night doing FNM where I bought a fatpack and 2nd pack in opened a Wasteland expo & Drafted Mana Confluence. I traded off the Wasteland to a friend of mine for 2 boxes of Oath + an altered consecrated sphinx and sold off the Confluence for about $60 that night. So now I have a pretty decent collection of Oath and want to build a devoid deck with the smasher/knot/mimic/reshaper shell but i'm not sure which direction to take devoid and don't want to add too many colors 2-3 max since I would be using Corrupted Crossroads to color filter colored spells. Maybe R/B/G for World Breaker/Bearer/Obligator/Kozi Return?
So I've recently gotten back into Magic after 9 or 10 years playing more casually off and on thanks to an awesome group me and my fiancee encountered while living in Alabama. I found a "decent" paying job and told her that I wanted to start playing again so since I have Fridays/Saturdays off I started doing FNM again (mainly draft) but would like to get back into constructed. I have been away from constructed for 10 years or so aside from casual EDH. I basically got my collection rolling after my first night doing FNM where I bought a fatpack and 2nd pack in opened a Wasteland expo & Drafted Mana Confluence. I traded off the Wasteland to a friend of mine for 2 boxes of Oath + an altered consecrated sphinx and sold off the Confluence for about $60 that night. So now I have a pretty decent collection of Oath and want to build a devoid deck with the smasher/knot/mimic/reshaper shell but i'm not sure which direction to take devoid and don't want to add too many colors 2-3 max since I would be using Corrupted Crossroads to color filter colored spells. Maybe R/B/G for World Breaker/Bearer/Obligator/Kozi Return?
Unfortunately, I've found the deck a bit wanting in regards to taking down tier 1 decks, but it's perfectly fine against a more casual FNM field.
Thanks man yeah i looked into that thread but it appeared most lists ran nothing but devoid. I'm also looking at this as an option post rotation since I have mostly Oath stuff but willing to trade/buy singles if I need to. With so many options devoid can do it makes it tough choosing something that will be competitive in the future meta.
Im building a B/W Allies deck, Splashing Green for Only 3 copies of Collected Company. Everything else is Black or White, And I am running Ayli, Drana, Grasp of Darkness, Stasis Snare, March from the Tomb, Cliffhaven Vampire, and Dranas Emissary. Everything else is just 1 Black or 1 White. There are several options at two drop, no one drops, and 3 single green spells in the deck. But I want to be able to consistently play Grasp of Darkness or Stasis Snare, or CoCo by turn 4. I need help building best available manabase to fit that out of this selection....
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Ally Encampment
4 Shambling Vent
4 of both GB and BW "Gainlands"
4 Evolving Wilds
All Basics
What is going to give me the smoothest, most consistent, and Aggressive Manabase from these cards as available options.... Please Help!! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
(i.e. the painlands aren't as bad with this being BW Allies)
Im building a B/W Allies deck, Splashing Green for Only 3 copies of Collected Company. Everything else is Black or White, And I am running Ayli, Drana, Grasp of Darkness, Stasis Snare, March from the Tomb, Cliffhaven Vampire, and Dranas Emissary. Everything else is just 1 Black or 1 White. There are several options at two drop, no one drops, and 3 single green spells in the deck. But I want to be able to consistently play Grasp of Darkness or Stasis Snare, or CoCo by turn 4. I need help building best available manabase to fit that out of this selection....
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Ally Encampment
4 Shambling Vent
4 of both GB and BW "Gainlands"
4 Evolving Wilds
All Basics
What is going to give me the smoothest, most consistent, and Aggressive Manabase from these cards as available options.... Please Help!! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
(i.e. the painlands aren't as bad with this being BW Allies)
First, you need to read this article for reference. You don't need to understand the math, but I always refer to the final numbers when building a mana base. The current land assortment in Standard makes your plan a little greedy: BB on T2, WW T3, and G T4 is possible, but it will NOT consistently produce. If you can eliminate one of those double-colors (maybe Abzan Charm instead of Stasis Snare), it will be MUCH more reliable.
That said, here is the best answer I can think of to your question.
Count the number of sources of each color and compare that to what Karsten says in his article. Run those numbers through this hypergeometric calculator http://stattrek.com/online-calculator/hypergeometric.aspx, and you'll see how much less consistent you might be.
Ally Encampment would be great ... if your BB and WW spells were Allies. Since they aren't, you'd really hurt your chances of being able to cast them (EVER) if you ran that land.
Finally, I know you want to splash G for "only" CoCo, but you have to consider Siege Rhino if you're in Abzan colors. It is probably too good to leave out.
Hey, thanks alot. I actually found a different article. And the main thing I was worried about was Drana and Coco. I don't consider Grasp a two drop, as I will almost never be playing it turn 2. I chose them specifically for the removal that they are, but in reality, in my build I won't be playing them until turns 4+, so I don't view them that way. Here's what I went with...
4 Caves of Koilos
3 Llanowar Wastes
4 Ally Encampment
4 Shambling Vent
3 Sandsteppe Citadel
2 Swamp
2 Plains
2 Forest
The 16 non-Ally Black, and 13 non-Ally White should consistently get me turn 2 Ayli, if needed. Otherwise, 20 Ally Black, and 17 Ally white, should get me all of my 2 drops besides Ayli, and my BB turn 3 for Drana. And only needing G by turn 4 or 5, the 8 sources should be pretty consistent. I've done some play-testing, and things have worked pretty good. As, even in odd mana situations, this deck has various routes to curve through, making my early turns pretty consistent.
I appreciate the help though, alot. Thank you.
Oh, and as for Siege Rhino, I want to keep mostly Allies, because Coco into say... Kalastria Healer and Drana,with Healer and Cliffhaven Vampire in play, makes just too powerful a swing. 8 damage, gain 4. On turn 5, or so is nasty. That's why I opted for Coco. The deck was pretty tight in BW otherwise, making room for Rhino just muddies things up even more. I wouldn't even have considered Coco, if I didn't already have a playset.
Greetings! My local Standard environment is pretty cutthroat, and everyone plays radically different things (B/W Warriors, Collected Company, Five-Colour Retreat, Goblin Tribal, Hardended Scales, Hedron Alignment, etc.). I had been running Mardu Aggro centering on Alesha, Who Smiles at Death's reanimation, combined with ETB effects like Pia and Kiran Nalaar and Ponyback Brigade, but nothing I tried was fast enough or impactful enough to win.
I was thinking of running U/x control to try to get the best matchups, but I wasn't sure what I should do. I have a lot of basic control staples for black and white (Duress, Despise, Reflector Mage, etc.) but the rest is a bit tricky. Should I run U/B, U/W, Esper, or something entirely different? Is control the wrong deck for me?
I don't have a high budget (in fact, I would prefer spending less than $10 on additional cards) but these are the higher-end cards I currently own:
I just started playing again after about 2 and a half years. I bought a few packs and pulled a Chandra, Flamecaller and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar as well as some Gruul creatures. I have no idea what is used in the standard meta right now or what I want to build. I was toying with the idea of some graveyard fun with Chandra. But the main idea I want to work with is a R/G ramp deck. Maybe using Eldrazi guys.
I'm looking for some ideas and some builds from you guys because I'm just starting to look to build a competitive standard deck. Any Gruul ideas or maybe even other ideas on builds I can work with?
I just started playing again after about 2 and a half years. I bought some packs and the main things I pulled were Chandra, Flamecaller and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar as well as some Gruul creatures so I'm thinking about building a standard Gruul ramp deck. Maybe using some Eldrazi guys. Any ideas!? Please help because I'm a noob all over again.
I just started playing maybe two weeks before oath. I have been collecting cards from Kahn's to oath getting ready for rotation.I have been playing mono red agro but been having a problem finishing people. I'm not for sure what to play yet I do have three jace's. I want to get most of the cards I need before rotation to go with the jace's.
Last question would be should I buy boxs of SOI I purchase or should I buy the singles I need and my fourth have ?
I just started playing maybe two weeks before oath. I have been collecting cards from Kahn's to oath getting ready for rotation.I have been playing mono red agro but been having a problem finishing people. I'm not for sure what to play yet I do have three jace's. I want to get most of the cards I need before rotation to go with the jace's.
Last question would be should I buy boxs of SOI I purchase or should I buy the singles I need and my fourth have ?
Singles are generally cheaper. Even better when your shop offers store credit for prize support than packs.
Jace will have a deck, we just don't know what it looks like yet.
First of all, this is the Standard Forum where we talk about Standard Legal decks (What's in standard? Well I'm glad you asked. Click me). Standard is a format where only the most recent sets are used to build decks and play in tournaments. Most local constructed tournaments in your area will likely be standard, because it's usually the cheapest format to start learning how to play.
Unfortunately, Vraska, the Unseen rotated out of standard a while back, so you won't be able to play her in a standard tournament. You can, however, play her against your friends in the living room, since there are usually few restrictions in casual play groups. If you want to learn about Casual decks and suggestions for them, we have a forum for that.
You can also play Vraska in the Modern format, if you wish to play competitively with her. However, she's not particularly strong in Modern, simply because of the card pool.
Finally, if you want to start building a collection, my suggestion is to start with a Theme deck from your local game shop or Walmart/Target/Kmart (preferably your local game shop since supporting local businesses is great as well a great resource of people who also want to play Magic w/ you).
Finally, buying singles from the internet or your local game shop are great ways to build decks but sometimes can be cost prohibitive if you don't know exactly what you're looking for.
Good luck and have fun,
Lugger
I'll go head over to the Modern forum.
JDude
I've never played Standard before, but I've opened a lot of BfZ, so much that I've got 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. It'd be nice to use them, but if there are no viable decks that use him that's ok. I also have a good number of the Tangolands, but no fetches. If they're absolutely necessary I can get some.
So are there any good decks that can use a set of Gideons and preferably are not too financially painful otherwise? (I'm not willing to dish out for Jace.)
I've also got 3 Ob Nixilis Reignited and 2 Kiora, Master of the Depths.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
I have access to both right now
The rise of Mentor in Jeskai Black probably pushes you toward Esper Control though. I'd be more inclined to respect Jeskai Black over Ramp.
Both decks are favored vs Abzan so you're in a decent place there.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
I am going to be running the dragons variant for Oakland and I recommend going that route. I am worried about a lot of slow players for the first few rounds and non-dragons honestly takes a while to win unless you are working on a flawless victory.
I main deck 3 ultimate price and 1 complete disregard as well as 4 duress. Against ramp,I am soft to an early Ulamog game 1 but losing two permanents isn't game breaking(usualyl counter it). I am 4-1 against it locally. In my meta, Jeskai black hasn't been running Mantis Rider so I've been cruising past that easily. My closest match-up has been 4 color rally. They usually leave up dispel and that hurts me.
All the ultimate prices and duress really shuts down atarka red also.
-Very little. Recently got back into it. Built a B/W token modern, and Alesha EDH deck from singles. Preordered a box of OGW and prerelease to start building a collection.
Colors you like to play
-B/W are my favorite colors, but only slightly. I would prefer black in most of my decks for flavor reasons.
Style you like to play (control, combo, aggro, midrange, tempo, ramp, rogue)
-I am not the biggest fan of reactive/slow/complete control play. Everything else is great. Rogue decks seem fun. Just something not many people play. But that usually means there is a reason no one is playing it. Midrange, tempo, ramp are probably my desired styles, enough reaction to deal with huge threats while still putting pressure.
Budget you have
-Would prefer <$100 right now and room to build with trades
Level you want to play at, or aim to build up to (causal, fmn, ptq)
-FNM, really doubt I will try anything higher for a while
B/W Allies looks like its alright right now on a budget, and has room to grow with OGW. I also like the idea of putting something together with Demonic Pact and bounce just to be cheeky. I am looking for something interesting and mostly fun to play with moderate success. Lol, dream deck.
Most anything modern (all fetches, etc). assume I'm able to access most anything but would prefer not to invest into staples that won't retain a good fraction of their value once rotated (Jace, Deathmist, Den protector, Gideon etc)
Colors you like to play
Anything. I'm a spike. I am that guy.
Style you like to play (control, combo, aggro, midrange, tempo, ramp, rogue)
See above
Budget you have
Going to have to trade/borrow most of this so budget is a consideration but see point #1.
Level you want to play at, or aim to build up to (causal, fmn, ptq)
I've been out of standard since Khans - ptq.
Store I've just moved to has 50% dromoka's command decks, 25% esper control and 25% garbage. as I've been out of the meta so long, no idea of what beats what. Help?
I left when return to ravnica popped up.
Anyway, I'm still on a budget, so I've brought some lists that I'm thinking about running.
1. Mardu rAllies - based off of a list I saw on mtg goldfish
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/budget-rallies-better-mana-1/
2. Mardu Tokens - based off of the grand prix list, but cheaper. Notice the addition of reckless bushwhacker, love that card. Also, considering dropping white, but thats a question for standard deck creation.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/budget-mardu-tokens-2/
3. BR Dragons - a budget version of the upper tier deck. I'm willing to shell out for thunderbreak 'cuz it's a cool card
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/budget-br-dragons-3/
4. Goblins - ok, ok, almost done. This is the cheapest deck, based off of the mtg goldfish budget deck.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/standard-gobos-3/
Thanks for the help guys. Whatever deck I decide on I'll take over to the budget deck forums
Here's our Devoid Aggro thread.
Unfortunately, I've found the deck a bit wanting in regards to taking down tier 1 decks, but it's perfectly fine against a more casual FNM field.
Thanks man yeah i looked into that thread but it appeared most lists ran nothing but devoid. I'm also looking at this as an option post rotation since I have mostly Oath stuff but willing to trade/buy singles if I need to. With so many options devoid can do it makes it tough choosing something that will be competitive in the future meta.
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Ally Encampment
4 Shambling Vent
4 of both GB and BW "Gainlands"
4 Evolving Wilds
All Basics
What is going to give me the smoothest, most consistent, and Aggressive Manabase from these cards as available options.... Please Help!! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
(i.e. the painlands aren't as bad with this being BW Allies)
Not entirely.
Although we've seen some weird ones pop up in the top 8 of the RPTQs so it's a brewer's world out there.
Just make sure you can have game against: Rally, CoCo, Ramp, and big mid-range decks (like Dragons, Jeskai Black, or Mardu Green).
Yeah, my goal is to also run displacer to blink tidecaller and have scatter every turn
First, you need to read this article for reference. You don't need to understand the math, but I always refer to the final numbers when building a mana base. The current land assortment in Standard makes your plan a little greedy: BB on T2, WW T3, and G T4 is possible, but it will NOT consistently produce. If you can eliminate one of those double-colors (maybe Abzan Charm instead of Stasis Snare), it will be MUCH more reliable.
That said, here is the best answer I can think of to your question.
2 Windswept Heath
1 Canopy Vista
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Shambling Vent
3 Plains
4 Swamp
Count the number of sources of each color and compare that to what Karsten says in his article. Run those numbers through this hypergeometric calculator http://stattrek.com/online-calculator/hypergeometric.aspx, and you'll see how much less consistent you might be.
Ally Encampment would be great ... if your BB and WW spells were Allies. Since they aren't, you'd really hurt your chances of being able to cast them (EVER) if you ran that land.
Finally, I know you want to splash G for "only" CoCo, but you have to consider Siege Rhino if you're in Abzan colors. It is probably too good to leave out.
4 Caves of Koilos
3 Llanowar Wastes
4 Ally Encampment
4 Shambling Vent
3 Sandsteppe Citadel
2 Swamp
2 Plains
2 Forest
The 16 non-Ally Black, and 13 non-Ally White should consistently get me turn 2 Ayli, if needed. Otherwise, 20 Ally Black, and 17 Ally white, should get me all of my 2 drops besides Ayli, and my BB turn 3 for Drana. And only needing G by turn 4 or 5, the 8 sources should be pretty consistent. I've done some play-testing, and things have worked pretty good. As, even in odd mana situations, this deck has various routes to curve through, making my early turns pretty consistent.
I appreciate the help though, alot. Thank you.
Oh, and as for Siege Rhino, I want to keep mostly Allies, because Coco into say... Kalastria Healer and Drana,with Healer and Cliffhaven Vampire in play, makes just too powerful a swing. 8 damage, gain 4. On turn 5, or so is nasty. That's why I opted for Coco. The deck was pretty tight in BW otherwise, making room for Rhino just muddies things up even more. I wouldn't even have considered Coco, if I didn't already have a playset.
I was thinking of running U/x control to try to get the best matchups, but I wasn't sure what I should do. I have a lot of basic control staples for black and white (Duress, Despise, Reflector Mage, etc.) but the rest is a bit tricky. Should I run U/B, U/W, Esper, or something entirely different? Is control the wrong deck for me?
I don't have a high budget (in fact, I would prefer spending less than $10 on additional cards) but these are the higher-end cards I currently own:
2 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
1 Cinder Glade
1 Hangarback Walker
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
4 Monastery Swiftspear
1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
2 Oblivion Sower
4 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reality Smasher
2 Shambling Vent
4 Shivan Reef
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Thunderbreak Regent
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Windswept Heath
Any help, suggestions, or guiding would be appreciated. Thank you!
I'm looking for some ideas and some builds from you guys because I'm just starting to look to build a competitive standard deck. Any Gruul ideas or maybe even other ideas on builds I can work with?
Last question would be should I buy boxs of SOI I purchase or should I buy the singles I need and my fourth have ?
Singles are generally cheaper. Even better when your shop offers store credit for prize support than packs.
Jace will have a deck, we just don't know what it looks like yet.