It is generally thought that, despite it's rhetoric, North Korea doesn't actually have the capabilities to throw out these missiles. Secondly, North Korean-Chinese relations have been strained for some time now, as shown by the recent UN sanctions against North Korea, which were backed by China. So we can assume that if North Korea does make some aggressive moves, China would probably not back them, especially if the US and her allies are on the other end. Thirdly, North Korea is an impoverished, and very weak nation. If it came to a war, North Korea would lose very quickly without Chinese support, which is getting less and less guaranteed as North Korea makes more and more threats.
North Korea will not lead to WWIII. There would have to be Great Powers on both sides for a war of that magnitude to occur, and right now it seems to be everyone v. North Korea except for a reluctant China.
Just because we have racial prejudices here doesn't mean we need to translate those some prejudices to Ravnica.
<You are a prick>. What you are whining about is not only blown out proportion, but also does not matter and here's why:
One. This a game, made by a bunch of white guys, for a bunch of white guys in country full of white guys, about a place that is based on the politics of, essentially, Europe. Which is a place full of white people. No ****ing **** their games are going to be full of white people. You cannot be surprised that generally people create things based on what they see around them. That's just a simple fact. It's the same reason Indian movies are filled with Indians, Chinese movies are filled with Chinese people, Japanese movies are filled with Japanese people etc.
Two. The making of the game does not reflect any racial prejudice, it simply reflects the society we are living in, and Wizard's target audience. White people. Countries that are predominantly white; Europe, United States, South America. If you are upset at the lack of racial diversity in the western world, where most magic players live, you should go take that up somewhere else.
Three. This is a game. This is not where you should be leading your holy crusade against the lack of racial diversity. Go look at something like government, school districts, income distribution, or something, that in the grand scheme of things, actually matters. Or, if you are even taking a stand about the perception of race by the creators of American culture, you should be looking at something that is broader.
Get off of your high horse. You aren't the savior of minorities all across the United States because you whining about the lack of diversity in MTG card art, and presumably other places. It doesn't matter. It doesn't make you a better, more moral person, that you waste peoples time like this. In fact, the fact that you pointed this out, I would argue makes you worse than the rest of us. Nobody else said a word about this problem, simply because nobody else noticed it. To them all they saw were people. All the same as any other white, black, blue whatever person. And this is actually what every minority in America has ever fought for actually, to be the same as the ruling race, NOT to have <idiots like you> running around and preaching. Point is, only you have this filter of race in front of your eyes. Everyone else just sees people, and I would advise you to start looking at it all the same.
Don't we normally get a tagline about now? Also, did I miss something about the Pro-Tour? I thought Theros was to be Modern, like Return to Ravnica, but the Arcana says Standard.
Hmm. That seems interesting. What I was interested in is finding cards for the midrange match up, since that, too me, is what I had the most trouble with, so I was more interested in going over the top with Angel.
It's not really that bad, but it isn't really excellent either. Games I win are usually t2 kill the champion and then drop a 3 drop. Both Lingering Souls and Loxodon Smiter are kinda difficult for them to get through, and really slow non-Rancor decks down. (Rancor sucks though, Ash Zealot just swings through Smiter and dgafs about Souls. By that point you get to start playing stuff like Thragtusks and Restoration Angel, which just outclasses what they are doing, along with efficient spot removal on their bombs. It's not easy cause Naya can still just explode and kill you, but it's certainly not unwinnable
My sideboard plan would be:
-3 Obzedat, Ghost Council
-1 Orzhov Charm
-2 Farseek?
-2 Unburial Rites
-2 Liliana of the Veil
Farseek is actually really bad in this match up. I'd much rather be casting a turn two removal spell like Abrupt Decay or Victim of Night, but I'm not sure if siding them out is the right play. I might just side the other two out and bring in an extra Sever and a Sigarda, just cause she's big and blocks well.
Obzedat, in my opinion is the crux of the deck. Even against aggro, he can just outrace them, if you have a decent degree of stabilization. And he just gives you free wins against Esper and Flash, which I think merits the as a 3-of. I agree that there are better options, but in my opinion, he's just too good for less than 3 in the main.
I do want to find room for Angel of Serenity. Lotleth Troll has been, by far, the worst card in the deck, so I am considering switching that around.
A couple things:
- Ultimate Price sucks. Seriously. You miss out on so much stuff it's not even funny: Boros Reckoner, Obzedat, Olivia, Falkenrath Artistocrat, Huntmaster, Cartel Aristocrats, Smiters, Burning Tree Shamans, the list goes on and on. The best removal spells in the format are easily Abrupt Decay and Victim of Night, which between themselves hit everything in the format other than Olivia Voldaren, Huntmaster of the Fells, Falkenrath Aristocrat, but we have a while bunch of other hard removal to deal with them. While Oblivion Ring and Sever the Bloodline are, in my opinion, a little too slow to be main-decked against the explosively fast Naya Humans Aggro and Rx variants, in large numbers. I like main-decking one because then I have something to deal with Jund's creatures pre-board. Also, Sever has flashback, so it works with Liliana of the Veil well, as well as against grindy Jund decks as well. Also, slightly irrelevant, but I hate you if you chain Burning Tree Emissaries.
- Liliana of the Veil is really great in this deck. I have in my build a decent amount of graveyard interaction, so the +1 is almost always a 1.5 for 1. I shouldn't have to explain why -2 is a gold mine, but since some of our creatures (Obzedat, Thragtusk, Sigarda, even Loxodon Smiter to an extent) are difficult to interact favorably with spells, opponents have to resort to favorable creature combat to defend, so repeatable removal is great.
- Loxodon Smiter is where we want to be in the early game for this deck. Vampire Nighthawk and Centaur Healers are kind of bad in a format where every aggro deck is packing a playset of Spears. You play Centaur Healer, gain three life, and more often then not, he's just going to eat a spear without putting up a fight. Nighthawk is even worse, since it doesn't have an ETB effect. Smiter, against every deck except Aristocrats and Zombies, forces the opponent to 2 for 1 themselves if they want the Smiter off the board. (Or Gruul just Rancor's it's Ash Zealot and you table flip). Then Smiter plays offense a billion times better than Nighthawk, since it's so big, so once you start dropping Thragtusk's to stabilize, Smiter turns around and smashes face. Also he trades with Boros Reckoner, can't be countered by Flash and messes with Liliana of the Veil and Rakdos' Return from Jund. He's kind of just an all around all-star.
-Lingering Souls does something similar, but in the air, and interacts favorably with Liliana of the Veil. Difficult to remove for aggro decks, and allows you to get to your Thragtusks and Obzedats. Not nearly as stellar as Smiter, bu because of the fact that it can slow down aggro, and doesn't interact well with opponent's removal.
- Sigarda's a boss. Jund is by far the worst match-up and Esper's not too hot either. The thing I like about Sigarda and Obzedat is that g1, Esper seems to side out it's sweepers since they aren't really good against Souls, Lotleth Troll, Thragtusk and Obzedat and tend to move into removal that can deal with Obzedat. Sigarda doesn't much care about that removal and just beats face. She wins the game against Jund all by herself too.
- Speaking of Lotleth Troll, I'm not so sure about him. The discard a guy and then reanimate it thing is cute, but he's almost always the card I least want to see. I tried to make an effort to have as few dead draw mid/late game as possible since with have no Think Twice or Sphinx's Revelations to adequately sift through the deck, and Lotleth Troll (Other than a Land or Farseek) is the closest thing to useless after turn three or so.
- I don't really see the point of Avacyn's Pilgrim > Arbor Elf either really, and I'm not even sure how strong it would be. t2 Souls or Smiter seems pretty good though.
The reason this card is not very good, not because it's a poor card by itself (by itself its decently strong), but because it is basically Terminus. Exiling, sending to the botom of the library are equally good now. Except it trades the miracle cost for two abilities that are not too relevant. Planeswalkers aren't very good, or common, in standard at the moment, and neither are artifacts or enchantments. The chance to flip over a Terminus on turn two or three (and then have counter-magic, or Azorius Charm back up) is far better than being able kill a few artifacts or Planeswalker every now and again.
B/R zombie decks get away with just running 12 zombies (Crawlers, Ghouls and Messengers). I find that this t=number is the sweet spot honestly. The recursion with just 12 zombies isn't around at all times, but it is common enough to make it very very relevant and generally reliable.
I think I would try to run some sort of Hyper-Aggressive build such as this, the first go around. Based around all twelve two power one drops. Dreg Mangler, Gravecrawler and Slitherhead all buff up LolTroll with other value.
North Korea will not lead to WWIII. There would have to be Great Powers on both sides for a war of that magnitude to occur, and right now it seems to be everyone v. North Korea except for a reluctant China.
<You are a prick>. What you are whining about is not only blown out proportion, but also does not matter and here's why:
One. This a game, made by a bunch of white guys, for a bunch of white guys in country full of white guys, about a place that is based on the politics of, essentially, Europe. Which is a place full of white people. No ****ing **** their games are going to be full of white people. You cannot be surprised that generally people create things based on what they see around them. That's just a simple fact. It's the same reason Indian movies are filled with Indians, Chinese movies are filled with Chinese people, Japanese movies are filled with Japanese people etc.
Two. The making of the game does not reflect any racial prejudice, it simply reflects the society we are living in, and Wizard's target audience. White people. Countries that are predominantly white; Europe, United States, South America. If you are upset at the lack of racial diversity in the western world, where most magic players live, you should go take that up somewhere else.
Three. This is a game. This is not where you should be leading your holy crusade against the lack of racial diversity. Go look at something like government, school districts, income distribution, or something, that in the grand scheme of things, actually matters. Or, if you are even taking a stand about the perception of race by the creators of American culture, you should be looking at something that is broader.
Get off of your high horse. You aren't the savior of minorities all across the United States because you whining about the lack of diversity in MTG card art, and presumably other places. It doesn't matter. It doesn't make you a better, more moral person, that you waste peoples time like this. In fact, the fact that you pointed this out, I would argue makes you worse than the rest of us. Nobody else said a word about this problem, simply because nobody else noticed it. To them all they saw were people. All the same as any other white, black, blue whatever person. And this is actually what every minority in America has ever fought for actually, to be the same as the ruling race, NOT to have <idiots like you> running around and preaching. Point is, only you have this filter of race in front of your eyes. Everyone else just sees people, and I would advise you to start looking at it all the same.
Please don't flame other users. -TK
My sideboard plan would be:
-3 Obzedat, Ghost Council
-1 Orzhov Charm
-2 Farseek?
-2 Unburial Rites
-2 Liliana of the Veil
+2 Abrupt Decay
+2 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
+1 Murder
+3 Deathrite Shaman
+2 Oblivion Ring
Farseek is actually really bad in this match up. I'd much rather be casting a turn two removal spell like Abrupt Decay or Victim of Night, but I'm not sure if siding them out is the right play. I might just side the other two out and bring in an extra Sever and a Sigarda, just cause she's big and blocks well.
Obzedat, in my opinion is the crux of the deck. Even against aggro, he can just outrace them, if you have a decent degree of stabilization. And he just gives you free wins against Esper and Flash, which I think merits the as a 3-of. I agree that there are better options, but in my opinion, he's just too good for less than 3 in the main.
I do want to find room for Angel of Serenity. Lotleth Troll has been, by far, the worst card in the deck, so I am considering switching that around.
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
3 Obzedat, Ghost Council
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
2 Liliana of the Veil
4 Farseek
2 Victim of Night
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Sever the Bloodline
2 Unburial Rites
3 Lingering Souls
1 Orzhov Charm
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Godless Shrine
4 Woodland Cemetery
2 Sunpetal Grove
3 Isolated Chapel
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Vraska, the Unseen
1 Sever the Bloodline
2 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
3 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Murder
3 Deathrite Shaman
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Abrupt Decay
A couple things:
- Ultimate Price sucks. Seriously. You miss out on so much stuff it's not even funny: Boros Reckoner, Obzedat, Olivia, Falkenrath Artistocrat, Huntmaster, Cartel Aristocrats, Smiters, Burning Tree Shamans, the list goes on and on. The best removal spells in the format are easily Abrupt Decay and Victim of Night, which between themselves hit everything in the format other than Olivia Voldaren, Huntmaster of the Fells, Falkenrath Aristocrat, but we have a while bunch of other hard removal to deal with them. While Oblivion Ring and Sever the Bloodline are, in my opinion, a little too slow to be main-decked against the explosively fast Naya Humans Aggro and Rx variants, in large numbers. I like main-decking one because then I have something to deal with Jund's creatures pre-board. Also, Sever has flashback, so it works with Liliana of the Veil well, as well as against grindy Jund decks as well. Also, slightly irrelevant, but I hate you if you chain Burning Tree Emissaries.
- Liliana of the Veil is really great in this deck. I have in my build a decent amount of graveyard interaction, so the +1 is almost always a 1.5 for 1. I shouldn't have to explain why -2 is a gold mine, but since some of our creatures (Obzedat, Thragtusk, Sigarda, even Loxodon Smiter to an extent) are difficult to interact favorably with spells, opponents have to resort to favorable creature combat to defend, so repeatable removal is great.
- Loxodon Smiter is where we want to be in the early game for this deck. Vampire Nighthawk and Centaur Healers are kind of bad in a format where every aggro deck is packing a playset of Spears. You play Centaur Healer, gain three life, and more often then not, he's just going to eat a spear without putting up a fight. Nighthawk is even worse, since it doesn't have an ETB effect. Smiter, against every deck except Aristocrats and Zombies, forces the opponent to 2 for 1 themselves if they want the Smiter off the board. (Or Gruul just Rancor's it's Ash Zealot and you table flip). Then Smiter plays offense a billion times better than Nighthawk, since it's so big, so once you start dropping Thragtusk's to stabilize, Smiter turns around and smashes face. Also he trades with Boros Reckoner, can't be countered by Flash and messes with Liliana of the Veil and Rakdos' Return from Jund. He's kind of just an all around all-star.
-Lingering Souls does something similar, but in the air, and interacts favorably with Liliana of the Veil. Difficult to remove for aggro decks, and allows you to get to your Thragtusks and Obzedats. Not nearly as stellar as Smiter, bu because of the fact that it can slow down aggro, and doesn't interact well with opponent's removal.
- Sigarda's a boss. Jund is by far the worst match-up and Esper's not too hot either. The thing I like about Sigarda and Obzedat is that g1, Esper seems to side out it's sweepers since they aren't really good against Souls, Lotleth Troll, Thragtusk and Obzedat and tend to move into removal that can deal with Obzedat. Sigarda doesn't much care about that removal and just beats face. She wins the game against Jund all by herself too.
- Speaking of Lotleth Troll, I'm not so sure about him. The discard a guy and then reanimate it thing is cute, but he's almost always the card I least want to see. I tried to make an effort to have as few dead draw mid/late game as possible since with have no Think Twice or Sphinx's Revelations to adequately sift through the deck, and Lotleth Troll (Other than a Land or Farseek) is the closest thing to useless after turn three or so.
- I don't really see the point of Avacyn's Pilgrim > Arbor Elf either really, and I'm not even sure how strong it would be. t2 Souls or Smiter seems pretty good though.
Truefire Paladin I believe is new in the Image gallery.
EDIT: Thanks, Senior Gomez.
4 Gravecrawler
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Dryad Militant
4 Siltherhead
4 Loleth Troll
3 Blood Artists
2 Bloodthrone Vampire
4 Dreg Manglers
4 Geralf's Messengers
2 Tragic Slip
21 Lands
4 Woodland Cemetery
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Cavern of Souls
8 Swamps
1 Forest
I think I would try to run some sort of Hyper-Aggressive build such as this, the first go around. Based around all twelve two power one drops. Dreg Mangler, Gravecrawler and Slitherhead all buff up LolTroll with other value.