- FTW1987
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Member for 10 years, 2 months, and 21 days
Last active Thu, May, 14 2020 16:29:47
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PepeRoni posted a message on Equipment for Blue UnblockablesYeah but my friend group basically has an infect ban.Posted in: Casual & Multiplayer Formats -
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Selvaxri posted a message on 4/24 Random Card of the Day: Onakke OgreOn the upside, atleast it doesn't have Islandhome. That damn ability made so many blue-beefs unplayable, or just really expensive walls.Posted in: Casual & Multiplayer Formats -
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Rezzahan posted a message on 4/24 Random Card of the Day: Onakke OgreI'm currently using Snakeform in my Solemnity deck for additional cards that let me keep my Ravaging Riftwurms. This card lets me keep it by removing vanishing in response to the time counter removing trigger, that will remove the last time counter. Thus, when the last time counter later gets removed, there is no vanishing ability to trigger a sacrifrice. And the trigger condition will not come up again, because the Wurm now has no time counters to remove anymore, so you can't remove the last one anymore. Unless someone places another one on it somehow. The downside of temporarily having your cheap 6/6 be only a 1/1 is a fair tradeoff for getting to keep it. It is the only monogreen card I found with such an effect to allow that trick (my deck doesn't run blue). Plus the cantrip is nice, and it serves as a combat trick, too.Posted in: Casual & Multiplayer Formats -
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RabidVacin posted a message on Duel Decks: Homelands vs Fallen EmpiresI decided to make casual decks based on the two worst sets in the history of MTG. In order to make it so that the decks weren't completely terrible, I allowed myself to have 25% of the non-land cards be outside of Fallen Empires or Homelands.Posted in: Casual & Multiplayer Formats
Fallen EmpiresMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards Creatures (33)
4 Thelon of Havenwood
4 Thorn Thallid
3 Feral Thallid
4 Thallid Devourer
4 Spore Flower
4 Thallid
4 Icatian Javelineers
4 Icatian Moneychanger
2 Pir, Imaginative RascalArtifacts (3)
3 Contagion Clasp
Lands (24)
7 Forest
3 Swamp
2 Plains
3 Sunpetal Grove
3 Woodland Cemetery
3 Hickory Woodlot
3 Gemstone Mine
HomelandsMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards Creatures (17)
4 Roterothopter
4 Sengir Bats
4 Giant Albatross
2 Giant Oyster
3 FallowsageInstants (6)
2 Memory Lapse
4 Counterspell
Enchantments (10)
4 Feast of the Unicorn
4 Koskun Falls
2 Endless ScreamArtifacts (3)
3 Feroz's Ban
Lands (24)
10 Island
10 Swamp
4 Drowned Catacomb -
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IBeatTomGuevin_revive posted a message on [[Official]] Unconstructive Bragging ThreadHavent played in years... The last prerelease I attended was whatever set Bitter Blossom was in lol. Went to my local card store for their sanctioned draft... 4-0. The kid still has it. Apparently the players are still way better online and know not to pass me triple artful takedown.Posted in: Limited (Sealed, Draft) -
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Pollaski posted a message on [[Official]] "PWNED!" Plays ThreadSOI prerelease. Opponent's been whittling away at his Thing in the Ice, flips it, and swings me down to 4. Had a Malevolent Whispers and Uncaged Fury in my hand the whoooooooooooooole time. Cut it a little finer than I wanted, but poor dude never saw it coming.Posted in: Limited (Sealed, Draft) -
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Prid3 posted a message on Grixis Waste NotPosted in: MultiplayerQuote from FTW1987 »
Build to a position where you wheel once or twice and then dump the Waste Not mana into a big spell like Torment of Hailfire or Death Cloud.
Nope, you use Cut // Ribbons! It functions as a removal spell early on and still works from your GY which is incredibly relevant when you're wheeling and dealing. When I was building that deck I spent a lot of time trying to find the optimal 1-card win condition and in testing C//R blew the competition away.
FWIW Emrakul, the Aeons Torn > Elixir of Immortality. It still works when milled/discarded and you can legit cast it off of Waste Not mana at times. Turn 1 Land + Gemstone Caverns/Mox Diamond/Chrome Mox + Waste Not, turn 2 Windfall + Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is typically GG.
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goblin_welder posted a message on Ravnica nestalgiaPosted in: Casual & Multiplayer FormatsQuote from Boondocksnt5 »Hello, I have been out of the game for some time now and recently came across my old collection.
I was big on the Ravnica block and now that there was a second block released I'm looking to build a casual deck for each of the Guilds using only Ravnica and RTR cards.
I don't know much about the RTR block so I could use some help and recommendations on solid cards.
If you have done something similar please share I would enjoy looking things over
I don't think you can build a Ravnica guild Battle Box with just Ravnica/RTR cards. Just like FTW1987 mentioned, a lot of the guilds have mechanics that don't really reflect on their guild philosophy.
On my guild decks, I used these mechanics as the main ones (I built the deck so it has minimal set specific mechanic/keyword):
Azorius: Miracle
Dimir: Delirium
Rakdos: Annihilator
Gruul: Landfall
Selesnya: Cascade
Orzhov: Monarch
Izzet: Storm
Golgari: Dredge
Boros: Batallion
Simic: Energy -
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Rezzahan posted a message on Dominaria Prerelease Pool@FTW1987Posted in: Sealed Pool & Draftcap Discussion
I would still try to somehow squeeze Final Parting in. It has helped me greatly in the prerelease to find my removal, allowing me to Eviscerate Lyra in time, or lecture a whole bunch of opposing creatures with the Scriptures (the Juggernaut wouldn't listen, though). It's an expensive tutor, essentially costing a turn to use it, but still very useful. Plus, it could grab me another historic card for the historic interactions. -
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BadMcFadden posted a message on Dominara Prerelease Report: 4-0 with Black/White"I opened five amazing rare white bombs and a swingy artifact bomb. I wasnt sure what to do but I decided to play them all and win"Posted in: Limited (Sealed, Draft) - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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The biggest weakness I see is that you have a lot of 1-time use tricks to defend you. In a multiplayer game, you can eventually run out of them and then you have no way to defend yourself. Especially if you play with the same playgroup often, they will eventually catch on to your shenanigans and start attacking you more before they can get Tainted Striked out of the game. You can improve your defenses by playing more powerful tricks, playing tricks with built-in card draw (so you don't run out of cards in hand as quickly), and playing repeatable effects.
For example, either Propaganda or Ghostly Prison or Norin's Annex is very strong in decks like this. They make it very hard to attack you with multiple creatures (so you don't have to worry about them swarming around your Wall of Souls). They also just encourage your opponents to attack each other instead of you, because who wants to pay extra mana for nothing?
Instead of Simulacrum, a one-time use card, put Pariah on Stuffy Doll and no one will attack you!
Fog could be replaced by many better variants. Moment's Peace and Constant Mists can be used more than once. Respite and Riot Control also gain you life. Dawn Charm can be used for other modes if you like flexibility. Comeuppance really punishes them for attacking you, so if you play with the same group often, they might avoid you if they think you could be holding Comeuppance. Pick one you like. It'll be an upgrade to Fog.
There are better versions of Unsummon too. Echoing Truth returns multiple copies at once, very good against tokens. Into the Roil has an option to draw a card if you have extra mana. Vapor Snag deals them 1 damage.
I would go up to 4 Invigorate and cut some Titanic Growths. Giving them life is irrelevant if you're about to kill them with Infect. Or you can give the life to a different player, for diplomacy reasons.
Also you're going to want more card draw so you don't run out of spells and find the tricks you need. Check out cards like Fact or Fiction, Opportunity, Compulsive Research. Rhystic Study is very strong in multiplayer but might be out of your budget by now. If you have enough card draw, you don't even need as many copies of your other tricks.
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You can adhere to the B/R list... Turn 1 Mishra's Workshop, Black Vise, Black Vise, Black Vise, Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall, Twincast = 27 damage
But even Mishra's Workshop, Sol Ring, Black Vise, Trinisphere is rough.
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Really good point that needs to get emphasized more.
Mill isn't inherently bad. Wizards just nerfed the power level of mill cards compared to burn cards, so there aren't great options for going "aggro mill" (casting spells to mill your opponent's library as fast as possible until it's all gone).
They print Lava Spike and Lightning Bolt vs Tome Scour. To match Lava Spike in power level, Tome Scour would need to mill 7-8 cards instead of 5. To match Lightning Bolt in power level, it would need to read "Instant. Choose one - Target creature gets -0/-3 until end of turn; Put the top 7 cards of target player's library in his or her graveyard; Remove 3 loyalty counters from target planeswalker." Lightning Bolt just has so much utility. It can burn opponents, but it can also kill creatures and hurt planeswalkers, and it's an instant. Clearly Lightning Bolt is just so much better than any mill card ever printed, which is just unfair to the mill player.
Looking at the above math, Glimpse the Unthinkable is fair. If mill needs to be 2.5 times as much as burn and you can burn 4 for 2 mana (e.g. Boros Charm), then Glimpse is fair milling 10 = 4 * 2.5. The problem is Glimpse lacks flexibility. Boros Charm is an instant and also has 2 other modes, while Glimpse is a sorcery and can only mill. It's like the Lightning Bolt vs Tome Scour comparison above. Lightning Bolt and Boros Charm just do so many more things other than just attack the opponent.
These are the mill spells I would consider efficient for their mana costs:
Archive Trap (0 mana -> mill 13)
Hedron Crab (1 mana -> can mill 12+ over the course of the game)
Memory Sluice (1 mana -> mill 8, if you have 2 cheap creatures)
Glimpse the Unthinkable (2 mana -> mill 10)
Trapmaker's Snare (2 mana -> mill 13, by getting Archive Trap)
Mind Funeral (3 mana -> mill 8-14 ish, depending on how many lands they play)
Sanity Grinding (3 mana -> mill 20+, but you have to build around it)
Memory Sluice is pretty good with cheap reusable mill creatures like Hedron Crab and Grimoire Thief (and Conspire taps it!).
Sanity Grinding is good if you fill your deck up with a lot of blue mana symbols. Cards like Ghastlord of Fugue, Overbeing of Myth, Dominus of Fealty, Cryptic Command, Nightveil Specter, Counterspell, Tempest Djinn. It's hard to make that work in a pure mill deck, but you could just make a blue devotion deck with Sanity Grinding as a mill win condition.
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That's been true for every Ravnica set, I think. The manafixing is very good and the power level of the gold cards is very good. In other words, there's high payoff for splashing and lower risk than usual.
In Sealed even 5 color is viable.
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I would have played this. Still RB, because Scriptures and so much other good removal.
1 Keldon Warcaller
1 Bloodstone Goblin
1 Cabal Evangel
2 Keldon Overseer
1 Ghitu Journeymage
1 Valduk, Keeper of the Flame
1 Verix Bladewing
1 Keldon Raider
1 Traxos, Scourge of Kroog
1 Rampaging Cyclops
2 Windgrace Acolyte
1 Guardians of Koilos
1 Mishra's Self-Replicator
1 Fungal Infection
1 Bloodtallow Candle
1 Vicious Offering
1 Forebear's Blade
1 Helm of the Host
1 Eviscerate
1 Phyrexian Scriptures
1 The Eldest Reborn
//Lands:
1 Zhalfrin Void
8 Mountain
8 Swamp
1 Soul Salvage
1 Cabal Evangel
1 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
1 Yawgmoth's Vile Offering
Historic: 10
Replicator and Traxos should have sufficient support. Guardians has synergy with reusing Scriptures or Eldest Reborn to really wreck opponent's board.
You could maybe play Whisper, Blood Liturgist to have even more historic and more recursion, but the other 4 drops all seem like much better blockers.
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Not really. It just discourages blocking with an identical creature, not blocking in general. It means the days of Grizzly Bears running into Grizzly Bears are over. If you want to block, you have to draft creatures that are better at blocking. If you want to attack, you have to draft creatures that are better at attacking.
Nef-Crop Entangler and Hooded Brawler are just bad blockers. Instead of trying to block Nef-Crop with another Nef-Crop or even Tah-Crop Skirmisher, you can defend against it with Dune Beetle, Essence Scatter, Magma Spray, Splendid Agony, Cartouche of Ambition, Those Who Serve, Ancient Crab, Cartouche of Solidarity on something, Initiate's Companion, Pouncing Cheetah, Impeccable Timing, Festering Mummy, Supernatural Stamina on a blocker, or double blocking to 1-for-1. There are a lot of low-cost solutions at common. You just need to defend against it using one of the solutions, not another Entangler.
Hooded Brawler is harder to stop early without a trick. But it also can't attack the second time until turn 6 at the earliest, which gives you time to assemble a board. Two 2/3s or 2/4s hold it off well. They might have a trick, but if you have one too then you're coming out at parity. Soulstinger kills and holds off most early ground attackers if used properly. Pitiless Vizier with cycling support singlehandedly kills Brawler without even giving up a card. Sacred Cat blocks Brawler for FOUR turns and leaves you up 2 life. Spidery Grasp on even a bear blows out Brawler and most exert attackers. Or you can Magma Spray/Deem Worthy/Impeccable Timing/Splendid Agony in response to Exert, which shuts down most exert aggro creatures.
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In any format most decks aren't in EVERY pod. Sure, some archetypes like RW aggro are deep enough in commons that maybe you could go into the draft knowing you're going to force it. For the most part drafting depends on what cards are opened and what other people pick. But I think at least one control deck is open more often than you guys give it credit for. I've 3-0'd with a few good control decks, lost to some good control decks, and watched friends 3-0 with good control decks.
Here are some control/lategame decks that I've seen do very well.
UR spells. Not the aggro version with Slither Blades and Nef-Crop Entanglers, but the 11-12 creature deck with Enigma Drake, Cryptic Serpent, counterspells, and other tricks. Enigma Drake is a house and the main signal, but with enough other flyers the deck is still viable without it.
UB cycling. This deck is best with multiple Shadowstorm Vizier and Ruthless Sniper. Without them, there's less incentive to be a cycling deck, but generic UB control still works. UB's defensive creatures always come around late, so you can prioritize good spells and flyers while still gumming up the ground on curve. It's funny when your Ancient Crab and Dune Beetle and Naga Oracle end up attacking... Get card advantage through Wander in Death and blue card draw.
GUx ramp. The funniest win condition for this is flying crocodile (Scaled Behemoth+Cartouche of Knowledge), but the deck is happy just ramping into anything with Naga Vitalists and Gift of Paradises, even just 5-drops and 7/7 wurms. This deck has great mana fixing and can greedily splash off-color bombs opened or Aftermath cards passed, which helps increase overall card quality. Approach of the Second Sun is also a thing. This deck can get lategame card advantage with Spring // Mind and Trial of Knowledge + Cartouches. Bounty of Luxa and Oracle's Vault add even more power and often wheel when no one else is GU ramp.
BW tokens. The deck needs uncommons, but there are interchangeable options. Make tokens with some combination of Oketra's Monument, Stir the Sands, Doomed Dissenter + recursion, Anointed Procession + embalm, Start // Finish, Supply Caravan, Cartouche of Solidarity, Regal Caracal, Oketra the True, Liliana's Mastery, Nest of Scarabs + Soulstingers and Splendid Agony, or even splashing green for Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons. However you get them, you go wide with tokens and gum up the ground. Annointer Priest gains you life to keep you alive. Then you overrun with Trial of Solidarity, In Oketra's Name, or Pursue Glory.
UW embalm flyers. Not the UW aggro deck with Slither Blades, but a deck that wants to trade off early Unwavering Initates and Labyrinth Guardians and Aven Initiates, then Embalm them later and win through grindy creature advantage. Aven Wind Guide and Angler Drake are amazing but not essential. This deck likes counterspells, removal, card draw, and common flyers.
GB -1/-1 counters. Hapatra, Vizier of Potions is the main reason to go into this archetype, followed by Decimator Beetle. Shrink/kill opponent's early threats, then beat down with big green creatures. Cartouche of Ambition is 1st pickable in this deck, and Cartouche of Strength works well too. Because of that, the red or blue Trials are worth splashing for and generate great card advantage.
GRx midrange. Play midrangey beef and trample through with Khenra Charioteer or Rhonas's Monument. The best control builds have the rares Sweltering Suns and/or Heaven // Earth to shut down the aggro decks.
I probably missed some niche builds too.
That's a lot of variety for slow decks. You don't just have to go RW aggro, RB aggro, RG aggro, RU aggro, UW aggro, WG aggro, or BW zombie aggro.
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Does this have to be Modern legal for some reason? Why 2 PtE and 2 Temporal Isolation instead of 4 Swords to Plowshares? You can even hit your own creature in a pinch to gain infinite life or avoid losing the game.
For a 3-card combo with 4-of each copy, you might have trouble assembling it with only 3 Read the Bones and no tutors. Enlightened Tutor? Idyllic Tutor? Academy Rector?
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Llanowar Elves and Harabaz Druid seem really bad. As bodies they're weak. As mana acceleration they don't actually help you get more lands in play, so they don't help your win condition. And creatures tend to die more easily than other things. If you want turn 1 ramp, Exploration or Wild Growth are probably better.