- YoungQuakerBoy
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Member for 9 years, 11 months, and 14 days
Last active Mon, Aug, 22 2022 20:38:33
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Sep 28, 2017YoungQuakerBoy posted a message on Who is the Raven Man?Very interesting stuff. Also impressed with the amount of study that went into this.Posted in: Articles
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Aug 30, 2017YoungQuakerBoy posted a message on Magic Story: Alara to AmonkhetGreat read and reminder of what went down. Thanks!Posted in: Articles
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Apr 22, 2016YoungQuakerBoy posted a message on Archive Trap: The Brothers' War Part IIGreat read! Thanks for the story of a part of Magic that I wouldn't know otherwise.Posted in: Articles
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Feb 10, 2016YoungQuakerBoy posted a message on Archive Trap: The World of InnistradLoving these. Thanks!Posted in: Articles
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Spellskite
Grafdigger's Cage
Pithing Needle
Torpor Orb
Wheel of Sun and Moon
That's fair. However, since it can be grabbed with Collected Company, it synergizes much better with the deck and fits the curve better on it's own than most other "win more" cards seem to do. And to correct myself, since as a 1-of it usually comes in as about the size of or bigger than a baloth, whether off of a Coco or from my hand, I guess I would consider it to be filling that 4th baloth slot as a (usually) efficient beater with a chance of upside and downside. In these slots it is all preference (if I had a Rhonas, I would replace it with that and see how it ran).
Noble Hierarchs are amazing as a dork and are deceivingly powerful. Their Exalted ability is sneakily very good, slipping in extra damage and making combat a little more different in a deck that wants those small advantages, and on an otherwise empty board lets Hierarch (or multiple hierarchs, or a hierarch and a birds) do some damage.
Birds of paradise are fine. Their biggest upside over some other random 1/1 dork is the flying keyword, as it gives us a random attacker with evasion that we can drop an aspect of hydra on or such to dodge pesky blockers, or allows us to block some flyer on the other side (Hello affinity), and I find this more important than the 1 power. Also can randomly help with casting dismember or act of aggression out of the sideboard.
The Collected Companys, in regards to the Groundbreakers are generally used in 1 of 3 ways:
1) I am casting it during the pre-combat main phase on my turn to try to find haste and/or devotion to either get in lethal or push it close. Groundbreaker is great here in both ways.
2) I am casting it during my opponents combat step, after attackers are declared, to attempt to flash in some blockers. Groundbreaker is usually good here as it can usually get a kill or at the least soak up some damage that I could not afford to take.
3) I am casting it during my opponents end step. This is the sneakiest part because, even though at first glance it doesn't seem so, Groundbreaker is strong here too. With the way the rules work, during the end step, all "at end of turn" triggered abilities trigger before players are able to cast spells or activate abilities. Therefore, if I put a Groundbreaker onto the field with Collected Company at that point, the time for the sacrifice ability to trigger is already passed for the turn and has to wait until the next end step (on my turn) before it can trigger, giving me the chance to still attack with it before having to sac it.
There are very few times that I would be casting Collected Company outside of those 3 scenarios (maybe in response to hand disruption). In those rare cases I just hope I don't hit any of the 4 Groundbreakers.
As for Reverent Hunter, it can be really strong but it also has the downsides of relying on our board state and the addition of the +1/+1 counters being a triggered ability. I have had it enter as an 9/9 and my opponent just stares and shakes their head (this was more before Death's Shadow became big) and I have had it shot with half of electrolyze with it's triggered ability on the stack. Hitting it with company usually does has it entering as bigger than a baloth, and much less often, but sometimes, it is a 1/1 - 3/3. I haven't had too many issues with it entering really small, as a one of it is easier to play when I want to or grab off of a Company. It may be considered a "win more" card by some, but I would consider it more of a stalemate breaker/finisher. It has been decent overall and I have been able to make decent use of it with Company being able to have it enter as an instant/end of turns to dodge removal better, and I think that is where it is the strongest. I don't think I would personally go over 1 in the deck and it is in my 3 drop flex-spot, depending on the meta.
Hope that clears some things up!
The version I have run without Experiment One is a list like this:
3x Avatar of the Resolute
3x Birds of Paradise
4x Boggart Ram-Gang
1x Eternal Witness
4x Groundbreaker
3x Leatherback Baloth
4x Noble Hierarch
1x Reverent Hunter
1x Scavenging Ooze
4x Strangleroot Geist
4x Aspect of Hydra
3x Blossoming Defense
4x Collected Company
1x Vines of Vastwood
Land (20)
18x Forest
2x Hashep Oasis
It focuses more on explosiveness than overwhelming. The 2 1-ofs mainboard are the main flex slots, which could be Rhonas or whatever. It was fairly successful for me (I did run it mainly pre-push, so don't know if this version was affected worse than the regular version).
There was a guy who attended our LGS regularly (when I went there regularly), named John, that was just a great guy. Beforehand, he would chat with you about Magic or whatever. If you needed a card for that evening, he would gladly let you borrow it. During the games he was polite, open, easygoing, and clear. On top of it, he was a good competitive player. He was always gracious in victory or defeat, having something kind to say either way. I don't think that I ever saw him even look like he was losing his composure or getting tilted or salty. I wish every player could be close to how John was.
Keep in mind as well that for every player you see that gets lucky making a questionable keep work, there are 2 others who it doesn't work for and they lost and that is why you don't see them.
I think the real issue with your analysis of the gift box is your perception of "casual" players. There are a good number of people who play Magic only once in a while and do not keep up with tournaments at all, or streamers, or any part of Magic other than the cards that they own and their immediate friends that they play with. I know as I was once one of these people, for a number of years, along with my group of friends who played. All we knew was the cards we had and we bought booster packs and intro decks (which are almost as bad as the gift box and maybe worse as they only had 1 booster at the time.) from Walmart when we could to try to add to our very casual decks (think 80+ random "cool" cards). They have very little idea of what is "good" or value. These are the people that this gift box is meant for.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/statement-ixalan-double-faced-cards-card-stock-2017-10-20
This brings up a couple of questions to me:
1. Has anyone seen or noticed this?
2. What card stock was it printed on? How many types do they use and for what?
3. They say they are still legal in tournament play, but being different card stock what is the chance that the cards could be cut to too easily during a deck check or such?
What do you all think?
Have you checked out the B/W tokens thread in the Developing Competitive (Modern) forum? There are lots of good people playing and practicing there who can give great advice.