I just decided to give an Izzet deck a try, and after a few revisions I've been having a lot of fun with this. It's been running ok on 22 Land so far, for a few reasons: 1) Most of my spells are 3 mana or less 2) Think Twice gets me a few extra draws quickly, the Amulets can double my draws, and the Devils recycle the cards I need back the most and 3) a LOT of my spells let me Scry. I may still try to trim 1 or 2 cards out to bring the Land count up to 23 or 24. But when I was running at 24 I'd spend too many turns drawing Land when I really needed something else. I thought about Goblin Electromancer but my Instants and Sorceries are cheap, my most expensive cards are Artifacts & Creatures.
Getting a 2/1 attacker out on Turn 1 can be nice, but he's still a 1-toughness, so if your opponent gets a 1-power dude out, he's gonna die on his first attack unless you beef him up. There have been two Turn-1 plays I've consistently been grateful to see. First is an Elvish Pioneer when I've got not only the spare Forest, but another land so I know I wouldn't just be playing that Forest on Turn 2 anyway. Ramp decks are immensely frustrating when the ramp cards don't line up for you, after all. The other has been when I can drop a Kraken Hatchling right away. Sure it can't do damage, but that's not why I'm playing him anyway. I want him out there early to hold off my opponent while I build up my resources. Being a 4-toughness, he takes some effort to get rid of. He can't deal with flyers, but unless I get a crap draw I'll have something to deal with them soon enough.
Everyone keeps raving about a Séance/Doubling Season deck, I may have to try one out, at least until they fix the bug with those two cards(supposedly the extra tokens are *supposed* to get exiled, according to the actual rulings for those cards).
The only Premium cards in there are the Wall of Omens and the Phyrexian Rager. The Walls are especially useful. A 4-toughness defender that you can play on Turn 2 and lets you draw to replace it in your hand is awesome. The Ragers are mostly there because of the card-draw effect. I might see if the Giant Scorpion works better for me, though. I've got a fair bit of card-draw in the deck now. But it seems like the Scorpions would be better if I was running some Auras that could pump them or at least get them in the air. I'm still not 100% sold on Griselbrand, he can be tough to get out. On the other hand if I do and the opponent doesn't have an immediate answer, that's pretty much the ballgame, especially if Sanguine Bond is in play. And if I've got a Rhox Faithmender on the board too? Hoo boy
You pick your starting color, then pick one of the five decks associated with that color. Along the way you unlock cards by winning matches. After you defeat Avacyn on Innistrad they open up the full deckbuilding screen. When you go to create a new deck, you can start one from scratch, or you can build one based on one of the 10 starter decks. But you can only build off one of the starter decks if you have all of the cards contained in that starter deck(either because it was your initial choice, or because you've unlocked them along the way). In my case, I bought the "Complete Edition" of the game on Steam, which came with all of the Card Collections for each plane. Once I had defeated Avacyn, it unlocked those Card Collections, so I had access to all the non-Premium cards. That meant I could start a deck build off of any one of the ten starter decks right away. Which would explain why I was a bit confused when I first started reading posts from people who couldn't.
if I pay 19.99 to purchase all the cards available, do I get 4 of each card?
No, but you get the maximum number allowed for each of the non-Premium cards. The "Premium" cards are the ones that can only be obtained by buying the Premium Booster packs($1.99 for 10 cards).
im not sure.. but do you get 4 of each card when you purchase?
No, you are not allowed to have 4 of every card in the game. I believe you can have 4 of every Common, 3 of every Uncommon, 2 of every Rare, and 1 of every Mythic Rare.
OK, first off can I make a request going forward? When people talk about buying the game, can they specify which platform they bought it for? It'll cut down on any possible confusion over price points. The "Collection Bundle" on iTunes I assume is the same as the "All Card Collections" package on Steam, since they're the same price. If that's the case, then it should give you all the non-Premium cards, including artifacts/equipment. That package includes all the cards you can unlock on the various planes. There are other cards that you can ONLY get from buying Premium Boosters. These Premium Cards cover every color, as well as Artifacts. Every time you buy one of those Booster packs, you get 10 Premium cards, and the game will always fill 10 empty slots in your collection(not necessarily a card you don't have any of, but ones you haven't maxed out on). The downside is you have no control over WHICH cards you get in each pack. There are a grand total of 140 Premium Cards available, counting the duplicates you're allowed to have, so once you've obtained your 14th Premium Booster pack, you'll have completed your set and won't need to buy any more. Until they add more cards to the game, that is.
You're right about the Guildgates. I already knew that basics weren't required for my other land based cards. I'll go with your suggestion. I don't bother with the Auto-Complete because it won't take into consideration certain aspects like the fact that I don't plan on hard casting certain creatures. I basically go with my method for figuring out land counts for real paper decks I build and it already fits that criteria. I'll go with some guildgates though to smooth everything out.
I mean, at the end of the day what's best is what works. So the real question is, how often do you find yourself lacking the right color mana at the right time? It's good that a LOT of your cards don't require more than one mana of a specific color in their casting costs, always a plus for a 3-color deck. And those Cultivates will help you get that one Swamp or Island if you're totally hosed. But running some Gates would probably ease your reliance on Cultivate and just overall increase your flexibility, especially if you're looking to cast multiple spells per turn. Running 4 each of Golgari, Simic and Dimir seems like overkill, but it might be worth playtesting too. My big worry with running 12 Gates in a 3-color deck is the loss of speed from their initial tapped state.
I bought the "Complete Edition" on Steam, so once I beat Avacyn I had access to all the non-Premium cards, plus I got a couple of free Premium Boosters(from pre-ordering, having a copy of Duels 2014, etc), but I haven't bought any Premium Booster packs yet. My first color selection was Black/White, and I got intrigued by the mechanic of Sanguine Bond that drain's the other guy's life whenever I gain life for myself. So I worked up a deck focusing on cards that give me life, and cards that benefit from me gaining life.
I haven't played paper MtG since the early days of 5th Edition, so my deck-building skills are VERY rusty. I don't expect this deck to be all that competitive against people, but so far it's been fun to play against the computer, and manages to do alright as long as I don't get a really poor draw. I had a Resolute Archangel or two in there, to bring my life right back up if it got too low, and possibly deliver a big hit via the Sanguine Bond at the same time. But I found that if I got too low, my bigger problem was getting rid of the threats that had taken my life that far down to begin with. I swapped them out for the Planar Cleansing so I could wipe the board of threats if it got too crazy. I might tone down on the extra card-drawing for some better combat or removal power. I'm still toying with it, big creatures with Vigilance still pose a problem due to Assassinate's restriction, but the other Black removal available is significantly more expensive. I might use the White one that kills attacking/blocking creatures, but I don't want the deck getting TOO White-heavy. I wasn't sure about using the Radiant Fountain in place of extra basic lands, but they've proven to be useful as easy counter-proof triggers for the Sanguine Bond and the Ajani's Pridemate. If anyone has any suggestions for ways to tighten this deck idea up, I'd love to hear them. Like I said, it's been a long time since I practiced any free-form deck-building.
I'm on the fence about running Guildgates in the list. On one hand it will really help the mana base, but on the other I like being able to fetch all my lands with Cultivate. I haven't had many problems with my mana though, so I feel it's fine how it is.
Hedron Crab really accelerates our GY along with the obvious options, Wayfinder and Assistant. Mind Rot helps get Griselbrand out of our hand if we draw him along with any other good targets for Rescue.
Speaking of Rescue, Nylea's Disciple is great fodder for it since it can gain you some good amount of life, especially if you Rescue another Disciple!
Artful Dodge helps us slip our Snake through for a lot of damage and Spider Spawning is really great for giving us an army of blockers!
The deck has a lot of options to win with also. We can start milling the opponent with Crabs, infest them with Spiders or just give them a beat down with fatties and Bloodghasts.
I'm excited to see how this deck does! Any thoughts on it so far?
If I were playing that deck I'd probably run with at least some Guildgates, dunno if I'd run the full set of 12 though. Cultivate might target basic lands only, but that's just 3 spells, so 6 lands worth. The other cards you have that either grab lands or have Landfall aren't restricted to basic lands, so I'd add in some Gates for the flexibility, especially with a 3-color deck. The last thing you want is to get color-screwed. Plus, your deck doesn't look like a blitz deck, so having the lands enter tapped is probably a worthwhile trade-off. Maybe 3 each of Golgari & Simic, and 2 Dimir? If you take all the lands out of your deck and use the Auto-Complete on the Lands section of the Deck-Building screen, what does it recommend?
I started black white, and it's been okay with Resolute angel helping me out quite a bit when I pulled her in a booster pack. I made a black green after that based around nemesis of mortals, but it tends to win via pump spells more than anything, if it wins. I just put together a green white token deck and hopefully it'll work out. I still need more cards.
I also pulled a Kozilek in a premium booster pack, but I've yet to fit him into a deck yet. Not enough cards to make a control deck and no ramp spells yet.
Yeah, if I learned one thing from Duels 2014, playing with Eldrazi and no mana acceleration is an exercise in futility. Though I suppose you could try using them in a reanimation deck(Dimir or Golgari I imagine, but my guess would be Dimir, better card control).
I started with Orzhov, I've always enjoyed how Black & White interact. I haven't played paper MtG since the days of 5th edition, so my freeform deckbuilding skills are VERY rusty. I bought the "Complete Edition" on Steam, so once I got through Innistrad I had access to all the non-Premium cards(and a few Premium from a couple of free bonus Boosters I qualified for). I've built a B/W deck based around life-gain and cards that benefit from life-gain:
I had been using Resolute Angel so if my life total got too low, I could bring it right back to 20, and possibly deliver a big hit via Sanguine Bond at the same time, but I found that if I was getting down that low, my biggest problem was usually a board with too many threats on it. So I swapped them out for Planar Cleansing and that seems to be doing better. I need to find a substitute for Assassinate, though. A big dude with Vigilance can still be a real problem for me. God I miss Pacifism & Doom Blade The Palisade Giants have saved my skin more than once, but after they die absorbing that really big strike, if I don't have an answer then I'm in trouble. I may try to find something else to replace them with, I dunno.
I have no idea how well this deck would do in a truly competitive environment, but I don't really care. I just play for fun, and so far I'm having fun with this concept, so I'm going to keep tweaking it. I want to play around with a Golgari deck too, especially after the AI Spider-Spawning'd the CRAP out of me in a match.
4 Kraken Hatchling
3 Guard Gomazoa
2 Talrand, Sky Summoner
3 Guttersnipe
2 Charmbreaker Devils
4 Voyage's End
4 Think Twice
3 Dissolve
3 Shock
2 Volcanic Geyser
3 Bolt of Keranos
Artifacts
2 Elixir Of Immortality
2 Avarice Amulet
1 Sphinx-Bone Wand
4 Izzet Guildgate
9 Mountain
9 Island
Yes, I got a free Premium booster for having a copy of Duels2014(as well as one for pre-ordering Duels2015).
3 Ajani's Pridemate
3 Wall of Omens
3 Lone Missionary
2 Mentor of the Meek
2 Rhox Faithmender
1 Baneslayer Angel
4 Phyrexian Rager
2 Indulgent Tormentor
1 Griselbrand
2 Vizkopa Guildmage
3 Reprisal
1 Planar Cleansing
3 Assassinate
2 Sanguine Bond
3 Flesh To Dust
Artifacts
1 Elixir Of Immortality
7 Plains
9 Swamp
4 Orzhov Guildgate
4 Radiant Fountain
The only Premium cards in there are the Wall of Omens and the Phyrexian Rager. The Walls are especially useful. A 4-toughness defender that you can play on Turn 2 and lets you draw to replace it in your hand is awesome. The Ragers are mostly there because of the card-draw effect. I might see if the Giant Scorpion works better for me, though. I've got a fair bit of card-draw in the deck now. But it seems like the Scorpions would be better if I was running some Auras that could pump them or at least get them in the air. I'm still not 100% sold on Griselbrand, he can be tough to get out. On the other hand if I do and the opponent doesn't have an immediate answer, that's pretty much the ballgame, especially if Sanguine Bond is in play. And if I've got a Rhox Faithmender on the board too? Hoo boy
You pick your starting color, then pick one of the five decks associated with that color. Along the way you unlock cards by winning matches. After you defeat Avacyn on Innistrad they open up the full deckbuilding screen. When you go to create a new deck, you can start one from scratch, or you can build one based on one of the 10 starter decks. But you can only build off one of the starter decks if you have all of the cards contained in that starter deck(either because it was your initial choice, or because you've unlocked them along the way). In my case, I bought the "Complete Edition" of the game on Steam, which came with all of the Card Collections for each plane. Once I had defeated Avacyn, it unlocked those Card Collections, so I had access to all the non-Premium cards. That meant I could start a deck build off of any one of the ten starter decks right away. Which would explain why I was a bit confused when I first started reading posts from people who couldn't.
No, but you get the maximum number allowed for each of the non-Premium cards. The "Premium" cards are the ones that can only be obtained by buying the Premium Booster packs($1.99 for 10 cards).
No, you are not allowed to have 4 of every card in the game. I believe you can have 4 of every Common, 3 of every Uncommon, 2 of every Rare, and 1 of every Mythic Rare.
I mean, at the end of the day what's best is what works. So the real question is, how often do you find yourself lacking the right color mana at the right time? It's good that a LOT of your cards don't require more than one mana of a specific color in their casting costs, always a plus for a 3-color deck. And those Cultivates will help you get that one Swamp or Island if you're totally hosed. But running some Gates would probably ease your reliance on Cultivate and just overall increase your flexibility, especially if you're looking to cast multiple spells per turn. Running 4 each of Golgari, Simic and Dimir seems like overkill, but it might be worth playtesting too. My big worry with running 12 Gates in a 3-color deck is the loss of speed from their initial tapped state.
9 Plains
7 Swamp
4 Orzhov Guildgate
4 Radiant Fountain
Creatures
3 Ajani's Pridemate
3 Lone Missionary
2 Mentor Of The Meek
2 Banisher Priest
2 Rhox Faithmender
2 Palisade Giant
2 Cruel Sadist
2 Indulgent Tormentor
2 Vizkopa Guildmage
2 Elixir Of Immortality
Spells
3 Nimbus Wings
2 Planar Cleansing
3 Tribute To Hunger
4 Assassinate
2 Sanguine Bond
I haven't played paper MtG since the early days of 5th Edition, so my deck-building skills are VERY rusty. I don't expect this deck to be all that competitive against people, but so far it's been fun to play against the computer, and manages to do alright as long as I don't get a really poor draw. I had a Resolute Archangel or two in there, to bring my life right back up if it got too low, and possibly deliver a big hit via the Sanguine Bond at the same time. But I found that if I got too low, my bigger problem was getting rid of the threats that had taken my life that far down to begin with. I swapped them out for the Planar Cleansing so I could wipe the board of threats if it got too crazy. I might tone down on the extra card-drawing for some better combat or removal power. I'm still toying with it, big creatures with Vigilance still pose a problem due to Assassinate's restriction, but the other Black removal available is significantly more expensive. I might use the White one that kills attacking/blocking creatures, but I don't want the deck getting TOO White-heavy. I wasn't sure about using the Radiant Fountain in place of extra basic lands, but they've proven to be useful as easy counter-proof triggers for the Sanguine Bond and the Ajani's Pridemate. If anyone has any suggestions for ways to tighten this deck idea up, I'd love to hear them. Like I said, it's been a long time since I practiced any free-form deck-building.
If I were playing that deck I'd probably run with at least some Guildgates, dunno if I'd run the full set of 12 though. Cultivate might target basic lands only, but that's just 3 spells, so 6 lands worth. The other cards you have that either grab lands or have Landfall aren't restricted to basic lands, so I'd add in some Gates for the flexibility, especially with a 3-color deck. The last thing you want is to get color-screwed. Plus, your deck doesn't look like a blitz deck, so having the lands enter tapped is probably a worthwhile trade-off. Maybe 3 each of Golgari & Simic, and 2 Dimir? If you take all the lands out of your deck and use the Auto-Complete on the Lands section of the Deck-Building screen, what does it recommend?
Yeah, if I learned one thing from Duels 2014, playing with Eldrazi and no mana acceleration is an exercise in futility.
3x Ajani's Pridemate
3x Lone Missionary
3x Nimbus Wings
2x Mentor Of The Meek
2x Banisher Priest
2x Rhox Faithmender
2x Palisade Giant
2x Planar Cleansing
2x Cruel Sadist
3x Tribute To Hunger
4x Assassinate
2x Indulgent Tormentor
2x Sanguine Blood
2x Vizkopa Guildmage
2x Elixir Of Immortality
9x Plains
7x Swamp
4x Orzhov Guildgate
4x Radiant Fountain
I had been using Resolute Angel so if my life total got too low, I could bring it right back to 20, and possibly deliver a big hit via Sanguine Bond at the same time, but I found that if I was getting down that low, my biggest problem was usually a board with too many threats on it. So I swapped them out for Planar Cleansing and that seems to be doing better. I need to find a substitute for Assassinate, though. A big dude with Vigilance can still be a real problem for me. God I miss Pacifism & Doom Blade
I have no idea how well this deck would do in a truly competitive environment, but I don't really care. I just play for fun, and so far I'm having fun with this concept, so I'm going to keep tweaking it.