MTG Salvation

Quote from MorrainTheCorruptor

You know the funny thing is after I posted this I looked at the card again, went crap I did read the rules wrong! I was thoughtless when I read this (ergo didn't realize complete rules of rituals). Oh well accidents happen! What are your thoughts on Tormented Soul?

Quote from MorrainTheCorruptor

By the way look out at Lotus Blossum for the next thing. I went around using it recently, and people just don't like it! Which surprises me! They are saying Black Lotus is better, even though they do the exact same thing, only lotus blossom has suspend! Which makes it more flexible! I must be reading it wrong or something because they won't have any part in that card. Except for 1-3 other sane people I know

Quote from Indalecio

Yeah I have now gathered a bit of experience with Hunted Horror and I definitely agree he is not good in every environment. I play it in a creature-heavy mono-B deck currently as I have no other 2-drop anyway, but in every game (10-ish so far in the current iteration of the deck) it all comes down to giving the tokens to a player that you know won't attack you.

Quote from MorrainTheCorruptor

I agree completely with you, and I wish things were what they were worth overall. Momentary Blink is a card I have allways hated. I could use a Cloudshift and Tamiyo, the Moonsage final ability. Now we have something amazing. Demonic Rising I agree... Sort of.. Yes it is a decent card, but you truly need the right cards to make it work to it's potential. A card I love that works with wraiths is Blood Artist and Rage Thrower. That, a Day of Judgement, Fresh Meat and Faith's Reward is something that I truly need. I love it because I have used that combo in my human legacy. Full of Elite Vangaurds and Doomed Travelers

Quote from Priest of Stone

What makes Brainstorm a bad card? Could you talk about it and other legacy stables like Dark Confidant, STD, PtE, Noble Hierarch and Jitte. They get to see a lot of multiplayer time in my hoods and I think at least some of them are really overvalued!

Quote from Indalecio

I was scrolling down your blog entry a bit like when you carefully look at the cards you just got out of a freshly opened booster... and I was expecting Hunted Horror in that list really

Quote from Indalecio

Good job at not going the "broken cards list" way. These are all cards I play myself except Obliterator (although I just got my hands on a copy now so beware) and although I don't necessarly agree with the individual rankings I think they´re all more or less justified. A bit surprised about Bloodgift Demon on the list but I agree he´s good. Abyssal Persecutor is for me the nuts and would be in my own 10s I think, although his MP application could seem weaker than other cards, actually.

Quote from Indalecio

Please do Tarmogoyf next time. Have a feeling we share the same idea of the card given your input on Tombstalker.

Fully agree with the "Hidden" stuff, that I´ve been using during my whole Mtg career almost. Hidden Gibbons and Hidden Ancients count in my list. These are great ways to sneak in creatures into play.

Quote from Indalecio

One other thing with this spell is that EVERYBODY has it or any of its fellows in his deck at my table, and like 8-12 of them whenever R or B are represented, which is almost every deck (they mostly play 2-3 colors decks). So that regardless of how bad the card is in MP (counting in the political game), your own creatures have to get through a barrage of Lightning Bolts, Galvanic Blasts, Incinerates, Terminates, Doom Blades, Electrostatic Bolts etc to make it. It's become a sub-game of who will be bolting this little dude first. People even bolt stuff during their main phase even though they don't need to. Bad? Yes. Do they care? No, their hand is full with other removal spells anyway. They´re also making a good deed for the table. So yeah that's where I come in as the main target for the table, and I basically go down because even if I stabilized at 10 life, buddy A has two Incinerates and Buddy B a Char and they all "made that secret agreement" (e.g. "just because they can", or "want to see my face when they do it") to cast all of it at me. That on top of every other Bolt cast at our creatures (not only mine), and crap like Yoke of the Damned as well, which is very popular in my meta.

My point being that I find nearly impossible to convince people that their removal is not as good as they think. It's just not what they experience. They think it's vital, even flexible. Above all, they think it's even the funniest thing in Magic. And since they all share that view, it's been living up to that idea, the more it's represented the more it has an impact on our games. The same can be said of any card in Magic really, but none has that "fun" stamp as removal. Heck, some guy asked me if he could borrow my Vindicates for his GR deck at a session, as he was just open at the idea of splashing 2 more colors just for the spell alone

Quote from Indalecio

That's a fair approach you are making and I think I could more or less describe my playgroup as a combination of those 4 only.

However I could even think of a fifth profile which would define something directly opposite to your description of "apprentice". It would be categorizing the pure jackass, the guy who knows enough of the game to build decks but always bows the rules to his own interpretation whenever they favor him. He is often loud, aggressive, judges people's plays and claims himself as a better player than he actually is, but makes many mistakes out of impatience and even panic. He absolutely hates to lose. He owns some decent cards but builds decks based on their fame rate to show off his collection, or (alt.) netdecks everything and claims the ownership.

As you see, it's a real negative profile few people want at their tables, however when you have friends of friends invited to a Magic session it may turn up into this sometimes. The reason why I think it deserves a category on its own is because the narrow-minded attitude makes it impossible to compete on a serious level regardless of the skills. At this game you need patience, foresight etc which you can't physically achieve if you´re full of bull****. It's the unability to learn that prevents you from being a better player, I´d say. All of your profiles, bar "casual" (which the above is miles away from) have a positive touch as for trying to scale up to a better level of playing Magic, whereas the above is the description of somebody stuck in his own misconceptions.

Quote from Indalecio

Fully agreed on Lightning Bolt and the likes (Galvanic Blast comes to mind), but I am constantly challenged in my conception every time we are having a session. Not that the card does incredible deeds or something, but one situation we constantly face is that guy at low life subject to die to a single bolt spell (or a combination of them). And you or somebody else really want that guy down as soon as possible. Now I think we both agree on the fact we don't want to be the player slamming this Bolt at this guy's face, we want somebody else to do it. But you may want to have this card in hand (I´ve been told anyway) because then you hold that power. The mistake would be to play it straight away, you want to hold it, let him attack or do whatever damage to your opponents, and then slam the card once he attempts a recovery or puts your own board at danger. It's instant, it costs R so you´re not exactly forced to pass your turn to keep that window open.

I would never include such a card in any of my decks, but as long as somebody else does in my playgroup then we will be having political situations of this kind. I don't know if I explained this well but this is a fact we often experience which I cannot deny. The card (and its likes) probably has another facet in MP. Of course, most of the players doing so don't see it, for them it's just a bolt and they often use it to kill creatures or PW anyway, which plain sucks as you explained already.

It's not really because it's "good" direct damage (it's not), or "it can kill somebody" (so what, 6 players remaining), it's more of a control thing. As we discussed earlier, you cannot easily qualify the impact of cards in a MP setting. Also, just letting people know about your hand or parts of it can be devastating in terms of how the game is played politically. Some people do that in my meta (I don't). About your example, as long as one player does play the card you will end up in a particular situation that may have great impact over the course of a game.

Quote from Stellarman

I'm just wondering if there is some good replacement even for this kind of wall - flying with capability to prevent damage?
Thanks

Quote from Indalecio

I´m missing two creatures:

Lotleth Troll
BG - Zombie Troll
2/1 Trample
Discard a creature card: Put a +1/+1 counter on Lotleth Troll.
{B}: Regenerate Lotleth Troll.

Loxodon Smiter
1{G}{W} - Elephant Soldier
4/4 Loxodon Smiter can't be countered.
If a spell or ability an opponent controls causes you to discard Loxodon Smiter, put it onto the battlefield instead of putting it into your graveyard.

I think both are awesome.

Quote from Indalecio

However, the feeling of playing a creatureless deck is just soooo good sometimes... You can play your Innocent Bloods and Damnations as you please etc... Creatures slow you down to some extent. Your warm bodies often sit there waiting for 6+ players to play before you can use them, bar ETB effects. Also, not fielding any creature means most removal by your opponents are dead cards against you.

Quote from Indalecio

Concerning lands, you should probably make a mention of how many mana lands you are fielding. Because playing 24 basic lands is not quite the same thing as playing 20 mana lands and 4 spell lands (obviously depending on the type of spell land you are playing). What is your view about ETBT lands? Do they justify the inclusion of even more lands? I have my own view regarding this but it´d be interesting to get hold of yours =)

EDIT: ok I´m not sure whether I missed the "mana source" part of your article or if you edited it but it's clear now that you mean 24 mana sources minimum. I am guessing you are adding spell lands on top of that, unless you consider things like Mishra's Factory and the likes to be mana lands too (which wouldn't be too much of a wrong claim).

Quote from Indalecio

The problem I see however is that although having these kinds of cards in your deck may improve your odds at taking the game, you will always find cards that are just more swiss-knife, resilient, versatile, impactful, controllable, less random etc. As a deck builder, unless I want to try a specific card in a predefined build, I find hard to actually leave a spot for these "wild shots" because I´m always tight. Going normally from 80+ cards down to 60 doesn't leave much space for that. At the end of the day, focus is the factor number one in my mind. Freeing up one slot for a singleton is obviously possible in any deck, but wouldn't you reserve this for an Oblivion Stone or a Mind's Eye instead.

So yes, I also recommend the use of these cards to my playgroup, but I often see myself not using them much.