Re the "can't cause to lose control" rule: Wouldn't this disable, say, T1 Kozilek or something, since annihilator could cause them to do that? Plus, I know that nobody likes to see turbo Capsize, but this would also ban anything cheap that could casually bounce a 'permanent', or lead someone to sacrifice a permanent.
The first option, meanwhile, seems even weirder, since now something like Annihilator can (I think, yes?) make them avoid sacrificing creatures, since they can choose to sacrifice lands and then keep them on the battlefield.
I dunno. I'm not necessarily specifically concerned about keeping Eldrazi or bounce-locks around, and maybe there are few enough cheap cards that would be banned by this that it's worth it. But if this is triggered by the use of Braids recently -- which I don't think has been prevalent enough to justify anything (although if it wins this round again I may reconsider -- then we could just ban Braids. The alternatives are Capsize, which is a lot more difficult to put out T1 or T2, and then... what else?
EDIT: Oh, hands were posted as this was written. Okay, I'll take a look.
2) Magus of the Aesthetic 3-3 Agreed
3) ManyCookies :: 0-6 Agreed
4) Mogg 3-3 Agreed
5) nerdyjoe 3-3 I lose OTD, you can just Myth, Vessel to get rid of Wurm and Contamination, and then Call is useless. Holding my cards lets me keep Wurm (in hand/library), but that's too slow against Liliana/Myth. OTP, I can kill Liliana by saving up to 3 or 4 attackers (depending on your plays) and swinging, and from there I win; Vessel exiles Contamination and I discard Wurm in response.
| X 3 0 3 3 | 6 |
I mean, if you need to, you could switch the deck to Tariel, Reckoner of Souls for the same colors and Angel focus. You would lose the ramp element of Kaalia, but if your commander is really drawing that much hate then you might live longer this way anyways. If you cut some expensive spells (maybe some of the demons, for theme?) and added more ramp, more board wipes or other forms of interaction, some card draw... goodstuff basically, then I can see it being a deck that has a weak early game that it survives through with board control, that blossoms into a late-game powerhouse.
It'd be a different deck, which would suck, but if your playgroup is targetting you this heavily then it might be a choice between an optimized Kaalia deck or a tribal Angels deck.
2) Magus of the Aesthetic 6-0 Venser Sorin, Capsize lock.
3) ManyCookies 3-3 Agreed
4) Mogg 3-3 If I'm plotting it out correctly, I get within 1 turn of killing you before a horde of zombies breaks down the door. Oh well.
5) nerdyjoe 6-0 I... may be missing something here? You say I'm threatened by Kozilek, but it seems to me that even OTD, it's T1 Shelldock (tapped) T1 land Exploration land, T2 LED cast Kozilek T2 land land bounce Kozi with Venser, and from there I can Capsize lock.
6) Superbajt 4-1 OTP I T3 Capsize your lands, then eventually have the mana to keep Capsizing plus play Venser plus keep Capsize open to fizzle Path. OTD you can play Command, I discard Venser, then next turn bounce one of your lands with Capsize. From here, you can play a land and then Scavenger, but I'll bounce it. In 3 turns, you'll be able to replay it after bouncing, but by then I'll have the mana to bounce it twice; this continues, as every time you get 3 more mana to recast it once more in the turn, I get 6 more mana to Capsize it.
7) Tatterhood 6-0 ??? OTP you never reach 2 mana. OTD makes me understand better why Leyline of Anticipation was banned. I'm pretty sure I can pull ahead like so: T1 land | land Exploration land; T2 land | landx2; T3 I Venser to bounce a land during your upkeep, if you drain then on my turn I can Capsize, and from there I'll have the mana to keep capsizing if you play Exarch or whatever, and by T5 I can protect Capsize from Drain by fizzling it through bouncing my own spell with Venser. So, T3 Venser on your upkeep, you don't drain and I bounce a land, you play a land | play land x2, T4 land (you're up to 3) | land x2, T5 land. You can Exarch on my turn but I just Capsize it back to you. You could try to rush Twin T6, but it doesn't matter without haste, and if you did you couldn't Drain at all. Once it reaches T6, I can Capsize with Venser backup without being affected by Exarch. Pretty sure I can win from there. Please double-check me on this, I'm definitely not sure I worked this out right.
8) tomsloger 6-0 ? OTP, Capsize lock pretty easily. OTD, you're pretty limited by mana constraints. If you play T1 Mentor, you can't stop Vensor from coming down and bouncing an island, from which point I can Capsize lock. If open T1,2 island, T3 Forest, you need to wait until at least T6 to have the right colors for Weapon, even if Mentor allows you to play it earlier. T5 is when I can start Capsizing with Venser backup to bounce my own Capsize and fizzle Drain if I need to. I haven't plotted it out, but I'm guessing that, in a 100 life format, I can Capsize colorscrew you and get to the point where I'm casting it twice in a turn fast enough to outrace the Mentor tokens -- even if you get one use and manage to exile Exploration. Again, I'm not totally certain about this and expect to be proven wrong somewhere.
Disagreements Superbajt and nerdyjoe, honestly can't tell on Tatterhood and tomsloger. Expect these scores to change!
| X 6 3 3 6 4 6 6 | 32-
2) Convoy_Avenger 3-3 OTP, I can T3 play City and Architect, then tap Architect to itself to play Pili-Pala; then play Run, swing, and go infinite T4. OTD, you kill me first.
3) Magus of the Aesthetic 3-3 T2 Pili-Pala off of City. From there, OTP I swing and kill you T3, OTD you Encroaching Wastes my Isle during my upkeep.
4) ManyCookies 3-3 Agreed.
5) MyNameIsFourteen 6-0 I kill T3, you kill T4. (If I counted correctly, that is.)
6) nerdyjoe 6-0 I'm faster.
7) Superbajt 6-0 I'm faster.
8) Tatterhood 3-3 I believe this is the same situation as Convoy_Avenger.
| X 2 2 2 6 6 6 2 | 26 |
@Tatterhood: Yes, Saprazzan Skerry would indeed be far better lol.
Would this format still allow alternate win conditions eg Approach of the Second Sun? After all, the Comp Rules separate the two, and with eg Platinum Angel the 'you can't lose' and 'they can't win' are separated. I'm fine if this is intended, just wasn't sure if it was.
2) Feyd_Ruin 0-6
Your constant lifeloss easily outpaces Bitterblossom.
3) Magus of the Aesthetic 2-2
If you continuously play Zenith starting with T=0, it'll always be in your library when I could cast Doomfall. So, if I play Bitterblossom I'll die from lifeloss. On the other hand, Doomfall easily deals with Messenger. Thus, I think this is a draw.
4) Mogg 6-0
Actually pretty close, but I can Doomfall Markov away, and his Vengeance isn't enough to finish the job aainst Bitterblossom.
5) ManyCookies 6-0
Agreed
6) MyNameIsFourteen 2-2
Same as Magus of the Aesthetic.
7) Personman 4-1?
OTD, I play blossom, you Unmake it, I Doomfall your Salvation. OTP, I Doomfall your Unmaking. Then I might be wrong about my math, but I'm pretty sure that whenever you choose to drop Salvation, I can race you. T5 Salvation seems to be the most dangerous, but I'm pretty sure that, with a few blocks near the end, I can pull through.
8) Superbajt 4-1
OTD, you Unmake Bitterblossom and I Doomfall Ob Nixilus. OTP, I Doomfall Unmaking, and at least according to ManyCookies, Bitterblossom should beat Ob Nixilus on its own.
9) Tatterhood :: 3-3
Dread Wanderer / Stillmoon Cavalier
OTP, Doomfall Cavalier and Bitterblossom beats Wanderer. OTD, you get down Cavalier, which is just far faster than Bitterblossom.
10) WhammeWhamme 0-6
With Doomfall, I can deal 1 damage per turn. You do 3.
1) CalvinSchwa :: Gollum and the Ring
Daze / Goblin Settler / Sol Ring
2) Convoy_Avenger 6-0
I settle your lands.
3) Magus of the Aesthetic 3-3
OTD, you can do your thing. OTP, Daze stops you for a turn and I can kill your lands.
4) ManyCookies 6-0
I Daze the creature and settle your lands.
4.5) Personman 6-0
Agreed.
5) superbajt 3-3
Angrath, the Flame-Chained / Oath of Gideon / Sol Ring
OTD, flickering Oath gets you there. OTP, killing your lands and using Daze keeps you off the mana to cast it.
6) Tatterhood 3-3
OTP, landlock. OTD, you can Truth my Sol Ring on my upkeep to delay me one turn, Time Walk -> Witness the following turn, and even after I kill 2 of your lands you can then go infinite and eventually bounce my Settler for the win.
7) tomsloger 6-0
Daze and landkill gets there.
8) WhammeWhamme 0-6
Agreed.
It was a neat tech with Legion's Landing and Oath of Gideon. Two things I'm disappointed about: one, Sol Ring + Hushwing Gryff lets me play Gryff on their upkeep on the play, which is cool. Some variant of this could've enabled a discard strat too. Admittedly, these probably would've done far worse than my unexpectedly decent actual performance, but they've been neat.
Two, on further reflection I should've set the name to something involving Catan.
| X 6 3 6 [6] 3 3 6 0 | 30 |
2) ManyCookies 3-3
Balance / Greater Gargadon / Lotus Bloom / Swan Song / Volcanic Island
OTD, I think you can just counter Vineyard and win. OTP, I get down Vineyard, you counter Unlife, and between Vineyard, a Swan, and Spirit Guide, I think I can race you.
3) Mogg 0-6
Agreed, manaburn means I can't do too much and my only defense would be Guide, which I need to turbo out anything.
4) MyNameIsFourteen 0-6
Agreed.
5) Personman 0-6
Denial Vineyard, I can't do anything else.
6) Superbajt 0-6
You're faster.
7) WhammeWhamme 0-6
I can't do anything.
| X 2 0 0 0 0 0 | 2 |
I genuinely believe that Vineyard could have been great. I failed to actually demonstrate that. Also, shout-out to Abolish playing absolutely zero role in every single match.
Just gonna add onto that -- most discard abilities like Mirras' have an 'Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.' clause tacked on, so that they aren't completely backbreaking.
1) Anachronity -- 3-3?
I'm pretty sure I win on the play by just being faster than you, but I think you can barely beat me on the draw by playing lifelinkers and then playing ghoul on the last turn. I think that saccing to Mogis early won't help things: on my winning play it seems not to help, since later on it doesn't meaningfully affect anything and early on you don't have enough momentum to outrace Cavalier; and on the losing play I don't think you even need it. Below are the basic lines I figured out; I'm not sure if they're legible and I'll come back and clarify if need be.
1-
1-
2 Blossom
2 Call
3 Faerie (19-20), Cavalier
3 Pulse blossom
4 Mogis, s3 (19-17)
4 make a 1/1
5 mogis 2 dmg, pump 2, s5 (19-10)
5 s1 lifelink (18-11), make a 1/1
6 2 dmg, pump 3, s6 (18-2)
6 s2 lifelink (16-4), make a 1/1
7 mogis 2 (or sac), s6
3) Feyd_Ruin 0-6 Agreed.
4) Magus of the Aesthetic 6-0 Besides anything else, I'm pretty sure I can win by just playing Cavalier and waiting until I have 36 lands.
5) ManyCookies 0-6 Agreed.
6) MyNameIsFourteen :: 3-3 Agreed.
7) Personman 3-3 Agreed, thank you. (I need to avoid Bitterblossom in the future, I hate doing this counting math.)
8) Superbajt 0-6 Haha lol no I do not. This is hilariously evil.
9) WhammeWhamme 6-0 Agreed. Yay Mogis!
| 2? X 0 6 0 2 2 0 6 | 18
I expected more Bitterblossom, honestly. I guess 2 decks and a Call the Bloodline is a fair few. Also, Superbajt's deck is awesome, and BSZ is also super cool.
Just gonna put this out there: I have a Sidisi deck that often wins by sacrificing tokens or mass recursion in order to make a huge Nantuko Husk / Bloodthrone Vampire / Carrion Feeder, which seems somewhat similar to what Kresh wants to do. As such, I'd like to recommend one of my own best win conditions:
He can function both as something large to grow Kresh (that can be recurred by himself), and even without a large graveyard he's a win-con in combination with Kresh that avoids combat damage and hits everyone. Heartily recommend.
Also, besides what others mentioned, I question Wight of Precinct Six, which seems like a dumb beater most of the time (although maybe for your purposes sheer size is enough) and Kozilek's Channeler, which seems like it's bad at ramping and really bad at beating down.
About the Deckbuilder's Toolkits - do they always give you different cards with each box? I have already bought two of them.
I love them as a starting point, but in your position I wouldn't get another one. They combine a large set of fixed cards with a group of semi-random other groups -- if you have 2 then you're highly unlikely to get many individual cards from it you didn't already have. They're great for having a set of basic cards to fill in decks you don't have quite enough cards for yet -- basically, for starting a basic collection. However, especially since it's EDH, where you can only have 1 of any particular card, they're useless for repeats.
I would go for very cheap singles and individual cards you love (and also remember that card shops have rares and often have bargain-bin commons/uncommons, I've found great junk that way), then get out there and try the deck. EDH can be much more forgiving than other formats because of the social, multiplayer aspects, and you may not know what you want to improve in the deck until you try it. Also, one last time: all this is my opinion, and people have wildly different views on how people should start out. I'd wait for others to comment here, if anyone else will.
Do you guys think I should buy booster packs, or buy them on their own?
Easy rule to remember: don't buy booster packs unless you're playing in a Limited environment (Draft, Sealed, etc. -- for instance, a prerelease -- which I do encourage you to try sometime). It's important to build up a basic collection of cards, and the best way (IMO) to do that is to get Duel Decks, official Preconstructed EDH decks, Deckbuilder's Toolkits, and (yes) try Drafting/Sealed. That way, in the long run, if you decide to switch to another deck then it should be somewhat easy and you won't need a ton of new cards.
However, since you're trying to make one deck now, there's just absolutely no chance you'll open the specific cards you need. An average booster pack might give you around 5 cards or so in your colors (blue and white); I'd guess maybe 1 of them (if that) will be something you'd be at all interested in playingin your EDH deck. A lot of them are bad commons, just 'french vanilla' creatures (that is, they have no special abilities except maybe a keyword, like Wind Drake or Huatli's Snubhorn); others are out of your colors; and some just don't do quite what your deck is looking to do. Frankly, and this is just my opinion, but I don't find opening booster packs to really almost ever be even remotely close to being worth the price of $4.
Instead, ordering singles online is relatively cheap and will get you all you need. One time, I spent a total of $10 for some cards for a red/blue edh deck; I got 3x more cards than I needed and now can build tons of decks. I prefer to stick to cards under $0.50 or $0.25, but that's just me being a cheapskate; sometimes it's really worth it for a card you're lusting over (or one that you need to build the deck, if you're ordering a commander). This will vary based on your monetary tastes: I tell beginners to just use basics and 3-mana mana rocks, because you often have more fun finding exciting, splashy cards; however, if you're jumping into a competitive environment, a deck full of cheap (mana cost-wise) cards and good (expensive money-wise) lands is probably preferred and will definitely be something you can reuse in other decks down the road.
Presumably he's using the second ability on both of the cards. it doesn't go infinite since Magosi enters tapped, but he does get 2 turns for everyone else's turns, assuming he can keep sacrificing artifacts. It's not broken -- arguably better than, say, Opposition or Time Warp -- but still really annoying.
The first option, meanwhile, seems even weirder, since now something like Annihilator can (I think, yes?) make them avoid sacrificing creatures, since they can choose to sacrifice lands and then keep them on the battlefield.
I dunno. I'm not necessarily specifically concerned about keeping Eldrazi or bounce-locks around, and maybe there are few enough cheap cards that would be banned by this that it's worth it. But if this is triggered by the use of Braids recently -- which I don't think has been prevalent enough to justify anything (although if it wins this round again I may reconsider
EDIT: Oh, hands were posted as this was written. Okay, I'll take a look.
3) ManyCookies :: 0-6 Agreed
4) Mogg 3-3 Agreed
5) nerdyjoe 3-3 I lose OTD, you can just Myth, Vessel to get rid of Wurm and Contamination, and then Call is useless. Holding my cards lets me keep Wurm (in hand/library), but that's too slow against Liliana/Myth. OTP, I can kill Liliana by saving up to 3 or 4 attackers (depending on your plays) and swinging, and from there I win; Vessel exiles Contamination and I discard Wurm in response.
| X 3 0 3 3 | 6 |
It'd be a different deck, which would suck, but if your playgroup is targetting you this heavily then it might be a choice between an optimized Kaalia deck or a tribal Angels deck.
Capsize / Exploration / Venser, Shaper Savant
2) Magus of the Aesthetic 6-0 Venser Sorin, Capsize lock.
3) ManyCookies 3-3 Agreed
4) Mogg 3-3 If I'm plotting it out correctly, I get within 1 turn of killing you before a horde of zombies breaks down the door. Oh well.
5) nerdyjoe 6-0 I... may be missing something here? You say I'm threatened by Kozilek, but it seems to me that even OTD, it's T1 Shelldock (tapped) T1 land Exploration land, T2 LED cast Kozilek T2 land land bounce Kozi with Venser, and from there I can Capsize lock.
6) Superbajt 4-1 OTP I T3 Capsize your lands, then eventually have the mana to keep Capsizing plus play Venser plus keep Capsize open to fizzle Path. OTD you can play Command, I discard Venser, then next turn bounce one of your lands with Capsize. From here, you can play a land and then Scavenger, but I'll bounce it. In 3 turns, you'll be able to replay it after bouncing, but by then I'll have the mana to bounce it twice; this continues, as every time you get 3 more mana to recast it once more in the turn, I get 6 more mana to Capsize it.
7) Tatterhood 6-0 ??? OTP you never reach 2 mana. OTD makes me understand better why Leyline of Anticipation was banned. I'm pretty sure I can pull ahead like so: T1 land | land Exploration land; T2 land | landx2; T3 I Venser to bounce a land during your upkeep, if you drain then on my turn I can Capsize, and from there I'll have the mana to keep capsizing if you play Exarch or whatever, and by T5 I can protect Capsize from Drain by fizzling it through bouncing my own spell with Venser. So, T3 Venser on your upkeep, you don't drain and I bounce a land, you play a land | play land x2, T4 land (you're up to 3) | land x2, T5 land. You can Exarch on my turn but I just Capsize it back to you. You could try to rush Twin T6, but it doesn't matter without haste, and if you did you couldn't Drain at all. Once it reaches T6, I can Capsize with Venser backup without being affected by Exarch. Pretty sure I can win from there. Please double-check me on this, I'm definitely not sure I worked this out right.
8) tomsloger 6-0 ? OTP, Capsize lock pretty easily. OTD, you're pretty limited by mana constraints. If you play T1 Mentor, you can't stop Vensor from coming down and bouncing an island, from which point I can Capsize lock. If open T1,2 island, T3 Forest, you need to wait until at least T6 to have the right colors for Weapon, even if Mentor allows you to play it earlier. T5 is when I can start Capsizing with Venser backup to bounce my own Capsize and fizzle Drain if I need to. I haven't plotted it out, but I'm guessing that, in a 100 life format, I can Capsize colorscrew you and get to the point where I'm casting it twice in a turn fast enough to outrace the Mentor tokens -- even if you get one use and manage to exile Exploration. Again, I'm not totally certain about this and expect to be proven wrong somewhere.
Disagreements Superbajt and nerdyjoe, honestly can't tell on Tatterhood and tomsloger. Expect these scores to change!
| X 6 3 3 6 4 6 6 | 32-
3) Magus of the Aesthetic 3-3 T2 Pili-Pala off of City. From there, OTP I swing and kill you T3, OTD you Encroaching Wastes my Isle during my upkeep.
4) ManyCookies 3-3 Agreed.
5) MyNameIsFourteen 6-0 I kill T3, you kill T4. (If I counted correctly, that is.)
6) nerdyjoe 6-0 I'm faster.
7) Superbajt 6-0 I'm faster.
8) Tatterhood 3-3 I believe this is the same situation as Convoy_Avenger.
| X 2 2 2 6 6 6 2 | 26 |
@Tatterhood: Yes, Saprazzan Skerry would indeed be far better lol.
Your constant lifeloss easily outpaces Bitterblossom.
3) Magus of the Aesthetic 2-2
If you continuously play Zenith starting with T=0, it'll always be in your library when I could cast Doomfall. So, if I play Bitterblossom I'll die from lifeloss. On the other hand, Doomfall easily deals with Messenger. Thus, I think this is a draw.
4) Mogg 6-0
Actually pretty close, but I can Doomfall Markov away, and his Vengeance isn't enough to finish the job aainst Bitterblossom.
5) ManyCookies 6-0
Agreed
6) MyNameIsFourteen 2-2
Same as Magus of the Aesthetic.
7) Personman 4-1?
OTD, I play blossom, you Unmake it, I Doomfall your Salvation. OTP, I Doomfall your Unmaking. Then I might be wrong about my math, but I'm pretty sure that whenever you choose to drop Salvation, I can race you. T5 Salvation seems to be the most dangerous, but I'm pretty sure that, with a few blocks near the end, I can pull through.
8) Superbajt 4-1
OTD, you Unmake Bitterblossom and I Doomfall Ob Nixilus. OTP, I Doomfall Unmaking, and at least according to ManyCookies, Bitterblossom should beat Ob Nixilus on its own.
9) Tatterhood :: 3-3
Dread Wanderer / Stillmoon Cavalier
OTP, Doomfall Cavalier and Bitterblossom beats Wanderer. OTD, you get down Cavalier, which is just far faster than Bitterblossom.
10) WhammeWhamme 0-6
With Doomfall, I can deal 1 damage per turn. You do 3.
| X 0 2 6 6 2 4 4 2 0 | 26
1 Act on Impulse
1 Dream Pillager
1 Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
1 Ire Shaman
1 Past in Flames
1 Stromkirk Occultist
1 Undying Flames
1 Commune With Lava
1 Outpost Siege
Daze / Goblin Settler / Sol Ring
2) Convoy_Avenger 6-0
I settle your lands.
3) Magus of the Aesthetic 3-3
OTD, you can do your thing. OTP, Daze stops you for a turn and I can kill your lands.
4) ManyCookies 6-0
I Daze the creature and settle your lands.
4.5) Personman 6-0
Agreed.
5) superbajt 3-3
Angrath, the Flame-Chained / Oath of Gideon / Sol Ring
OTD, flickering Oath gets you there. OTP, killing your lands and using Daze keeps you off the mana to cast it.
6) Tatterhood 3-3
OTP, landlock. OTD, you can Truth my Sol Ring on my upkeep to delay me one turn, Time Walk -> Witness the following turn, and even after I kill 2 of your lands you can then go infinite and eventually bounce my Settler for the win.
7) tomsloger 6-0
Daze and landkill gets there.
8) WhammeWhamme 0-6
Agreed.
It was a neat tech with Legion's Landing and Oath of Gideon. Two things I'm disappointed about: one, Sol Ring + Hushwing Gryff lets me play Gryff on their upkeep on the play, which is cool. Some variant of this could've enabled a discard strat too. Admittedly, these probably would've done far worse than my unexpectedly decent actual performance, but they've been neat.
Two, on further reflection I should've set the name to something involving Catan.
| X 6 3 6 [6] 3 3 6 0 | 30 |
Balance / Greater Gargadon / Lotus Bloom / Swan Song / Volcanic Island
OTD, I think you can just counter Vineyard and win. OTP, I get down Vineyard, you counter Unlife, and between Vineyard, a Swan, and Spirit Guide, I think I can race you.
3) Mogg 0-6
Agreed, manaburn means I can't do too much and my only defense would be Guide, which I need to turbo out anything.
4) MyNameIsFourteen 0-6
Agreed.
5) Personman 0-6
Denial Vineyard, I can't do anything else.
6) Superbajt 0-6
You're faster.
7) WhammeWhamme 0-6
I can't do anything.
| X 2 0 0 0 0 0 | 2 |
I genuinely believe that Vineyard could have been great. I failed to actually demonstrate that. Also, shout-out to Abolish playing absolutely zero role in every single match.
I'm pretty sure I win on the play by just being faster than you, but I think you can barely beat me on the draw by playing lifelinkers and then playing ghoul on the last turn. I think that saccing to Mogis early won't help things: on my winning play it seems not to help, since later on it doesn't meaningfully affect anything and early on you don't have enough momentum to outrace Cavalier; and on the losing play I don't think you even need it. Below are the basic lines I figured out; I'm not sure if they're legible and I'll come back and clarify if need be.
1-
1-
2 Blossom
2 Call
3 Faerie (19-20), Cavalier
3 Pulse blossom
4 Mogis, s3 (19-17)
4 make a 1/1
5 mogis 2 dmg, pump 2, s5 (19-10)
5 s1 lifelink (18-11), make a 1/1
6 2 dmg, pump 3, s6 (18-2)
6 s2 lifelink (16-4), make a 1/1
7 mogis 2 (or sac), s6
1-
1-
2 Call
2 Blossom
3 Pulse blossom
3 Cava
4 1/1
4 Mogis, s2 cava (18)
5 s1 (19-all), 1/1
5 mog 2, pump 2, s4 (13-19)
6 s2 (15-17), 1/1
6 mog 2, pump 3, s5 (8, 17)
7 s3 (11-14), 1/1
7 mog2 pump3 s5 (5-14)
8 s4 (9-8) Ghoul
8 mog 2 (or sac, either way) -- pump 4 (1-8)
9 s8
4) Magus of the Aesthetic 6-0 Besides anything else, I'm pretty sure I can win by just playing Cavalier and waiting until I have 36 lands.
5) ManyCookies 0-6 Agreed.
6) MyNameIsFourteen :: 3-3 Agreed.
7) Personman 3-3 Agreed, thank you. (I need to avoid Bitterblossom in the future, I hate doing this counting math.)
8) Superbajt 0-6 Haha lol no I do not. This is hilariously evil.
9) WhammeWhamme 6-0 Agreed. Yay Mogis!
| 2? X 0 6 0 2 2 0 6 | 18
I expected more Bitterblossom, honestly. I guess 2 decks and a Call the Bloodline is a fair few. Also, Superbajt's deck is awesome, and BSZ is also super cool.
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. Ooh baby.
He can function both as something large to grow Kresh (that can be recurred by himself), and even without a large graveyard he's a win-con in combination with Kresh that avoids combat damage and hits everyone. Heartily recommend.
Also, besides what others mentioned, I question Wight of Precinct Six, which seems like a dumb beater most of the time (although maybe for your purposes sheer size is enough) and Kozilek's Channeler, which seems like it's bad at ramping and really bad at beating down.
I love them as a starting point, but in your position I wouldn't get another one. They combine a large set of fixed cards with a group of semi-random other groups -- if you have 2 then you're highly unlikely to get many individual cards from it you didn't already have. They're great for having a set of basic cards to fill in decks you don't have quite enough cards for yet -- basically, for starting a basic collection. However, especially since it's EDH, where you can only have 1 of any particular card, they're useless for repeats.
I would go for very cheap singles and individual cards you love (and also remember that card shops have rares and often have bargain-bin commons/uncommons, I've found great junk that way), then get out there and try the deck. EDH can be much more forgiving than other formats because of the social, multiplayer aspects, and you may not know what you want to improve in the deck until you try it. Also, one last time: all this is my opinion, and people have wildly different views on how people should start out. I'd wait for others to comment here, if anyone else will.
Good luck!
Easy rule to remember: don't buy booster packs unless you're playing in a Limited environment (Draft, Sealed, etc. -- for instance, a prerelease -- which I do encourage you to try sometime). It's important to build up a basic collection of cards, and the best way (IMO) to do that is to get Duel Decks, official Preconstructed EDH decks, Deckbuilder's Toolkits, and (yes) try Drafting/Sealed. That way, in the long run, if you decide to switch to another deck then it should be somewhat easy and you won't need a ton of new cards.
However, since you're trying to make one deck now, there's just absolutely no chance you'll open the specific cards you need. An average booster pack might give you around 5 cards or so in your colors (blue and white); I'd guess maybe 1 of them (if that) will be something you'd be at all interested in playingin your EDH deck. A lot of them are bad commons, just 'french vanilla' creatures (that is, they have no special abilities except maybe a keyword, like Wind Drake or Huatli's Snubhorn); others are out of your colors; and some just don't do quite what your deck is looking to do. Frankly, and this is just my opinion, but I don't find opening booster packs to really almost ever be even remotely close to being worth the price of $4.
Instead, ordering singles online is relatively cheap and will get you all you need. One time, I spent a total of $10 for some cards for a red/blue edh deck; I got 3x more cards than I needed and now can build tons of decks. I prefer to stick to cards under $0.50 or $0.25, but that's just me being a cheapskate; sometimes it's really worth it for a card you're lusting over (or one that you need to build the deck, if you're ordering a commander). This will vary based on your monetary tastes: I tell beginners to just use basics and 3-mana mana rocks, because you often have more fun finding exciting, splashy cards; however, if you're jumping into a competitive environment, a deck full of cheap (mana cost-wise) cards and good (expensive money-wise) lands is probably preferred and will definitely be something you can reuse in other decks down the road.