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  • posted a message on A bit of math discussion: How many of X do you put in a deck before you will play Y
    When I played legacy when it was 1.5 then I ran 4x Force of Will. I was an active member of a Legacy forum on the deck I played. It was a 4-color deck and there were tons of discussions of how many blue cards to run with Force of Will. In the end, it was essentially 4 blue cards per Force, or ~8% of slots for each Force+4 blue cards. I stick with this rule mostly.

    If a card does not work by itself then I want 7 other cards it works with to include. Crucible of Worlds + 7 cards that guarentee lands will be in your graveyard.

    Depending on your goal, this can change. enchantments and enchantments matter in an enchantment deck, this would be quite different. I usually put cards into categories when building a deck. but if there are a critical (30 ish) card types, then Id run number I like that cares about that card type

    If a card works with the commander, then I don't use the above. The Gitrog Monster, and Crucible of Worlds. If Gitrog is the only card to put lands in the graveyard, I'm fine with that. A creatureless deck with Lightning greave is fine too, If you MUST protect your commander I'll start running more, maybe 7-9 of those types of effects.

    So in the end, what do you want a card to do, how often do you want it to do that and how important is the effect.
    11 effects: generally 1 in 9 cards, so, turn 2 you could have access to the effect (start with 8, draw 9th card turn 2, I'm not going into math about this and mulligans)
    9 effects: 1 in 11, turn 3
    7: 1 in ~14, turn 6
    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on Conditional Hug/Slug
    I like Group Slug decks. My deck punished you for playing Magic, "Karevek Group hug Slug". Wizards soon printed a card my inner Timmy couldn't resist and changed it to: "Nekusaur - Draw 7". I retired Nekusaur and want to build Slug again. I want to also build a hug deck. My GF is inviting someone new to play, I have several sealed and unsealed commander pre-cons. I wanted to sleeve up a 4-color and then decided if I'm teaching someone, They should play a simple deck. I'm playing Non-Black. That's when I had an idea. with partner and planning, you can turn into a good aggressive deck. got me thinking. What cards could go in both? easily transformed into a hug or slug depending on the commander, and a few win conditions. So "Group Bear Hug" that actually wins the game, gives people a method to play the game more unfair, stops people from winning, then punishes them for playing the game. If the focus for the turning point were to be the legendary creatures with partner that can make non-black then I would essentially have a group slug deck that hugs a bit, or a group hug deck that slugs. Any cards come to mind?
    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on EVO Games and Commander's Arsenal
    7 pages of this stuff, I guess I don't need to say more, I'm in the same boat as everyone else.. BTW I looked on google maps, there is a bar within walking distance of the store. Just sayin.
    Posted in: Store Discussion
  • posted a message on Nekusar, The Mindrazor Punisher/Group Slug
    I have been playing this deck for a while now and I like this idea. Play cards and let opponents destroy themselves, with some help sometimes. Currently R/B. but adding a 3rd color may make this better. Just off the top of my head: White adds Personal Sanctuary, Artifact/Enchantment search/Protection. Blue adds card draw and more slugs. Green adds ramp?
    Im adding in several cards from the commander deck, Price of Knowledge, Sudden Spoiling, Baleful Force, From the ashes, Witch Hunt?, Toxic Deluge, Widespread Panic, Deepfire Elemental.

    Can I keep the integrity of the deck idea and play Nekusar? Kaervek would be moving to maindeck. Ideas?


    KAERVEK
    DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
    Enchantment (18)
    1x Bloodchief Ascension
    1x Exquisite Blood
    1x Grave Betrayal
    1x Liliana's Caress
    1x Manabarbs
    1x Megrim
    1x Necropotence
    1x Oppression
    1x Painful Quandary
    1x Phyrexian Arena
    1x Polluted Bonds
    1x Price of Glory
    1x Spellshock
    1x Spiteful Visions
    1x Stranglehold
    1x Tainted AEther
    1x Underworld Dreams
    1x Words of Waste

    Artifact (13)
    1x Basilisk Collar
    1x Dreamstone Hedron
    1x Expedition Map
    1x Geth's Grimoire
    1x Gilded Lotus
    1x Grafted Exoskeleton
    1x Iron Maiden
    1x Rakdos Signet
    1x Sensei's Divining Top
    1x Sol Ring
    1x Swiftfoot Boots
    1x Teferi's Puzzle Box
    1x Thran Dynamo

    Creature (12)
    1x Bloodgift Demon
    1x Chainer, Dementia Master
    1x Geth, Lord of the Vault
    1x Heartless Hidetsugu
    1x Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
    1x Lightning Reaver
    1x Myojin of Night's Reach
    1x Nighthowler
    1x Olivia Voldaren
    1x Patron of the Nezumi
    1x Sangromancer
    1x Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed

    Land (38)
    1x Badlands
    1x Blood Crypt
    1x Bloodstained Mire
    1x Bojuka Bog
    1x Cabal Coffers
    1x Command Tower
    1x Dragonskull Summit
    1x Graven Cairns
    12x Mountain
    1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
    1x Reflecting Pool
    11x Swamp
    1x Temple of the False God
    1x Thespian's Stage
    1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
    1x Vesuva
    1x Volrath's Stronghold

    Sorcery (15)
    1x Beseech the Queen
    1x Black Sun's Zenith
    1x Browbeat
    1x Damnation
    1x Decree of Pain
    1x Demonic Tutor
    1x Diabolic Revelation
    1x Exsanguinate
    1x Life's Finale
    1x Mutilate
    1x Read the Bones
    1x Reforge the Soul
    1x Temporal Extortion
    1x Wheel of Fortune
    1x Yawgmoth's Will

    Planeswalker (2)
    1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
    1x Liliana Vess

    Instant (1)
    1x Terminate


    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on [League] ideas for a stats page
    Update
    I have a tab for running total of points my Day # and Round #, nothing new.
    I have also kept stats for how many times an achievement is earned.
    Also I have been keeping track of how many times 2 commanders are paired up, for a 4 player game there are 6 pairings, this has not been working well because there are a few players with the same commander.
    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on [League] ideas for a stats page
    I have already covered keeping track. at the moment I can't do kill steals as the stats I collect don't look at in game actions. For my stat collection each player if given a paper and on this paper is:
    Name; Date; Match# (we have 2 each league day); Pod#; Commander; and a list for every achievement.
    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on [League] ideas for a stats page
    I have taken charge at my LGS for coming up with a league stats page. This will most likely be posted in a forum somewhere. The data that is available to me will include players and there commanders for each pod and a list of achievements earned. So far I have come up with a few stats that I would share:

    Commanders and how many games played (descending)
    Biggest rivalry (which 2 commanders keep playing against each other)
    Top 3-5 deadliest commanders (not sure if I want it listed by commander eliminations or just eliminations)
    Running points (obviously)
    ? Average points per game
    ? How many times an achievement was earned (descending) (biggest issue is player eliminations are awarded multiple times everything else just one) (I could list those separately under popular ways to kill a player)

    I haven't worked out the presentation yet. If anyone has suggestions for stats that would be appreciated. If anyone has a running spreadsheet they use to track stats that would help me a great deal as well. Thank you for your time.
    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on Thinking about Timetwister - is it worth it?
    If your playing a lot of blue and your playing some heavy hitting cards like consecrated sphinx and omniscience then Timetwister and any other card that lets players draw 7 works good. Timetwister had a few advantages over wheel of fortune. It's blue, of you don't play red your missing out in several draw sevens, also, if you have the aforementioned sphinx out, you could deck yourself if you want, but don't have to. Timetwister gets you back all your goodies. Windfall is not a draw 7, at best you may have an opponent with a ton of cards in hand, at worst you'll have to fill up your own hand to get a bunch of cards, but then again if you have the most cards why are you giving your opponents cards?
    Every game I cast Timetwister was because one of two reasons. One: I needed to refill my hand because i was falling behind on the board. Two: I had the sphinx in play, when I had omniscience in play it was pretty much an auto-win. play reliquary tower, mana rocks I would have 40+ cards in hand, counters kill spells and wins!
    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on EDH Binder
    Quote from Palnar

    This kind of seems like a neat idea. I have 8 EDH decks at the moment and there's some overlap in the cards, and it does suck having to buy the same cards multiple times. However, I'm curious as to what the point of the binder is exactly? Do you bring it with you every time you play? Or do you just leave it at home and your friends trust your word that you have the cards? It just seems like it would kinda suck to lug a ton of valuable cards around in a binder you have to watch every time you want to play.

    I bring it with me. At this point though I don't think I need to, I have played at my current store for a few months now and enough people have seen my binder they know I have the cards. If I go anywhere new I ask if they mind if I use proxys of cards I own, and if they do mind I have my binder, I go through the deck and swap them with the actual card. It adds some time to the beginning of a match, and at the end I switch them out, keeps track of what cards are being shared.
    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on EDH Binder
    I like to make proxys of cards and use them. Most of the groups I play with don't mind. I never make a proxy of a card I do not own and if I get multiples of cards I will use them instead of proxys. I have a binder I call my EDH binder that contains at least 1 of all the original cards I proxy. There is a lot of space in there and am still working on beefing it up. I'll proxy anything from forbidden orchard (cause I like the proxy) to timetwister (cause I don't want to shuffle it up). Any suggestions that could help beef this up (especially non-colorless) would be appreciated. I am mostly looking for expensive cards (not the most expencive version of a card, but a card where the low end of NM is something a normal person wouldn't want to buy a bunch of cause it costs too much, Sensei's Divining Top comes to mind). Thank you for your time.

    Hallowed Fountain
    Tundra
    Mystic Gate
    Flooded Strand
    Glacial Fortress

    Watery Grave
    Underground Sea
    Sunken Ruins
    Polluted Delta
    Darkslick Shores

    Blood Crypt
    Badlands
    Graven Cairns
    Bloodstained Mire
    Blackcleave Cliffs

    Stomping Ground
    Taiga
    Fire-Lit Thicket
    Wooded Foothills
    Rootbound Crag

    Temple Garden
    Savannah
    Wooded Bastion
    Windswept Heath
    Razorverge Thicket

    Godless Shrine
    Scrubland
    Fetid Heath
    Marsh Flats
    Isolated Chapel

    Steam Vents
    Volcanic Island
    Cascade Bluffs
    Scalding Tarn
    Sulfur Falls

    Overgrown Tomb
    Bayou
    Twilight Mire
    Verdant Catacombs
    Woodland Cemetery

    Sacred Foundry
    Plateau
    Rugged Prairie
    Arid Mesa
    Clifftop Retreat

    Breeding Pool
    Tropical Island
    Flooded Grove
    Misty Rainforest
    Hinterland Harbor

    Enlightened Tutor
    Armageddon (Portal Edition)
    Ravages of War


    Counterspell (FNM)
    Force of Will
    Mana Drain
    Azami, Lady of scrolls (will be here til I build the deck)
    Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    Timetwister
    Personal Tutor
    Intuition
    Gilded Drake

    Cruel Tutor
    Yawgmoth's Will
    Vampiric Tutor
    Liliana of the Veil

    Gamble

    Tarmogoyf

    Lion's Eye Diamond (wont stay)
    Sensei's Divining Top
    Mox Diamond
    Mana Crypt
    Mind Stone (Promo, prolly wont stay)
    Scroll Rack
    Emrakul
    Ulamog
    Sword of Feast and Famine
    Sword of Fire and Ice
    Kozilek
    Sword of Light and Shadow

    Wasteland
    Strip Mine (Promo)
    Gaea's Cradle
    Maze of Ith
    Forbidden Orchard (Promo)
    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on [[Official]] Miscut, Misprint, Foreign, Foil &Other Oddities Price Thread.
    Quote from zer0faults
    I didn't think this effect would be possible with the printing process they use. This is usually a digital printing issue that causes color inversion, no?


    Color inversion? this is just missing a layer of blue. are you saying the card may be fake? I have done a few of the tests on the card. snap, black light, even comparing the detail of the card (the way you look at a 3D image) and there is nothing so far that makes me think someone printed the card. that said, a genuine card with this color error that I have never seen... what would I trade this away or sell this for?
    Posted in: Market Street Café
  • posted a message on [[Official]] Miscut, Misprint, Foreign, Foil &Other Oddities Price Thread.
    I have not seen a card like this before in misprints, I was wondering what the value of this could be.

    Merged into Misprints and Oddities - Skies
    Posted in: Market Street Café
  • posted a message on [[SCD]] Notion Thief
    Quote from NGW
    Mmm and what happens if a single player has more than one Notion Thief, do they draw two if an opponent would draw an extra card?


    It's a replacement effect, you would choose which replacement effect to apply, the other has no effect. So the answer is 1 card.
    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on [Official] Digital Rendering Thread
    I like the Jace, the Mind Sculptor featuring David Tennant. would anyone be willing to do Tamiyo, the Moon Sage as River Song from the Doctor Who series? Thankyou!
    Posted in: Artwork
  • posted a message on Animar, not for me, but need help anyway
    From my girlfriend:

    The love of my life is currently deployed with the Navy. I miss him everyday. He loves MTG almost as much as he loves me (ok, some days he probably loves magic more...) He taught me how to play shortly after we started dating and I enjoy playing EDH with him. The only issue is that obviously our skill levels are not matched (he has been playing for 17 years, and I have been playing for 1). I like to play an Animar deck. I wanted to focus on 1 deck because I wanted to get familiar with the cards, and know what they do. He has played a few decks against me. I get frustrated when he stonewalls me and I can't get enough mana down to really do anything with my deck. Can you make any suggestions to make this deck work better, or make our decks work better against each other with this obvious skill level mismatch? I am still learning, and he doesn't want to discourage me. Your help would be appreciated!

    commander: animar

    creature:
    - Body Double ( i think it has potential, but i haven't used it as much as i could)
    - Spite Bellows (i like having some big creatures. i like that it deals 6 damage to a target creature when it leaves too)
    - Intet, the Dreamer (i like that it has flying. playing a card without paying it's mana cost sounds good… I think I haven't played this card very often because of it's high casting cost… I rarely get that much land out before you destroy me).
    - Avalanche Riders (as i understand it, this card is one of the older cards in the deck. being unaffected by summoning sickness comes in handy. also, destroying a target land has come in handy with one of your decks, though i can't remember which one…)
    - Vigor (trample! and it goes into your deck instead of the graveyard! and it prevents damage to other creatures! but again, high casting cost, so i think i've only been able to use it a handful of times against you. I think i need more ways to get land out fast at the beginning).
    - Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre (this card sounds amazing. i have never used it in play).
    - Apocalypse Hydra (has come in handy. obviously it works better when you have a lot of mana in play)
    - Viridian Shaman (low casting cost, which i like when playing against you. destroying target artifact has worked once or twice).
    - Solemn Simulacrum (this was part of a combo)
    - Primeval Titan (trample! searching for land is good. still, high casting cost).
    - Magmatic Force (like it. like the 3 damage at the start of each upkeep. high casting cost but totally worth it if i can get there)
    - Inferno Titan (dealing 3 damage is good)
    - Fierce Empath (useful)
    - Vexing Shutter (low casting cost)
    - Artisan of Kozilek (high casting cost, but annihilator is good)
    - Sakura-Tribe Elder (land!)
    - brutalizer exarch (we just added this to the deck so i haven't been able to play with it yet, but finding a creature is good.)
    - baloth woodcrasher (the landfall stuff is cool)
    - yavimaya elder (land, yay. drawing a card, also good.)
    - phyrexian metamorph (i always want to use this with a legendary creature, so they both die. maybe there is a better way to use it?)
    - deadwood treefolk (it's ok. i know i didn't want to get rid of this, but maybe something else would be more useful. it does have a toughness of 6.)
    - squee, goblin nabob (part of a combo. like it)
    - avatar of fury (flying is good. i know i've used this when you have lots of land in play).
    - pestermite (we added this so I could have more small creatures i think. the tap/untap seems useful.)
    - woodfall primus (big casting cost. also we added it recently, so i don't think i've been able to use it much)
    - oracle of mul daya (yes. like this. i am always jealous when you play it. land, other cards, what's not to like?)
    - trench gorger (big casting cost. i've used it a few times, but i haven't wanted to exile lots of lands. maybe if i risk more it would work better. i feel like i need a lot of lands in play to play this deck).
    - edric, spymaster of trest (low casting cost)
    - riku of two reflections (there's a lot to remember when you use this card. i would like to get better at using it).
    - sylvan ranger (land. yay.)
    - hydra omnivore (i tend to think this card will do damage to me too, but it won't, will it? it's power/toughness are good).
    - magus of the future (the top library card thing is useful)
    - dwarven blast miner (we just added this, but from what i recall, you have a deck whose lands i like the destroy).
    - kozilek, butcher of truth (has some good attributes, but high casting cost. also we added it recently, so i haven't used it yet)
    - rapacious one (adds mana, that is good)
    - eternal witness (low casting cost)
    - fault grinder (can destroy lands. high casting cost)
    - kiki-jiki, mirror breaker (i think if i used this more i would like it)
    - priest of urabrask (i always thought it was uberask, lol. like it, part of a combo that gets infinite mana).
    - mimic sky swallower (like the shroud and flying. high casting cost, worth it).

    planeswalker:
    - garruk wildspeaker (sometimes i forget the +1 or -1 stuff)


    artifact:
    - lightning greaves (I think i've used this a few times)
    - cloudstone curio (i like this one. it is part of a combo. if i can remember what it combos with…)
    - aethersnipe (when there are a lot of counters on animar this is good to play. returning nonland permanent is helpful)
    - sol ring (yes. adds mana, low casting cost. useful)
    - sensei's diving top (i've used this and liked it)
    - dark steel ingot (adds mana)

    instant:
    - tribute to the wild (i think i've used this once or twice)
    - brainstorm (i like this one, it has been useful)
    - spell crumple (useful)
    - worldly tutor (can find a creature, and only costs 1)

    sorcery:
    - ancestral vision (this is ok. it takes a while, but it has come in handy a few times. i could get rid of it for something faster though…)
    - ruination (i think i used this once)
    - primal command (i think you added this to the deck recently, i can't remember using it. i like it-- especially searching for a creature)
    - cultivate (finds me lands! love it! and low casting cost)
    - kodama's reach (yay! more lands)
    - foresee (yes, very useful)
    - tooth and nail (like it. high casting cost limits it when playing against you. i know i have had it in my hand but unable to use it because i was waiting for more mana…sometimes it seems better to play it entwined, but then i need to wait for even more mana).
    - explosive vegetation (lands)

    enchantment:
    - greater good (sometimes it's helpful to sacrifice a creature)
    - equilibrium (i forget about this, but i think it could be useful)
    - blood moon (makes lands mountains. useful)
    - survival of the fittest (searches for a creature card, low casting cost)

    land:
    - command tower
    - vivid grove (entering tapped is annoying, but i can live with it. i like that it can be any color)
    - fungal reaches
    - evolving wilds (searching for a specific basic land card came in handy once or twice)
    - vivid creek (same comment as vivid grove)
    - gruul turf
    - steam vents
    - vivid crag
    - rupture spire
    - temple of the false god
    - simic growth chamber
    - homeward path (gaining control of your creatures is useful, but i think the few times i wanted to use it i couldn't get to it)
    - kazandu refuge
    - izzet boilerworks
    - island (5)
    - mountain (7)
    - forest (10)


    ME:
    I intend to play Doran against her (mainly treefolk and other cards with big butts, Ill post that deck later.), I would like her to have a deck that she can learn and grow from instead of just doing the same things over and over again. I want the decks to be fun, I also wouldn't mind if her deck could hold a match to my other tuned decks, a boom-baby (Child of Alara) deck, WUB control deck, karn deck, as well as playable at our local game store. I am not so good at building decks without making them the best they can be so that is why I am asking for any help that you may be able to provide. thank you for your time! (also, since we play vs each other, we have proxys for expensive cards so any suggestion will do.)
    Posted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists
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