tl;dr: Players posting decks here should specify whether they're online players or paper players because a budget deck in Magic Online might be expensive in paper Magic.
On a whim, I decided to check how much Umezawa's Jitte costs in paper Magic.
$17.99 per copy?
It's only $3.25 per copy online. That's up from $2.50 a month ago, which is what I paid per copy.
I then decided to go all the way and self-appraise the two decks I'm currently playing, using the cheapest possible cards available from MagicCards.info and MTGOTraders.com:
I guess we should specify whether we have an online budget or a paper budget in mind when posting a deck here. What us Magic Online players consider a casual budget deck might be exceedingly expensive for casual paper players.
It's much easier to stay on a budget when playing Magic Online. Furthermore, you don't need to get sleeves, you don't have to worry about your cards getting stolen, you don't have to worry about cheating since the rules engine handles everything, and you can play at any time of the day because there's always someone online.
But enough about me gushing about Magic Online... I didn't realize just how much more expensive paper Magic is compared to Magic Online. For all its flaws, MTGO lets me play good decks without breaking the bank.
So it's mostly a deck of four-of's except Umezawa's Jitte, and my sideboard is incomplete. My meta is the Just for Fun room in Magic Online, and I face a very wide variety of decks that it's hard to build a sideboard. Tribal decks seem to be the most popular. Reanimator is rare but quite potent, thus the graveyard hate. I don't own any planeswalkers, but they are very common in the Just for Fun room.
Bullies exist and are bad for the game. The Neutral Grounds in my hometown are full of bullies who intrude on casual games and in some cases grab the cards in your hand to make a play that "isn't as stupid as yours." They also hoarded cards, squeezing every last penny for even crap commons.
This looks like a sock puppet trying to defend the bully.
Relic of Progenitus easily shuts this down. I won game 1 by a hair, using my Vampire Hexmage to take out his 4 Bridge from Below in his graveyard in response to him sacrificing for Cabal Therapy's flashback. Game 2 was a breeze with a Relic in my opening hand, and my opponent was forced to hardcast his critters against a dedicated aggro deck.
2. UW Allies
Basically White Weenie with some blue critters and a dash of countermagic. Game 1 saw his Kazandu Blademasters grow huge, him having just enough critters so he didn't have to sacrifice them to Gatekeeper of Malakir. I managed to stall until I had five vampires in play to use Captivating Vampire's ability to slowly steal his critters. Volrath's Stronghold came in handy for recurring my chomp blockers, and I would win the game with only 2 life left. Game 2 would be an easier victory, with multiple Hymn to Tourachs taking out most of his critters, leaving the ones on the field easy pickings for my bloodsucking minions.
3. Enchantments
This was a control deck which used enchantments like Humility and Moat to lock down the game. I lost the first game close to.victory after my opponent got a Moat to join his Humility. I sided in Ratchet Bomb to deal with them, but he used Hide//Seek on an Isochron Scepter to get rid of the one on the battlefield and the rest of them in my library. I knew I should've kept Dystopia in my sideboard.
One of my worst matchups is the reanimator deck. Turn 1 Dark Ritual into Entomb and Exhume with a powerful critter means gg. I might be able to win game 2 with an aggressive mulligan for Relic of Progenitus, but I won't have one mana open to kill his graveyard if he has a Dark Ritual handy. Should I get some Leyline of the Voids, or would that lead me down the slippery slope out of casual?
These cards are fun to use, but their effectiveness diminishes the more skilled your opponent is. A good player will always select the option that hurts him or her the least. For example, Dash Hopes is card disadvantage most of the time, and when your opponent is low enough in life to get hurt by the life loss, he or she will have his or her spell countered. Since cards > life, this is usually bad for the caster of Dash Hopes.
It's also a case of win-more in that it really becomes useful only when you're winning. You only get to draw three cards with Browbeat when your opponent would've succumbed to a conventional burn spell. It allows you to win even more when you're ahead, but does nothing when you're behind.
That said, they're alright to use against inexperienced players who haven't fully grasped the concept of cards > life.
I'm taking advantage of older cards to mitigate Black's weaknesses. Gate to Phyrexia, for example, lets me take out problematic artifacts without splashing another color. Also, I added Beseech the Queen since I had three copies lying around. Although it slows the deck somewhat, it does come in handy for getting Necropotence or any of my sideboarded cards.
I win most of my games in the Just for Fun room despite having a cheaper deck than most. Eschewing dual lands really saved me a lot of money, which I poured into getting better spells. Right now, my deck hovers around $50.00, a fraction of what multicolored decks with dual lands cost.
I think I might get Dark Depths as a singleton. I'll have three virtual copies in the form of Beseech the Queen, and I can get out the combo on turn 4, after most of my opponent's point removal has hopefully run out.
I'll post some "battle reports" tomorrow of my difficult games.
Thanks for the lengthy response. Captivating Vampire is there for the +1/+1 pump, and his mind control ability only rarely comes up. When it does, though, is when I'm facing another aggro deck in a stalemate. I take my opponent's best creature at the end of his turn, allowing me to slowly overwhelm him with numbers. His ability also works wonders against Platinum Angel and other problematic critters.
I've been thinking about adding some Vampire Hexmages to the deck to better defend against planeswalkers, but I'm not sure which cards to cut. Hexmage is a decent critter even without her ability; First Strike is very useful against the aggro-heavy meta of the Just for Fun room.
Also, I'm thinking of maybe adding a planeswalker to this deck, perhaps Sorin Markov to fit with the tribal theme. However, his high CMC scares me. If I were to add Sorin, how many copies should I add? I'm thinking either two or three, most likely two.
And finally, my favorite bot still doesn't have Hymn to Tourach in stock, so Child of Night will have to stay for a while.
I recently discovered the card, Dystopia, and immediately went to my favorite bot to price check. $0.05 a piece. Nice. I added three copies to my sideboard and so far, it has been a huge help against white and green decks, especially those with annoying enchantments that black has a problem dealing with.
Dystopia is not alone. Buried within the good ol' days of Magic are the most vicious hosers ever printed. I need your help in listinv them all.
I have come to the conclusion that Magic has two axes of success, similar to the two axes of alignment in D&D. There's the Budget Axis, which is most visible, and there's the Skill Axis, which is more subtle.
1. High Budget, High Skill
2. Medium Budget, High Skill
3. Low Budget, High Skill
4. High Budget, Medium Skill
5. Medium Budget, Medium Skill
6. Low Budget, Medium Skill
7. High Budget, Low Skill
8. Medium Budget, Low Skill
9. Low Budget, Low Skill
A lot of newbies confuse Budget with Skill and vice-versa. What do you think?
You didn't read my original post, did you?
On a whim, I decided to check how much Umezawa's Jitte costs in paper Magic.
$17.99 per copy?
It's only $3.25 per copy online. That's up from $2.50 a month ago, which is what I paid per copy.
I then decided to go all the way and self-appraise the two decks I'm currently playing, using the cheapest possible cards available from MagicCards.info and MTGOTraders.com:
I guess we should specify whether we have an online budget or a paper budget in mind when posting a deck here. What us Magic Online players consider a casual budget deck might be exceedingly expensive for casual paper players.
It's much easier to stay on a budget when playing Magic Online. Furthermore, you don't need to get sleeves, you don't have to worry about your cards getting stolen, you don't have to worry about cheating since the rules engine handles everything, and you can play at any time of the day because there's always someone online.
But enough about me gushing about Magic Online... I didn't realize just how much more expensive paper Magic is compared to Magic Online. For all its flaws, MTGO lets me play good decks without breaking the bank.
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Grimoire Thief
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Merfolk Sovereign
4 Aether Vial
4 Ponder
4 Counterspell
4 Boomerang
Equipment
2 Umezawa's Jitte
Lands
18 Island
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Pithing Needle
9 ???
So it's mostly a deck of four-of's except Umezawa's Jitte, and my sideboard is incomplete. My meta is the Just for Fun room in Magic Online, and I face a very wide variety of decks that it's hard to build a sideboard. Tribal decks seem to be the most popular. Reanimator is rare but quite potent, thus the graveyard hate. I don't own any planeswalkers, but they are very common in the Just for Fun room.
Any suggestions on where to tweak this deck?
This looks like a sock puppet trying to defend the bully.
1. Dredge
Relic of Progenitus easily shuts this down. I won game 1 by a hair, using my Vampire Hexmage to take out his 4 Bridge from Below in his graveyard in response to him sacrificing for Cabal Therapy's flashback. Game 2 was a breeze with a Relic in my opening hand, and my opponent was forced to hardcast his critters against a dedicated aggro deck.
2. UW Allies
Basically White Weenie with some blue critters and a dash of countermagic. Game 1 saw his Kazandu Blademasters grow huge, him having just enough critters so he didn't have to sacrifice them to Gatekeeper of Malakir. I managed to stall until I had five vampires in play to use Captivating Vampire's ability to slowly steal his critters. Volrath's Stronghold came in handy for recurring my chomp blockers, and I would win the game with only 2 life left. Game 2 would be an easier victory, with multiple Hymn to Tourachs taking out most of his critters, leaving the ones on the field easy pickings for my bloodsucking minions.
3. Enchantments
This was a control deck which used enchantments like Humility and Moat to lock down the game. I lost the first game close to.victory after my opponent got a Moat to join his Humility. I sided in Ratchet Bomb to deal with them, but he used Hide//Seek on an Isochron Scepter to get rid of the one on the battlefield and the rest of them in my library. I knew I should've kept Dystopia in my sideboard.
4 Vampire Lacerator
4 Bloodghast
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Captivating Vampire
2 Bloodline Keeper
2 Vampire Nocturnus
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
1 Necropotence
3 Beseech the Queen
Equipment
2 Umezawa's Jitte
Lands
1 Dark Depths
21 Swamp
4 Pithing Needle
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Gate to Phyrexia
2 Everlasting Torment
2 Dystopia
One of my worst matchups is the reanimator deck. Turn 1 Dark Ritual into Entomb and Exhume with a powerful critter means gg. I might be able to win game 2 with an aggressive mulligan for Relic of Progenitus, but I won't have one mana open to kill his graveyard if he has a Dark Ritual handy. Should I get some Leyline of the Voids, or would that lead me down the slippery slope out of casual?
It's also a case of win-more in that it really becomes useful only when you're winning. You only get to draw three cards with Browbeat when your opponent would've succumbed to a conventional burn spell. It allows you to win even more when you're ahead, but does nothing when you're behind.
That said, they're alright to use against inexperienced players who haven't fully grasped the concept of cards > life.
4 Vampire Lacerator
4 Bloodghast
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Captivating Vampire
4 Vampire Nocturnus
4 Duress
3 Hymn to Tourach
1 Necropotence
3 Beseech the Queen
Equipment
3 Umezawa's Jitte
Lands
22 Swamp
4 Pithing Needle
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Gate to Phyrexia
2 Everlasting Torment
2 Dystopia
I'm taking advantage of older cards to mitigate Black's weaknesses. Gate to Phyrexia, for example, lets me take out problematic artifacts without splashing another color. Also, I added Beseech the Queen since I had three copies lying around. Although it slows the deck somewhat, it does come in handy for getting Necropotence or any of my sideboarded cards.
I win most of my games in the Just for Fun room despite having a cheaper deck than most. Eschewing dual lands really saved me a lot of money, which I poured into getting better spells. Right now, my deck hovers around $50.00, a fraction of what multicolored decks with dual lands cost.
I think I might get Dark Depths as a singleton. I'll have three virtual copies in the form of Beseech the Queen, and I can get out the combo on turn 4, after most of my opponent's point removal has hopefully run out.
I'll post some "battle reports" tomorrow of my difficult games.
I'm going to test these changes tomorrow:
This brings the mana curve to:
CMC 1 - 8
CMC 2 - 15
CMC 3 - 9 (Gatekeeper of Malakir costs 3 to cast most of the time.)
CMC 4 - 6
There's a spike at CMC 2, and I'd like to make my mana curve a bit smoother. Suggestions?
Also, I'm thinking of maybe adding a planeswalker to this deck, perhaps Sorin Markov to fit with the tribal theme. However, his high CMC scares me. If I were to add Sorin, how many copies should I add? I'm thinking either two or three, most likely two.
And finally, my favorite bot still doesn't have Hymn to Tourach in stock, so Child of Night will have to stay for a while.
What do you think?
Dystopia is not alone. Buried within the good ol' days of Magic are the most vicious hosers ever printed. I need your help in listinv them all.
P.S.
Preferably those that are Classic-legal.
//gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?sort=cn+&output=spoiler&method=visual&action=advanced&set=%20[%22Magic%202012%22">"]Click here to see all of the cards in Magic 2012.
I spent several minutes coming up with a nice deck, but... It's just way too limiting. I'll try again later.
1. High Budget, High Skill
2. Medium Budget, High Skill
3. Low Budget, High Skill
4. High Budget, Medium Skill
5. Medium Budget, Medium Skill
6. Low Budget, Medium Skill
7. High Budget, Low Skill
8. Medium Budget, Low Skill
9. Low Budget, Low Skill
A lot of newbies confuse Budget with Skill and vice-versa. What do you think?