I am new to magic. I have played several drafts and have started to get a fairly large amount of cards. Now at my local store standard is very popular. I would like to play in these tournaments but I am confused about what kind of deck to build. I have thought about putting together a super complicated combo deck but I am not sure. I feel like a very simple deck would give me the most wind but at the same time I have never been to a tournament. Please give me any tips and tricks at all relating to standard. All help is welcome.
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best way to get mtg cards
Soo i'm new to mtg and was wondering, what is the best way to get cards.
I have several intro packs and I have played drafts.
I know that booster packs are ideal for places like stores but I know you can buy cards in bulk on ebay. Mainly i'm concerned about price since I am a thrifty teenager without and allowance. Any thoughts are great.
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top10 cards printed in 2015 for modern
I will list the cards I think have had a major impact in Modern printed in 2015. This means no love for Den Protector, Deathmist Raptor, Hangarback Walker, Dragonlord Ojutai and Silumgar's Scorn, although some of them have been tried in some Modern decks with moderate success. It might be curious to revisit this list in a year; who would have guessed Keranos, God of Storms would have become such an important card. Let's go in ascending order.
Honorable mention: Harbinger of the Tides
I hadn't thought of including this card in my list until I checked the list of most played creatures of the format at mtggoldfish and saw it in such a high position. The combination of Harbinger with Aether Vial gives Merfolks an instant removal spell that also counts as a creature and contributes with two blue mana symbols to the devotion of Master of Waves.
#10: Painful Truths
This card hasn't make an impact yet in Modern, but it's starting to see play in the sideboard of several mid-range decks and even some Twin versions. Drawing three cards is still a very powerful effect in Modern, and Wizards has found the optimal cost after the failed experiment of Treasure Cruise. Three mana are the maximum we are willing to pay for this, and 3 life seem easier to pay than a fourth mana to cast cards like Concentrate and Harmonize.
While Elves are still less played than Merfolks, they've improved more since Origins came out, and this card is responsible for most of the improvement. Elves lack haste to surprise any opponent when playing an aggro plan, while the pure combo versions are too fragile due to the amount of removal of the format. However, Shaman of the Pack allows you to deal damage with your Elves before you get to attack with them, making the aggro plan more consistent and the deck more competitive.
Dragons of Tarkir brought a cycle of color based hate cards, from which only Rending Volley has become a format staple, replacing Combust as the favorite Twin hoser, although unable to kill Siege Rhino or Baneslayer Angel.
We already knew from Tombstalker that delve is a very powerful mechanic, and Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time certainly proved the point. Despite being just a common, Gurmag Angler has supposed an upgrade to the Future Sight demon, because costing just one mana is better than costing two, and Modern is filled of flying chumpblockers. Patrick Chapin tried to break the card since he saw it printed and momentarily succeeded with his Grixis deck, now obsolete. Gurmag Angler has also seen play in Dredgevine decks.
This card looks like a worse version of Siege-Gang Commander, but it's actually better and I'm still surprised of its low price, probably because it's only played in Modern. Chandra's parents make the difference against mid-range decks, and are also a fantastic card against Affinity. Comparing them to Lingering Souls is a fairer comparison.
It saddens me to see Burn getting new toys in a yearly basis, but 2015 has given red mages the ultimate tool for their decks. Life gain will always be a problem for Burn, and Skullcrack alone can't deal with it. A card like Flames of the Blood Hand is too expensive, while Rain of Gore is only sideboard material and requires a splash to an extra color. Atarka's Command solves the problem, while also being able to give +2/+2 to a horde of attacking Monastery Swiftspears.
The newest Jace is responsible of the most expensive Standard format ever, and has been played even in Vintage. However, even without the Mind Sculptor in the format, it hasn't become a dominant force in Modern yet. So far, Jace has displaced Gurmag Angler as the card to build around your Grixis deck, in which it might be even more powerful than Snapcaster Mage, but still lacks the flexibility of the Innistrad card to appear in more archetypes.
The banning of Birthing Pod was one of the most controversial decisions of the year. Many players cried out loud, signed online petitions and called for demonstrations. However, just a few months later, nobody misses the artifact from New Phyrexia. Collected Company doesn't just have a sedative effect in the community, but has allowed the Melira combo to be still viable in Modern, has revived Big Zoo and gave Elves its first push towards being a competitive deck. Collected Company offers these decks card advantage, resilience to removal and can even get some game winning combos into play at instant speed.
Gurmag Angler's best friend has some advantages over the big fish that make for the lacking point of power; a lower converted mana cost and a relevant ability for the late game are factors that don't force you to go all in filling the graveyard to get a fatty. Tasigur has been played in almost any black mid-range deck, even replacing Dark Confidant in Junk, and also in control decks. It's been also one of the favorite alternative win conditions of Twin players. It has made Jund players cut some Abrupt Decays in favor of Terminates, and has made Doom Blade and Slaughter Pact unplayable cards in Modern.
2015 started with Junk being the most popular fair deck and ends with Grixis being the most popular fair color combination. The main reason is the combination Snapcaster Mage + Kolaghan's Command. The same way playing without blue delve spells a year ago meant playing an underpowered deck, playing a fair deck without this combination of cards is starting to seem equally wrong. They can be found in the most diverse decks: with Delver of Secrets, with bigger beaters, with Jace Vryn's Prodigy or with Splinter Twin. Kolaghan's Command is a really versatile spell. When analyzing the card at first, many people just looked at the worst possible case, in which it's just a worse Blightning, forgetting so many amazing situations. It has turned Batterskull and equipment in general (outside of Cranial Plating) unplayable in Modern; those are big words that deserve the first place of my list.
Is there any card I've missed? Feel free to point it out. Will this list look the same in a year? We'll see then.
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Color(less) Me Curious
Color(less) Me Curious
Monday December 14, 2015
Hi everybody! As we all know, there have been some spoilers from Oath of the Gatewatch that have been causing quite a bit of a stir. So today I figured I’d add my thoughts to the mix.
For those who may not have seen, Oath will have a new color (of sorts). Colorless will now have its own mana symbol. I won’t get into the difference between colorless and generic mana as there are MORE than enough articles out there explaining that right now. What I’m going to talk about today is my opinion on this new designation for colorless and touch on how it may affect future artifact development.
A rolling Stoneforge gathers no moss
While not part of Oath, it was recently announced that Stoneforge Mystic will be the 2016 GP promo card. The collective swoon of Deathblade and DnT players could be heard around the world. I can think of a least a handful of people in my usual playgroup that are amongst those numbers. Soon afterwards though, the speculation started flying as to what this could portend. Typically the GP promos have been cards playable in Modern. As we all (may or may not) know, however, Stoneforge is currently on the Modern banned list. So what exactly could this mean?
I’m dreaming of a white Kor Artificer Christmas
So, we have a new designation for colorless mana and a GP Promo of a card currently banned in Modern, both spoiled within a short time of each other. Could there be a connection perhaps? I’m of the opinion that there might just be more than meets the eye with this connection.
Let’s examine Stoneforge Mystic for a moment: those who were playing during the Cawblade era or watch/play Legacy are very familiar with this particular card and what it can do. For those not so well versed, Stoneforge Mystic has an enters-the-battlefield ability which lets you search your deck for any equipment and put it into your hand. And then for 1W and tap you can put an equipment card from your hand onto the battlefield. The typical targets are Umizawa’s Jitte or Batterskull. A quick search of Youtube and you can find a figurative ton of videos showing this in action.
The current banned list rumors are flying that perhaps it’s time to unban Stoneforge in Modern, as well as the usual rogue’s gallery of what people think should be banned (but that’s a story for a different article). My personal opinion? I think it would actually be safe to unban it in Modern, and I’ll explain why.
- We currently have no artifact of the power level of Jitte in Modern.
While not an instant win in Legacy, once Jitte hits the board it can create an insurmountable advantage for the player running it. Against certain decks it’s pretty close to a game over. And while we have the various Swords of Etc...., they only see play in a few specific decks. We also have Batterskull in Modern, however, that leads me to my next point.
- Kolaghan’s Command.
I think this is the card that actually makes Stoneforge safe for Modern. In one card you can both kill the Stoneforge and blowup the equipment they put into play. The fact it’s not green means that it can be easily splashable in a variety of decks, and the card advantage it can provide would certainly help keep Stoneforge in check. All the colors, in one fashion or another, have some way of getting it off the table.
As for my previous point about artifacts, Batterskull has seen a tremendous drop in Modern play since Kolaghan’s Command was printed. “Dies to Doomblade” has been a sort of mini-mantra used to describe why certain creatures may not be playable in Modern, meaning they are easy to kill off. But in this case, I think it actually describes why the card could be playable.
- Colorless mana could allow for some decent artifacts to get printed in future sets without the risk of them being too broken.
With colorless having a specific mana symbol now it really opens up a lot of room to design some powerful artifacts that could easily see Modern (and possibly Legacy) play, while assigning a real cost to them, instead of allowing any deck to jam them at will. A deck may have to really take into consideration how many colorless producing lands to run while still balancing the rest of its mana requirements. Even having something as seemingly simple as a colorless activation cost, or equip cost, would require retooling how a deck is built to take that into consideration.
- White could really use a solid build-around-me creature in Modern, on the same idea as Snapcaster Mage, Young Pyromancer, Dark Confident, and Tarmogoyf.
While Goyf isn’t exactly a build-around-me card, it does influence how the rest of your creature suite looks in the decks that run it. The other creatures really need decks build to support them optimally to get the most out of them. White currently doesn’t have a creature like that in Modern. I think this could give white decks some of the boost they need to be a bit more competitive.
Happy Brew Year!
Stoneforge Mystic has been banned since Modern’s inception thanks to CawBlade. And while not an extensive list by any stretch, these are what I feel are my main reasons for why I feel Stoneforge would be not only safe for Modern, but a good addition as well. It would certainly change some existing lists, while also (hopefully) giving rise to some new lists as well. Banning/unbannings in Modern certainly bring about change, one way or the other. And they DEFINITELY bring about a lot of discussion.
That’s all for now! As always, questions, comments, etc.... are always welcome.
Happy brewing!
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Selvala Elfball ($100 Budget)
A friend of mine was watching me experiment with my Elfball deck, and wanted to try it out himself. Lent it to him, and he seemed to enjoy it enough to want to buy into it. He's even more of a Johnny than I am, though with far less of a budget to work with. In an attempt to help him out, I tried to construct an Elfball deck using two colors instead of the mono-green that was my Ezuri.I decided to go with two colors and a budget of $100 after an optimized Heavily Played search from TCGPlayer. While there are some pieces to Elfball combo that are non-negotiable (Staff of Domination being the big one), I found that there are some somewhat functional replacements for the other things which serve as signatures for Green decks.
The nice thing about White is that it offers another cheap wincon that functions well for the tribe (Mirror Entity), another 1CMC mana dork (Avacyn's Pilgrim), and also gives one cheap tutor for combo pieces (Steelshaper's Gift) and two more semi-cheap tutors for other pieces (Eladamri's Call, Sterling Grove). However, given our budget, we only have enough free space to run Steelshaper. Still, those two are very obvious upgrades to the deck, with Call matching Demonic Tutor in CMC and speed (though you have to reveal the card and it has to be a creature) and the other being storable.
Speaking of tutors, Elves has a bunch of cheap ones available even without getting into White. Elvish Harbinger doubles as a mana dork, Skyshroud Poacher can duck a lot of things by bringing stuff into play directly, Wirewood Herald can tutor for Caller of the Claw in response to a boardwipe, and Fierce Empath can bring you an array of useful 6+ CMC creatures.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Elvish Guidance won't match Gaea's Cradle in power, but you'd potentially run the two anyway AND they still can do the big mana plays that Cradle allows. Though both will have to be used a bit later than Cradle can, and Elvish Guidance in particular can get you two-for-one'd. Still, having big mana through lands as an option even without Cradle is great.
In addition to big mana, our various land tutors let us fetch everything from removal to unblockability to land destruction.
Genesis Hydra isn't anywhere near Genesis Wave in power, but it can dig just as deeply to find you what you need. We've also managed to squeeze enough budget to get Wave itself.
You'll need more mana to get Primordial Sage going compared to Glimpse of Nature, but it should be noted that it can be fetched with Empath.
If you can't red zone your way to victory, then Hurricane and Squall Line provide a way to just slam the whole table for big damage. Sure, you might also kill yourself, but you'll have done a nice impression of a Heartless Hidetsugu deck while doing it.
Staff of Domination is, in my opinion, mostly non-negotiable as it's both card draw AND another infinite enabler. You still pack some power in the deck without it (Umbral Mantle can do the infinite mana thing too) but it does enough that it deserves to be slotted in despite being over $10 in price.
They're not Craterhoof Behemoth or even Ezuri, Renegade Leader, but Chameleon Colossus and the aforementioned Mirror Entity can serve as ways to handily take out an opponent through damage while doubling as "Elves," meaning they're fetchable by our plethora of budget Elf tutors. Though Colossus does not have Trample or some form of Evasion, you can tutor it up for him using a land tutor for Rogue's Passage or utilize Triumph of the Hordes. For the amount of mana you'd spend on Hoof or a one-activation Ezuri, you can pump your forces up to 5/5 which can sometimes be enough. But more importantly, Entity enables more combos.
We have three main haste enablers in this deck: Concordant Crossroads, Thousand-Year Elixir, and Lightning Greaves. Each of them can enable infinite mana on the turn you've got the mana and the cards to start the combo, and are all quite cheap. That Green has the extra haste enabler helps us significantly. Joraga Warcaller also enables a combo with Devoted Druid in particular, but it requires a bit more mana to truly get going as a wincon.
Example combos:
Wirewood Symbiote + Devoted Druid + Joraga Warcaller (Kicked at least once) + Greaves/Crossroads/Elixir
Tap and untap Druid for 3+ mana, return it with Wirewood Symbiote, recast it and then tap it again for infinite mana since Devoted Druid only costs 2. Warcaller also fits as a potential wincon here since it can also be returned by Wirewood Symbiote and then recast with infinite multikickers.Wirewood Symbiote + Mirror Entity + Megadork (Tapping for at least 3 Mana)
Tap the Megadork for 3 mana or more. Turn all creatures into an Elf with Mirror Entity (you only have to pay 1 for now). Untap the Megadork with Symbiote targeting itself for bouncing back to hand since it's now an Elf itself. Recast Symbiote, retap the Megadork for 3 mana, re-use Mirror Entity's ability, untap Megadork and bounce Symbiote back, and repeat ad infinitum. Note that, again, a wincon is built in here with Mirror Entity as a way to dump all the mana.Megadork (Tapping for at least 4 Mana) + Umbral Mantle
Tap for 4, untap spending 3, tap for 4, surplus 1-- repeat for infinite mana. At a large enough table with a bit of luck, Selvala herself might be able to keep this going and add some card draw (albeit symmetrical) to the mix as well.Megadork (Tapping for at least 5 Mana) + Staff of Domination
Tapping for 5 will beat Staff of Domination's total tap and untap costs of 4 mana, netting you a surplus that you can repeat for infinite mana. You can use that surplus to draw your whole deck.Upgrades:
To be added.
Changelog:
12/15/2015:
-1 Seeker of Skybreak, -1 Nullmage Shepherd, -1 Dauntless Escort, - Viridian Zealot
+1 Vitalize, +1 To Arms!, +1 Village Bell-Ringer, +1 Caller of the Claw
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Edh omnath locus of rage help
Plzz help to improve this deck here the card
1x Acolyte of the Inferno
1x Ainok Guide
1x Arashin War Beast
1x Bathe in Dragonfire
1x Blighted Woodland
1x Briber's Purse
1x Broodhunter Wurm
1x Call the Scions
1x Desolation Twin
1x Eldrazi Devastator
1x Evolving Wilds
1x Eyeless Watcher
1x Fertile Thicket
24x Forest
1x Goldenhide Ox
1x Grove Rumbler
1x Guardian Automaton
1x Hitchclaw Recluse
1x Kozilek's Channeler
1x Makindi Sliderunner
21x Mountain
1x Murasa Ranger
1x Natural Connection
1x Naturalize
1x Nissa's Pilgrimage
1x Nissa's Renewal
1x Oran-Rief Hydra
1x Oran-Rief Invoker
1x Pilgrim's Eye
1x Plummet
1x Prized Unicorn
1x Reclaiming Vines
1x Retreat to Kazandu
1x Retreat to Valakut
1x Revealing Wind
1x Reviving Melody
1x Rhox Maulers
1x Rolling Thunder
1x Rot Shambler
1x Rugged Highlands
1x Scalding Devil
1x Seek the Wilds
1x Shivan Dragon
1x Sight of the Scalelords
1x Snapping Gnarlid
1x Stonefury
1x Sultai Flayer
1x Sylvan Scrying
1x Terra Stomper
1x Terramorphic Expanse
1x Territorial Baloth
1x Titania, Protector of Argoth
1x Tunneling Geopede
1x Valakut Invoker
1x Valakut Predator
1x Whisperer of the Wilds -
Momor Vig, Simic Visionary EDH
Dear Wizards, Sorcerers, Apprentices, Witches, and others (who ever you may be),
What is or would your deck list be for Momir Vig as your commander?
What kind of strategy, combos, win conditions, and/or other styles do you prefer to use for Momir Vig?
Good cards for Momir?
Bad cards not to put in Momir?
Let me know what you guys come up with!
Many thanks! (=
Sincerely,
Legend of Eon
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about the new colorless symbol
The spoilers for Oath of the Gatewatch revealed cards with a new mana symbol whose meaning wasn't quite clear. Was it a new sixth color? A new snow mana that would only be used in this new set (and any upcoming set featuring Eldrazis)? It's been something actually better.
You just need to compare the cards in Alpha and Beta to those of the most recent editions to see the evolution of the terminology used in Magic: The Gathering to be more clear and precise. Subtle wording differences like "As ~ enters the battlefield" or "When ~ enters the battlefield" have completely different meanings within the game. Following this very same example, you can Stifle a Kitchen Finks etb trigger to prevent your opponent from gaining 2 life, but can't do the same against a Meddling Mage, because its ability isn't triggered. You can also read "enters the battlefield" instead of the former "comes into play". Even if the later wording is shorter (specially when translating the game to other languages), the new one allowed to put specific names to every game zone: library, hand, graveyard, battlefield (instead of play) and exile (instead of removed from the game). Precision might be at odds with language economy, but the priority should be the former, and then the later; in some cases, we might even improve both aspects, like with the term "exile".
However, there was still a grey area of confusion that has remained this way since the very beginning of the game: the meaning of the symbol Myr Moonvessel or Tectonic Edge have the same symbol in two different lines of the card with different meanings? Where are the clarity and precision here?
. When printed in the top right corner of a card, it means "a mana of any one color". Any color. However, when printed in the text box of the card, it might mean "one colorless mana". Colorless. Or it could also mean the same as in the top right corner, if it appears in the cost of an activated ability of the card. How can a mana of any color be the same that a colorless mana? How can cards likeEven if Magic: The Gathering players have been smarter than the average population, the game popularity is increasing and it's expanding among some population segments who are closer or below the average. Before making the rules simpler with contested decisions like removing combat damage from the stack because Sakura-Tribe Elder, Mogg Fanatic and Arcbound Ravager were overpowered, or nerfing counterspells because new players don't like getting their spells lost in the stack, or just removing this whole stack stuff because you need a degree in Physics or Math to understand how it works, it would be better to remove sources of confusion like this one.
The new colorless mana symbol certainly fixes a problem we've been living with since Sol Ring was printed. There are hundreds of cards that will need an errata in the Oracle to be fixed, and the coexistence of cards with the confusing symbol with others with the new one could create confusion among new players about what the old cards exactly do. However, new cards will have a clearer and more precise text; exactly the goal Magic: The Gathering should chase in their rules text.
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Remember the Titans
Hello Foil Pack!
It's been a little while since the last post since my last post. I have been Tinkering with Esper in Modern, but at times it has been quite frustrating. After putting together, and taking apart several decks I decided to scratch everything and begin from the ground up.
When going through this exercise I tried to Learn from the Past and review previous Esper decks I used to play, and I landed on Solar Flare. I actually played this deck twice during it's reign in Standard. The first instance was during Ravnica/Time Spiral block when cards like Zombify were key in resurrecting your win condition. The most recent version used cards like Sun Titan, Phantasmal Image, and Liliana of the Veil to have a consistent threat and board presence.Ever since I have seen the
Titan deck I have been wanting to add to the deck. Here is what I sleeved up:
creature
3 Sun Titan
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Necrotic Sliver
1 Snapcaster Mageplaneswalker
3 Liliana of the Veilenchantment
1 Seal of Doomsorcery
4 Lingering Souls
4 Serum Visions
3 Supreme Verdict
2 Unburial Ritesinstant
4 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Mana Leak
2 Think Twice
2 Doom Bladeland
5 Plains
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
3 Flooded Strand
3 Marsh Flats
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Godless Shrine
2 Prairie Stream
1 Watery Gravesideboard
3 Lone Missionary
2 Aven Mindcensor
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
2 Stony Silence
1 Bribery
1 Aura of Silence
1 Detention Sphere
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Nihil SpellbombAs you can see the deck relies upon more spells and less creatures giving it more of a mid-range reanimation feel. The deck space is a little tight so I could not run 4 Path to Exile, and chose to run Doom Blade instead.
The manabase is super greedy and will be the first thing I change. If we get a WB BZF style dual land in Oath of the Gatewatch I may reconsider this manabase.Out of the board Aura of Silence was pretty sweet. It has a way to deal with many pesky artifacts and can be brought back with an active Sun Titan.
This is version 1 of the deck. What do you think? What would you change, and why?
That's all for this time. I'll be playing this in the coming week as I have some paid time off from work. Until then...
TAP MORE MANA!!! -
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