MTG Salvation

Quote from DramaTurtle

I've always loved Captain Sisay. I started playing more seriously during Invasion block (which also happens to be my favourite block of all time) and Sisay was among the first rares I opened from the set. GW is also my favourite mana combination

I have a similar story, except with Rith, the Awakener. I liked the dragon cycle from Invasion, and Rith was my favorite one from the cycle. She was also the focus of my first constructed deck, a G/R/w deck that used a single plains to power out Rith and Armadillo Cloak. I'll never forget it.

Obviously a Rith Saproling deck was my first EDH deck and still my favorite.

I'm not very picky about the art on my lands. My Rith deck has all foil basics, and I think each one has different art (not intentional, just how it worked out). I'd rather have all shiny lands instead of all matching ones.

That being said, I have an ungodly sexy Arena Plains (the picture doesn't do it justice) that is always the first plains I'll search out of my deck. No exceptions.

I really like the new unpronounceable Planeswalker. She really restored my faith in RtR. I was beginning to think the rest of the set was going to be less than exciting because of how the previews have been going. That Planeswalker though is really interesting. Hope I open one. <3

Quote from luminum can

Lots of cards are strictly better than Manalith. Technically, the Obelisk cycle is strictly better in the appropriate tri-color deck, since they limit which colors of mana an opponent can generate from them if they get stolen or copied.

I guess. I was using Manalith as an example though because it seems to be the recent benchmark for all-color artifact ramp. Manalith in M12 and its brother Vessel of Endless Rest in AVR were both pretty recent printings, so I thought it was kind of odd to see a 3 artifact that is just so much better than them.

It's really not hard to keep a game moving at a brisk pace as long as everyone plays smart.

Quote from sadgasm

I am excited for the chromatic lantern, total colorfixing for the low cost of one card. I also really like the new izzet guildmage.

Chromatic Lantern is crazy. Would "strictly better Manalith" be appropriate here? Not only does it color fix you, it ramps as well.

Quote from kraus911

This needs someone who plays it. I've played aggro decks with LD and stax cards, but not a stax deck. But here's some ideas.

Stick Gaddock Teeg and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in a creature based deck. Your opponent was going to cast Wrath of what next turn?

Play Aven Mindcensor in a meta rife with tutors. Stranglehold is hard to not put in a red deck.

Try out Loxodon Gatekeeper and Aura of Silence. See, a lot of people already like Aura of Silence, because it's really good. They might not even think of it as stax, but it's resource denial.

See. Stuff like this I don't really have a problem with, and I personally run both Mindcensor and Stranglehold in my Rith deck. I hardly think of those as Stax cards, however, and more like answers to specific problems (TOO MUCH DAMN TUTORING!). I don't like dedicated Stax when it veers into trashing mana bases every turn through too much forced sacrifice or just straight MLD. Stopping people from doing one thing is fine, and even enjoyable. Stopping people from doing anything because they have no lands... not so much.

At least in my opinion.

A little bit of Stax can be fun. It keeps everyone honest and makes it more difficult for someone to combo off reliably, as well as keeping the board clear of clutter so it's easier to play.

Too much Stax, however, is terrible. Playing a deck dedicated to running as many Stax effects as possible as well as ways to consistently break symmetrical effects is just boring. Nobody else will be able to get anything to stick and it basically becomes Solitaire.

I've always wanted to see a Kangee, Aerie Keeper tribal bird deck. It would probably be terrible, but ever so awesome.

Not since damage stacked.

Even if damage still stacked, I doubt Morphling would be good enough in EDH. A creature you have to keep mana up for just to make it a 5/5 shroud? Meh.

Quote from fattyluvboat

Commonly complained about cards such as Tooth & Nail could be fun but people only want to abuse them and make it as unfun as possible without any consideration to other players.

But here's the thing: a resolved T&N means you lost. It doesn't matter what the person actually gets with it because you know that in their deck they have an infinite combo with it that they're choosing not to get: that's almost more annoying that losing to the combo in the first place. I play with someone, and don't get me wrong I love playing with him he's really fun to be around, but he has a Red Green ramp deck that uses Kiki Jiki and Zealous Conscripts, so even if he doesn't get them with T&N, I know he could have, and that just makes the game false.

Quote from CaptainSquib

I would have to say Mindslaver, just because anyone who plays it is doing it for infinite only and usually drags the game out. (to which the whole table just has to agree to start a new game.)

I guess I'm doing it wrong, then? I play Mindslaver in my Olivia deck just because I thought it was flavorful. D;

Quote from Drath

Aura Shards hate is for the same reason you hate O-Stone, it hits the table and usually blows up everything you've been working to build up.
Everyone is forced to sandbag their artifacts and enchantments till someone can deal with it.
Then as soon as it's gone, Sun Titan or E-Witness brings it back. It is a really oppressive card.
That being said.. it's really good.

Fair enough, but really anything is going to be annoying if it is constantly recurred. In that sense, I guess I don't find Aura Shards as oppressive as O-Stone because at least with Aura Shards I can still build board position through creatures, whereas O-Stone is going to murder any non-land permanent I play. It's even worse in a Glissa, the Traitor deck. D;

Oblivion Stone. People play it early and the game basically grinds to a halt because nobody wants to play into it, so nobody does anything until it's gone.

Also, I don't understand the hate for Aura Shards.

Go-go Inexorable Tide et. all?

You could try a 5 color Superfriends deck and Proliferate yourself to victory, especially with a Doubling Season.