I love this thing in my Ghoulcaller Gisa list alongside Nightmare Lash and Lashwrithe as a way to equip a random creature and sacrifice it to make a whole lot of zombies.
is a bad infinite assuming you have a forest in hand + play, but I feel like there are better uses for Paleoloth here. Ghost Town seems like it could go somewhere in another combo too.
Updated the list for BFZ - some minor changes, the most notable of which was swapping Venser, Shaper Savant out for Brutal Expulsion. Brutal Expulsion is a worse card overall, but it has a lot more synergy with the rest of my deck. I also like that it accidentally makes Keranos a creature less often.
I also added Day's Undoing over Frantic Search because I felt like it could do double duty as a card drawer and something other than the lone Tormod's Crypt to keep the graveyard decks in check.
@ JPoJohnson - Pictures Coming soon! I'm juuuuust starting to get it the way I want it to look, and there's always stuff in the mail from pucatrade!
I'd love more thoughts and suggestions! Thinking about cutting Runechanter's Pike - having a ~20/2 first strike ground creature with no evasion is neat, but has only killed a player once over the course of many games. Now that Day's Undoing is in the list, I feel like it'll be good much less often, because getting my graveyard that stacked takes an entire game.
I'm also thinking about adding Smash, because I hate having Vandalblast and the global destruction artifacts as my only artifact removal - and I wouldn't mind casting this and/or flashing it back, especially if I've got a cost reducer in play.
I play it in most of my monogreen lists - which all run tons of mana doublers. This thing has won me plenty of games that I had no business winning.
Even if it costs you ton of mana and life, triple Vindicate in monogreen is surprisingly good.
A lot of times I'll just play it as a rattlesnake and leave 2G open without using it at all - suddenly nobody wants to attack you or play their best thing, which is a luxury monogreen doesn't often have.
So much negativity! Sure, he's not The Mimeoplasm or Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, but I really like this guy. Unless the other legendary that comes packaged with him is better/more interesting, I plan on putting a deck together with him at the helm.
Will someone explain how foils = pimp? The only barrier to obtaining these is money, and owning these doesn't really make you special since anyone can get them if you have enough money to waste on cardboard. Not to mention you should probably question your intentions spending literally thousands on a format you end up playing with the same small group of people you probably see once or twice a week.
Sure, some people go out and buy a ton of foils, but many of these decks are a culmination of lots and lots of trading over many years, and are therefore something to be proud of.
If a deck cares a lot about its commander, it's probably going to have hexproof/shroud. A targeting piece of sorcery-speed removal is probably not something it's too worried about. I wouldn't play this.
I could see this guy (and Cephalid Broker) seeing play in a discard themed deck alongside stuff like geth's grimoire, megrim, liliana's caress, etc. He's pretty great for when they don't have a hand and you want to damage them.
I don't plan on getting them. They're way too expensive, and they don't match the frame/borders of the rest of my lands. I like it when things match or look like they go together. The expeditions almost look like they're for a different TCG.
So I've never played MTGO, but here's what I'd guess the main differences are:
Before the game: If you don't know your opponent, it's nice to introduce yourself and ask their name. (It also gives you something to write down on your life pad if you're keeping track on paper other than just "Me/You". Some people include a handshake, some don't.
The die roll: Make sure your opponent agrees with your method of determining who goes first. 2d6, "high roll gets to choose" is pretty universally accepted.
Shuffling/cutting - be comfortable shuffling a sleeved deck of cards quickly and thoroughly. Do it too slow and your opponents will be annoyed. Do a half-assed job and you'll notice that cards (most notably land) will "clump" together and you'll lose more often because of it. Be sure to offer your opponent a chance to cut after every time you shuffle.
Physical things - You may notice people even shuffling the cards in their hand as they play. They don't want to give away whether the card they've played is the one they drew this turn. Be mindful that keeping a poker face is generally strategically beneficial.
Steps/Phases - MTGO moves through all the steps/phases, and you can clearly see where you are at any given time. On paper, you don't get that. This is good and bad. Bad because sometimes there can be confusion about where you're at in a turn/phase if players aren't announcing what they're doing properly. It's good in that it allows you to take shortcuts, i.e. if you have nothing to do in a step, you can just ignore it without announcing anything. You can untap, draw, play a land, and end turn turn in about 2 seconds if you want to. Just be sure to say out loud when you're changing relevant steps/phases - especially into/during combat.
Also, don't count on your opponent to announce things that they don't know are relevant. It's perfectly acceptable to say "I have effects during your upkeep" as they untap their stuff, so they don't just draw immediately without saying anything.
Ending the match - at the end of a match, always offer a handshake immediately. Try not to complain if you lost.
Also, don't hesitate to call a judge if something weird happens in the game and you don't know how two cards interact, or if your opponent does something illegal that MTGO wouldn't allow.
My favorite Magic Card is Survival of the Fittest. Before it was banned in legacy, I used to play it all the time - putting anger in the graveyard, getting squee, goblin nabob, and then casting a hasted fatty every turn. It's still good in EDH, but you just can't build a deck around it like you used to.
Krosan Wayfarer
Paleoloth
Cloudstone Curio
Omnath, Locus of Rage
is a bad infinite assuming you have a forest in hand + play, but I feel like there are better uses for Paleoloth here.
Ghost Town seems like it could go somewhere in another combo too.
I also added Day's Undoing over Frantic Search because I felt like it could do double duty as a card drawer and something other than the lone Tormod's Crypt to keep the graveyard decks in check.
@ JPoJohnson - Pictures Coming soon! I'm juuuuust starting to get it the way I want it to look, and there's always stuff in the mail from pucatrade!
I'd love more thoughts and suggestions! Thinking about cutting Runechanter's Pike - having a ~20/2 first strike ground creature with no evasion is neat, but has only killed a player once over the course of many games. Now that Day's Undoing is in the list, I feel like it'll be good much less often, because getting my graveyard that stacked takes an entire game.
I'm also thinking about adding Smash, because I hate having Vandalblast and the global destruction artifacts as my only artifact removal - and I wouldn't mind casting this and/or flashing it back, especially if I've got a cost reducer in play.
Even if it costs you ton of mana and life, triple Vindicate in monogreen is surprisingly good.
A lot of times I'll just play it as a rattlesnake and leave 2G open without using it at all - suddenly nobody wants to attack you or play their best thing, which is a luxury monogreen doesn't often have.
Even with no ramp, he lets you curve out like:
Turn 2 Stoneforge Mystic/Enlightened Tutor/Steelshaper's Gift
Turn 3 Sunforger
turn 4 Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas
Turn 5 equip Sunforger, attack for 7 double strike/vigilance with RW open.
He's got semi-relevant creature types - he gets stuff like Veteran's Armaments, Frontline Strategist, and Stinkdrinker Daredevil (Which also lets you cast Sun Titan, Inferno Titan, etc on the cheap)
He's actually good with Iroas, God of Victory, Hero of Iroas, Armory of Iroas, and Iroas's Champion. Flavor win!
I'm sure there will be other ways to get experience counters, but even if there aren't, I'm going to want to be casting stuff like Reveillark, Karmic Guide, Sun Titan, Inferno Titan, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Zealous Conscripts, Aurelia, the Warleader and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight anyway. I like being rewarded for doing stuff I was already going to do.
Sure, some people go out and buy a ton of foils, but many of these decks are a culmination of lots and lots of trading over many years, and are therefore something to be proud of.
I accidentally found an infinite combo (which I usually try to avoid) in my "tribal morphs" deck:
- Earthcraft
- Pine Walker
- Fertile Ground
- Forest
- Rattleclaw Mystic
- Dragon's Eye Savants
- Weaver of Lies
- Master of the Veil
- Bonethorn Valesk
+ a blue card in my hand...for infinite mana and damage.Before the game: If you don't know your opponent, it's nice to introduce yourself and ask their name. (It also gives you something to write down on your life pad if you're keeping track on paper other than just "Me/You". Some people include a handshake, some don't.
The die roll: Make sure your opponent agrees with your method of determining who goes first. 2d6, "high roll gets to choose" is pretty universally accepted.
Shuffling/cutting - be comfortable shuffling a sleeved deck of cards quickly and thoroughly. Do it too slow and your opponents will be annoyed. Do a half-assed job and you'll notice that cards (most notably land) will "clump" together and you'll lose more often because of it. Be sure to offer your opponent a chance to cut after every time you shuffle.
Physical things - You may notice people even shuffling the cards in their hand as they play. They don't want to give away whether the card they've played is the one they drew this turn. Be mindful that keeping a poker face is generally strategically beneficial.
Steps/Phases - MTGO moves through all the steps/phases, and you can clearly see where you are at any given time. On paper, you don't get that. This is good and bad. Bad because sometimes there can be confusion about where you're at in a turn/phase if players aren't announcing what they're doing properly. It's good in that it allows you to take shortcuts, i.e. if you have nothing to do in a step, you can just ignore it without announcing anything. You can untap, draw, play a land, and end turn turn in about 2 seconds if you want to. Just be sure to say out loud when you're changing relevant steps/phases - especially into/during combat.
Also, don't count on your opponent to announce things that they don't know are relevant. It's perfectly acceptable to say "I have effects during your upkeep" as they untap their stuff, so they don't just draw immediately without saying anything.
Ending the match - at the end of a match, always offer a handshake immediately. Try not to complain if you lost.
Also, don't hesitate to call a judge if something weird happens in the game and you don't know how two cards interact, or if your opponent does something illegal that MTGO wouldn't allow.
Hope this helps!