MTG Salvation

Quote from Taleran »

Why isn't part of that mission winning in a game with a win condition? I think it is honestly disingenuous to claim you make Commander decks that do not intend to win.

Because most decks don't really.
If they were genuinely trying to win they would replace their "favourite" card with something stronger.
Most decks try to win* with an asterisk. Nearly all of them use suboptimal things because they like them.

And that is what EDH is all about, or just casual games which are often multiplayer.
That's one important difference too: Multiplayer!
In a game of 5 people you will always have 4 'losers', an 80% chance for you to lose the game.
Why focus so hard on winning when you probably aren't going to win anyway?

I, for example, have a GY-based deck. When I get the same card in play 5 times in a game I already have the joy that you might get from winning.
At the end of most games I might have lost. But I did some wacky stuff that I will remember for weeks and that's what EDH is all about.

Quote from Shea_0 »

I see a lot of the same feeling of contempt towards the wizard deck. Loooots of people in my area of the PNW are lighting up my phone and talking at the lgs's about being unhappy with the appearance of wizards. Came as a surprise out of left field. Wizards was the surprise tribe.

Wrong.
Cats was/is the surprise because cats aren't even a real tribe now.
People are salty because the art "could have been anything" in their opinion, people were wildly speculating about <insert their favourite type> and are now *****ing because they turned out to be wrong. Well, if only people told them Cleric/Rogue/Shapeshifter was a dumb and stupid idea... Ooh wait, we DID tell them.

People complain over stuff is a surprise to you? Welcome to the world.. I guess.

Quote from Corbel »

Four very played out boring tribes, no clerics as I was hoping, I might just give this one a pass, despite how much I like tribal.

On the other hand, the dragon deck has Ramos, which gives some attention to Mercadia, my favorite neglected MTG setting, so maybe I will pick it up.

Can you link the deck list, seeing as you claim it's very boring?

And no. You don't like tribal, otherwise you wouldn't whine so hard about them building decks around three extremely popular tribes while turning a fan favourite type into a real tribe.

You're just being salty they did nothing with a type that nobody cares about.

Except one could use your exact same argument to argue in favour of Adam Sandler. Which is the best way to show how bad it is.

Most people wouldn't really call it humour or fun if it's on the "Haha, he said poop."-level, and many Un-cards are on that level.

But hey, if you think playing with a transformer toy is the funniest thing you can do in Magic, fine. Go ahead and enjoy 50 first dates.

So with Bolas being Grixis-coloured and him being one of the strongest spell-casters around, does anyone expect more cards that are references to him?

Quote from Taleran »

Where has this belief emerged from that competition is inherently a not fun prospect?

Because one of the strongest ways to win in multiplayer is to prevent the opponents from actually getting to play stuff.
You can do this with combo or with stax. Or even with insane aggressiveness. So you either win before they can play their creatures or you won't allow them to play their creatures.

And that's how quite some people experience competitive EDH. Which means they find it unfun.
It's really not that hard to understand.
So why do we need this discussion every other thread?

Can we get text warning people that so far only the Sword is known to be printed in Unstable?

Quote from Manite »

So, it's cringe-worthy because it's feminine? Maybe you should try being a little less judgmental of things that aren't robots, dragons, or soldiers with guns.

The cool kids play Reaper in Overwatch and listen to BLACK metal.

God, not even Number 23 was this terrible.
Why do you people have to see patterns everywhere?
That Cat Dragon has been in the lore for a long long time.
It's only natural that it gets printed in the same deck as the Ur-Dragon.

Quote from Watchwolf »

The interesting bit about the sword is that it creates a gold "Dragon" token, not a "Gold Dragon" token. Gold is being used as a color here.

The most interesting thing is that this are card 001/004; 002/004 and 003/004

Baseless speculation: Their top 5 products (as advertised on HasCon site) are Transformers, My Little Pony, D&D, Magic the Gathering and Nerf.

Quote from baldodavi »

Other three tribes are racial tribes. It's possible but not granted that fourth tribe is not a racial tribe but a "work" tribe. In last period Wizards be careful with types of creature. I'm not truly persuaded that the fourth tribe is a "guild" (Clerics, Wizards, Rogues, ...) but it's possible.

But at the moment we have:
-Cats
-Dragons

-Vampires

C and D are next to each other in the alfabet.
So the fourth tribe HAS to start with W or U. In other words: Wizards confirmed.

/s

Paradox Engine doesn't untap lands, that's the biggest difference. You need to build around it to be abusive.
But you don't need to build around Kruphix, he can do all of that on his own. Once you play him you nearly have 4 turns per turn.

Quote from Neuroticneurok »

I just think that if they did UB Zombies over UB Rogues or UB Merfolk (yeah, it's Merfolk, but not their dominant color pairing) or Fairies or whatever, it would be, well, pretty boring and predictable, and likely something you've already built in your spare time, played a couple of games with, and been like "Eh, this is boring."

Or maybe, when I built UB zombies, I found it very fun, and kinda want a better commander that doesn't die to my own Call to the Grave, Noxious Ghoul, or Zombie Apocalypse, because maybe, just maybe, there are people out there who don't have the exact same definition of fun as you.

Yup! I'm back! Lots of traveling has gotten in the way of doing much else, but that's okay.

I think I left for Belize and then a few road trips through the continental US without updating the front list to include both Daretti and Feldon, so tonight I'll make those changes.. barring any sudden phone calls involving expensive alcohols....

It was nice to play magic with some folks in Tampa Bay, Houston, Atlanta, and Phoenix. Y'all know who you are. But you're no longer important! Ha!

It's also nice to see a lot of really cool things from Origins that could possibly make the list, if not change how it functions.

We're missing a lot of commons and uncommons, but I don't think that that will be an issue for discussing what is out in this set. Here's to hoping one and two drop token producers.

Let's just go down the list of what's out now:

Abbot of Keral Keep - Cheap, efficient, not for us. This is pretty handy for any R/x aggro decks though.

Avaricious Dragon - Draw, that's good. Discard, that's bad. Not tutor-able by any current means, and doesn't do anything useful.

Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh//Chandra, Roaring Flame - Just like abbot, this is pretty cool for an R/x deck. Actually, it would be really cool to have her at the helm of a list. I'm pretty sure that I can find a way to make that stuff infinite in mono red.... but it's not for us.

Embermaw Hellion - Expensive, and most of our "damage sources" end up being colorless or lethal without help. Nope.

Enthralling Victor - I kinda like this guy as a metaspecific pick. Maybe someone likes spamming Fauna Shaman. Maybe Birds of Paradise really wants to generate red mana before sacrificing itself to the torturous god of Skullclamp. It's pretty cool, but it's also expensive. If you want to play it, make sure you know why you're playing it. I won't be.

Exquisite Firecraft - I just want to point out how cool this card's name is. Exquisite Firecraft. Four-of.

Flameshadow Conjuring - Ello, poppit. "Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, pay r. If you do, put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of that creature. That token gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step."

That's pretty damn sexy. If I'm remembering the new(forever!) legend rule, this means if you feel like it you can pay for Norin and sacrifice the copy instantly, giving you triggers for Pandemonium and Warstorm Surge. Doesn't proc Genesis Chamber again, but oh well. It's four mana, which is okay, but it's triple colorless, which is good. I will definitely be experimenting with this sucker.

Ghirapur Gearcrafter - The key part here is that these tokens fly. It's only one, so for three mana this dude isn't worth it, but damn if the prospect of flying tokens doesn't make me happy.

Magmatic Insight - Red Draw. Nothing to see here for us, lands are more valuable than Squee.

Pia and Kiran Nalaar - It's pie and cake! At first I was really not into this card, but then I read it a few more times. Damn! It's a Beetleback Chief that turns myr into firebombs. Is this the beginning of moving away from the Goblin subtheme? It's going to get really hard to justify many of the goblins if stuff like this comes out.

Pyromancer's Goggles - It needs to be mentioned. Just don't do it. Don't look at this, don't think about this. It's only good in very specific decks and that deck isn't helmed by Norin.

Good to be home ...for now!

In the offtopic community thread yesterday (last post before that was March):

Quote from Gaka »

Man, months of traveling across the continent(s?) and I come back to a ton of really neat things for Norin. Time to crack the rust and get to fiddlin'

I haven't played Norin in a while since I no longer own a physical deck for him. I still tinker in it, but I mostly read what you guys are doing. Though I may spend more time tinkering with him as well since I have gotten both Kaalia and Nekusar to pretty stable places where not much goes in or out.

Our great leader Gaka has returned!

Bull. You just forgot about the hamsters a day too long.

Get Gerbils. Them suckers last for weeks.