In a related question, im not understanding why the legendary clause would be an issue with flagstones of trokair.
Lets say i get 2 in my hand, turn 1 i play a flagstones of trokair then whatever 1 drop i have.
Turn 2 i tap the flagstones of trokair then play my second flagstones of trokair. I choose the tapped one to go to the graveyard, search my library for a plains put it into play tapped, then tap my remaining flagstones of trokair, and have enough mana for my 2 drop. I finish turn 2 with my 1 drop out, my 2 drop out, and 2 tapped lands.
Isnt it the same as if i played 2 plains, just with the added armageddon benefit?
Am i doing it wrong?
Ive decided that my 2 drop spots will be a mix of Knight of Meadowgrain and Porcelain Legionnaire. Right now I'm going with 4 knights and 2 legionnaires, but I might change that.
I'm also considering what you've said about taking out 1 Armageddon. If I did that, I would probably add a third Porcelain Legionnaire.
Just so I'm clear about some of the cards I've added, I can cast the Porcelain Legionnaire with either 2 and 2 life or 2W, correct?
and the mother of runes can block a much larger creature, then tap to give herself protection from that creature's color, the creature remains blocked, and the mother takes no damage, correct?
So lets say i keep my shadow creature count at 4. All of them soltari champion .
If i take out 1 more crusade and go down to 22 lands that leaves 2 open slots. If you count the 4 slots im planning on making knight of the meadowgrain that makes six 2 drop slots.
How should i fill them? Thalia, Guardian of Thraben seems like a 2 drop that i dont want to play on turn 2. It messes with a lot of my cards, i feel like id have to make massive changes to the deck to make it work.
The cards im interested in for the six slots are: knight of the meadowgrain knight of the holy nimbus accorder paladin grand abolisher
knight of the meadowgrain seems like the best of the bunch to me, that leaves 2 slots up in the air. How do you think i should fill the 6 slots?
Thanks
Im also considering taking out 1 more crusade and adding 1 soltari priest to add to my shadow creature contingant because the soltari champion kind of gives me a crusade effect. Even though its 1 more mana and only works for attacking. This change would bring me to 23 creatures, but make it slightly harder to pump them up. With 5 shadow creatures, maybe i should make a better mix of the 2 drop ones and the 3 drop ones. Instead of 4 of 1 and 1 of the other, maybe I should do a 3 / 2 split.
Thank you so much for your input.
It will take me some time to digest it all, here are my first impressions:
I made a mistake when i first posted the deck list, there are 23 total lands, including the 4 Flagstones of Trokair.
The Armageddons are staying, at least for now. I find that people aren't really prepared for them. With the Flagstones of Trokair, the knowledge of when the Armageddon is coming and the very low mana curve of this deck, a successfully cast Armageddon almost always winds up in my favor. I'm more then happy to play multiple Armageddons in a game.
I'm on the fence about the Tethered Griffin. I do see what you're saying about these cards, but I have found him useful. The only enchantments I have are +1/+1 boosts, so anytime the Tethered Griffin hits the table, it's at least a 3/4 flier for W. I'm not totally against switching these out for something else, Ill be looking into some of the cards you mentioned.
I have been considering going down to 3 Isamaru, Hound of Kondas for the reason you pointed out. I haven't done it yet because I really want to have it in my hand early on, and his legendary status hasn't bitten me very often.
I also see what you're saying about the Tundra Wolves. Sometimes in the past I've taken them out for other 1 drop creatures. I always wind up putting them back in. In the paragraph where you talk about the Tundra Wolves, you mention 5 other one drop creatures. Tundra Wolves kills all 5 of them, and lives to fight another day against 3 of them. I know that's not everything, but it's something. The one drop first striker seems big to me.
I am interested in some of the creatures youve suggested as replacements for the Order of the White Shield. I'll have to look into them more. Right now Knight of Meadowgrain is in the lead, with some of the Soltari cards a close second. I've always been wary of shadow, because even though it makes the creature almost unblockable, it also makes the creature almost useless as a blocker.
The Soltari Champion would probably be my pick of the shadow creatures, but i'm trying to keep the mana curve as low as possible. Right now the only card that costs me more then WW is Armageddon. I'm not sure if I want to start putting 3 drop creatures in.
My kids have been becoming interested in my Magic cards as more of their friends start to play. This is the deck I made to teach them about the game. One of my daughters is 7, she can play the deck by herself, and does well enough in the 10 year old age range with kids in the neighborhood. Please note that none of the cards cost more then a dollar or 2, and there aren't any complicated mechanics. I'm happy to hear some advice on ways to improve the deck, as long as we keep in mind it's for young beginners, and that I want to keep it a legal Legacy deck. I will be keeping the deck list up to date as I make changes.
Here's the deck:
I think i understand.
I dont want my deck list to be at the top of a forum, just at the top of my thread.
So when I click on the link that says "Animar" in your signature, the link that opens up is your thread about that deck, whenever someone opens it, it starts with the original post, and when you want to update the list, you just edit the post, correct?
Maybe primer isnt the right word for what I want to do. When someone clicks on the link in my signature, Id like the first post of the topic to be a deck list that will always be the first thing someone sees, and I can keep it up to date with changes I make to the deck. Maybe 'sticky' is the the correct term?
but how do I have the link show up in my signature as "Legacy - White Weenie"
If I wanted the post to start with a deck list the I could easily update, that would be called a primer, correct? How do I go about making one of those too?
I do appreciate your thoughts and comments. Im sorry it took so long to respond to you, but mostly I can't think of anything new to say about the 3 cards we're talking about.
90% of the games I win with this deck are either from Tinker or the Time Vault / Voltaic Key combo. They cost 3 and 4 mana respectively, so the 1 extra mana I get from the Lotus Petalis a very big deal, in my mind.
My best defense with this deck is counter spells. So Merchant Scroll putting one right into my hand is also very helpful. The card is never a dead card to me, if I already have a Force of Will, the Merchant Scroll is the perfect card to exile.
Mystical Tutor gets one of my win condition cards, and all of my counter spells. Top decking a card isn't that big of a deal to me because of all the ways I have to draw cards outside of my draw phase.
The only change I've made since the last time I posted the deck was to replace Duress with Thoughtseize. It's just a much better card.
this deck list was last updated 9-29-2020
a lot of the things ive written here are way out of date, but im leaving them on this post.
i look forward to any advice you might have.
Hello all. As my kids get into playing Magic, I've been dusting off my old decks and updating some of them with new cards to play against my kids and their friends. I'd like the decks to be good enough to win almost all the time, but have the cards be relatively simple and not too expensive.
Here's the deck as it stands now:
White Weenie
The deck does well in the early game, and I use the Armageddons to try and kind of keep the game in the early stages by limiting everyone's mana. With the Flagstones of Trokair and a little planning, it's easy to play an Armageddon and then have 1 or 2 plains back on the board very quickly.
Id like to hear thoughts and suggestions for new cards, but first a little about why I chose some of these cards: Isamaru, Hound of Konda: 2/2 for W is very efficient in my opinion. His legendary status has been inconvenient occasionally, but usually he's on the board pretty quickly, and he's one of my bigger creatures, so he's usually targeted pretty early on and I can play a second one without too much trouble, most of the time.
Tundra Wolves: First strike is so important to me in little creatures. Tundra Wolves can do battle with most other 1/1 creatures and survive, unlike Savannah Lions and similar cards that would die to 1/1 creatures.
Judge's Familiar: a 1/1 flier for W is pretty good I think. I used to play Suntail Hawks. A white counter is very unusual and exciting to me, even if it is a soft counter.
Order of the White Shield: I've always liked these cards, as Ive said before, I like first strike, and if something happens to my Armageddon play, these cards give me something to do with all the land I was expecting to destroy. I used to play with 7 pump knights but took three of them out already for the Serra Avengers, and I'm considering taking the other 4 out for something else, I'm not sure what. Maybe Knight of Meadowgrain. It's always got the first strike, and Lifelink never hurt anyone. The only thing I'd be giving up by making this swap would be the pump ability and my mana sink.
Serra Avenger: Another card that I would theoretically always be playing after the Armageddon. By that point in the game, the Avenger's restriction is a moot point and having such a low casting cost is huge for me. Again, with my 8 pump up enchantments, the Avenger almost always hits the table at 4/4 or bigger.
Swords to Plowshares: I've considered Path to Exile as a replacement, but my main defense is blowing up all my opponents land. It seems counter-productive to give them 1 back for free.
A long time ago, in a dorm room far, far away, my B & U deck got into a fight with a cup of beer.
We didn't make out too badly, all the cards were sleeved (double sleeves didnt exist at the time) and nothing was destroyed. A lot of the cards were damaged, mostly none worth mentioning except the 1 Mana Drain, the 1 Force of Will, my alpha Demonic Tutor, and 1 of my Juzám Djinns. Like I said, none of these cards were a total loss and theyre all still playable in sleeves, but it also still kind of bugs me every time i see them.
Im a big believer in proxies.
i make high quality copies of my cards and glue them to basic lands. Then I mark the back with a sharpie and sleeve them up. With a quick glance, or on the table during a game, they look just fine, if you really look or take them out of the sleeve, theyre obviously photo copies, even if you dont turn it over and see the big black "PROXY" written on it.
At first, I just made proxies of my expensive cards, Moxes, duals, and the like.
but when youre talking about something like a magic card, thats the thickness of a piece of paper, then you glue another piece of paper to it, its twice as thick as the real cards in the deck.
Even in sleeves the cards felt different. If i touched my deck, I could tell if the next card i was going to draw would be a proxy or not.
The deck shuffled weird. All the proxies seemed to gravitate to each other when you shuffled it. Like i'd get ALL of the proxies stacked right next to each other.
The deck cut weird. Almost any time you would cut the deck, it would cut to one of the proxies. A friend of mine at the time wanted to prove a point, he cut the deck 50 times and over 40 of them one of my proxies was right on top. It's kind of fun being almost sure that youre going to start the game with one of the power 9 in your hand, but its certainly cheating.
So I proxied the entire deck. From the cards that list in the thousands, down to the cards that sell for less then a dollar. Since then the deck has played fine, shuffled fine, and looked fine. Anyone I play against is told before the game starts that all the cards are copies and, like a lot of other people have said, Ive never had anyone turn me down for a game after ive told them.
My short answer is that all of the cards in the deck have to be proxies or none of them can be. For me, the cutoff is around $100. If cards in the deck routinely sell for more then 100, Ill proxy the entire deck. Most of my decks are made of real cards with no proxies.
I take great pride in my proxies, I try to make them look as much like my real cards as I can. My alpha cards are made from alpha lands, and yes i spilled beer on my proxies of the beer damaged cards.
Ever since I copied my deck, I basically bring it everywhere. It sits in my backpack, I take it on the train with me to work everyday, it comes on vacation with me. On more then one occasion ive met a total stranger or walked into a store in a different state and wound up playing a quick game, just because i happen to have the deck with me.
Sometimes on the train, some one who plays magic will see me messing with my cards and its fun to watch them bug out on my cards until i explain that theyre copies, then we sit and talk about magic for the rest of the ride.
Since the copies are basically worthless from a monetary point of view, I have no problems letting my kids play with them. Watching my 7 year old daughter get the Time Vault combo right to beat the 10 year old boy from next door was a lot of fun.
Without the copies, none of these things would happen. My favorite decks, some of which ive been playing with for 20 years, would just sit in my house hidden away and unused.
Thats how I feel about proxies in casual play between strangers or slight acquaintances. With your friends, or in your usual play group, the decision would have to be up to the people involved. Personally I cant imagine refusing to play with someone who has decent proxies. I say 'decent' because Im not that familiar with a lot of the newer cards, so if the proxy doesnt have the card text clearly shown, I might not be able to play against it.
As far as tournaments go.....
If youre going to play in tournaments where cash and prizes are on the line, I believe you should have to own all the cards in your deck. Otherwise I feel that its unfair to the people who do actually own the cards, and why should anyone buy any cards at all if copies are going to be treated the same way as real cards? Yes, some formats are more expensive then others, but thats life. I like race cars, but I cant have a formula 1 racer because they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. I CAN afford to rent time at a local track and race a camaro around for a few hours, so thats the type of racing i can do.
That being said, things happen. I simply dont play in vintage tournaments because even the small chance that something could happen to the cards in that deck is too much for me to take. I know it's a shame that monetary concerns have come into my enjoyment of my hobby, but in real life I bought A LOT of magic cards in the 90s just because I loved them, but now it looks like im going to be able to use them to help pay for my daughters college. Shuffling with them, playing with them, laying them out on a table in a room full of dozens of strangers....its just not something im going to do.
I wish there was a way you could "register" your cards. Like I show the judge 4 mana drains, and Im authorized to use 4 mana drain proxies for the duration of the tournament. Then I could lock the real cards back in my car, or tie them around my waist or whatever. Maybe there could even be a permanent, or yearly registration with the DCI although I dont really know how that would work in practice.
Hi all. A year or so ago my daughter, 6 years old at the time, asked me to make her a magic deck to play with. I made her a green creature deck. I wanted the deck to be simple. She plays it and does well in the 10 year old age range with kids in the neighborhood. Here's the deck:
ive never really played white, so im not that familiar with the cards. Most of my cards are from Tempest and earlier, but im not against buying a few cheap cards.
Maybe some other crusade style cards? or life gain?
Id love to hear some suggestions.
thanks.
Lets say i get 2 in my hand, turn 1 i play a flagstones of trokair then whatever 1 drop i have.
Turn 2 i tap the flagstones of trokair then play my second flagstones of trokair. I choose the tapped one to go to the graveyard, search my library for a plains put it into play tapped, then tap my remaining flagstones of trokair, and have enough mana for my 2 drop. I finish turn 2 with my 1 drop out, my 2 drop out, and 2 tapped lands.
Isnt it the same as if i played 2 plains, just with the added armageddon benefit?
Am i doing it wrong?
Partly based on things you've said, Ive changed the deck to the list that is currently at the top of this thread.
I took out the Tundra Wolves and put in Mother of Runes
Ive decided that my 2 drop spots will be a mix of Knight of Meadowgrain and Porcelain Legionnaire. Right now I'm going with 4 knights and 2 legionnaires, but I might change that.
I'm also considering what you've said about taking out 1 Armageddon. If I did that, I would probably add a third Porcelain Legionnaire.
Just so I'm clear about some of the cards I've added, I can cast the Porcelain Legionnaire with either 2 and 2 life or 2 W, correct?
and the mother of runes can block a much larger creature, then tap to give herself protection from that creature's color, the creature remains blocked, and the mother takes no damage, correct?
thanks again
If i take out 1 more crusade and go down to 22 lands that leaves 2 open slots. If you count the 4 slots im planning on making knight of the meadowgrain that makes six 2 drop slots.
How should i fill them?
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben seems like a 2 drop that i dont want to play on turn 2. It messes with a lot of my cards, i feel like id have to make massive changes to the deck to make it work.
The cards im interested in for the six slots are:
knight of the meadowgrain
knight of the holy nimbus
accorder paladin
grand abolisher
knight of the meadowgrain seems like the best of the bunch to me, that leaves 2 slots up in the air. How do you think i should fill the 6 slots?
Thanks
I've made the following changes:
-1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
-2 Tethered Griffin
-1 Crusade
+4 Soltari Champion
this brings me to 22 creatures.
Im also considering taking out 1 more crusade and adding 1 soltari priest to add to my shadow creature contingant because the soltari champion kind of gives me a crusade effect. Even though its 1 more mana and only works for attacking. This change would bring me to 23 creatures, but make it slightly harder to pump them up. With 5 shadow creatures, maybe i should make a better mix of the 2 drop ones and the 3 drop ones. Instead of 4 of 1 and 1 of the other, maybe I should do a 3 / 2 split.
I'm relatively certain that I'm going to replace all 4 Order of the White Shield with 4 Knight of Meadowgrain. Let me know if you think there's a better choice.
Then your only other creature advice would be to loose the Tundra Wolves? Maybe replace them with 4 Mother of Runes?
Is there anything else you think I should change?
Thanks again for your help.
It will take me some time to digest it all, here are my first impressions:
I made a mistake when i first posted the deck list, there are 23 total lands, including the 4 Flagstones of Trokair.
The Armageddons are staying, at least for now. I find that people aren't really prepared for them. With the Flagstones of Trokair, the knowledge of when the Armageddon is coming and the very low mana curve of this deck, a successfully cast Armageddon almost always winds up in my favor. I'm more then happy to play multiple Armageddons in a game.
I'm on the fence about the Tethered Griffin. I do see what you're saying about these cards, but I have found him useful. The only enchantments I have are +1/+1 boosts, so anytime the Tethered Griffin hits the table, it's at least a 3/4 flier for W. I'm not totally against switching these out for something else, Ill be looking into some of the cards you mentioned.
I have been considering going down to 3 Isamaru, Hound of Kondas for the reason you pointed out. I haven't done it yet because I really want to have it in my hand early on, and his legendary status hasn't bitten me very often.
I also see what you're saying about the Tundra Wolves. Sometimes in the past I've taken them out for other 1 drop creatures. I always wind up putting them back in. In the paragraph where you talk about the Tundra Wolves, you mention 5 other one drop creatures. Tundra Wolves kills all 5 of them, and lives to fight another day against 3 of them. I know that's not everything, but it's something. The one drop first striker seems big to me.
I am interested in some of the creatures youve suggested as replacements for the Order of the White Shield. I'll have to look into them more. Right now Knight of Meadowgrain is in the lead, with some of the Soltari cards a close second. I've always been wary of shadow, because even though it makes the creature almost unblockable, it also makes the creature almost useless as a blocker.
The Soltari Champion would probably be my pick of the shadow creatures, but i'm trying to keep the mana curve as low as possible. Right now the only card that costs me more then WW is Armageddon. I'm not sure if I want to start putting 3 drop creatures in.
Thanks again for your insight.
My kids have been becoming interested in my Magic cards as more of their friends start to play. This is the deck I made to teach them about the game. One of my daughters is 7, she can play the deck by herself, and does well enough in the 10 year old age range with kids in the neighborhood. Please note that none of the cards cost more then a dollar or 2, and there aren't any complicated mechanics. I'm happy to hear some advice on ways to improve the deck, as long as we keep in mind it's for young beginners, and that I want to keep it a legal Legacy deck. I will be keeping the deck list up to date as I make changes.
Here's the deck:
4 Llanowar Elves
4 River Boa
4 Mire Boa
4 Cudgel Troll
2 Silvos, Rogue Elemental
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Giant Growth
4 Predator's Strike
2 Berserk
4 Hurricane
3 Pendelhaven
3 Dryad Arbor
16 Forest
Thanks in advance for your ideas.
I dont want my deck list to be at the top of a forum, just at the top of my thread.
So when I click on the link that says "Animar" in your signature, the link that opens up is your thread about that deck, whenever someone opens it, it starts with the original post, and when you want to update the list, you just edit the post, correct?
Maybe primer isnt the right word for what I want to do. When someone clicks on the link in my signature, Id like the first post of the topic to be a deck list that will always be the first thing someone sees, and I can keep it up to date with changes I make to the deck. Maybe 'sticky' is the the correct term?
Like this thread is one I stated years ago about one of my decks, and id like the first thing someone sees if they click on it is a current decklist.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/vintage-type-1/established-vintage/blue-based-control-decks/601509-my-latest-deck-list-suggestions
thanks again for your help
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/legacy-type-1-5/developing-legacy/752024-my-white-weenie-deck
but how do I have the link show up in my signature as "Legacy - White Weenie"
If I wanted the post to start with a deck list the I could easily update, that would be called a primer, correct? How do I go about making one of those too?
Thanks
90% of the games I win with this deck are either from Tinker or the Time Vault / Voltaic Key combo. They cost 3 and 4 mana respectively, so the 1 extra mana I get from the Lotus Petalis a very big deal, in my mind.
My best defense with this deck is counter spells. So Merchant Scroll putting one right into my hand is also very helpful. The card is never a dead card to me, if I already have a Force of Will, the Merchant Scroll is the perfect card to exile.
Mystical Tutor gets one of my win condition cards, and all of my counter spells. Top decking a card isn't that big of a deal to me because of all the ways I have to draw cards outside of my draw phase.
The only change I've made since the last time I posted the deck was to replace Duress with Thoughtseize. It's just a much better card.
Thanks again for your input.
a lot of the things ive written here are way out of date, but im leaving them on this post.
i look forward to any advice you might have.
Hello all. As my kids get into playing Magic, I've been dusting off my old decks and updating some of them with new cards to play against my kids and their friends. I'd like the decks to be good enough to win almost all the time, but have the cards be relatively simple and not too expensive.
Here's the deck as it stands now:
White Weenie
4 Judge's Familiar
4 mother of runes
4 knight of meadowgrain
2 white shield crusader
3 porcelain legionnaire
2 thalia, guardian of thraben
4 soltari champion
2 serra avenger
4 honor of the pure
4 swords to plowshares
3 disenchant
1 flagstones of trokair
1 eiganjo castle
16 plains
The deck does well in the early game, and I use the Armageddons to try and kind of keep the game in the early stages by limiting everyone's mana. With the Flagstones of Trokair and a little planning, it's easy to play an Armageddon and then have 1 or 2 plains back on the board very quickly.
Id like to hear thoughts and suggestions for new cards, but first a little about why I chose some of these cards:
Isamaru, Hound of Konda: 2/2 for W is very efficient in my opinion. His legendary status has been inconvenient occasionally, but usually he's on the board pretty quickly, and he's one of my bigger creatures, so he's usually targeted pretty early on and I can play a second one without too much trouble, most of the time.
Tundra Wolves: First strike is so important to me in little creatures. Tundra Wolves can do battle with most other 1/1 creatures and survive, unlike Savannah Lions and similar cards that would die to 1/1 creatures.
Judge's Familiar: a 1/1 flier for W is pretty good I think. I used to play Suntail Hawks. A white counter is very unusual and exciting to me, even if it is a soft counter.
Order of the White Shield: I've always liked these cards, as Ive said before, I like first strike, and if something happens to my Armageddon play, these cards give me something to do with all the land I was expecting to destroy. I used to play with 7 pump knights but took three of them out already for the Serra Avengers, and I'm considering taking the other 4 out for something else, I'm not sure what. Maybe Knight of Meadowgrain. It's always got the first strike, and Lifelink never hurt anyone. The only thing I'd be giving up by making this swap would be the pump ability and my mana sink.
Tethered Griffin: In theory I would play these after I play an Armageddon. With 4 each Crusade and Honor of the Pure it's rare that I don't have an enchantment on the board by the fourth or fifth turn when I play the Armageddon.
Serra Avenger: Another card that I would theoretically always be playing after the Armageddon. By that point in the game, the Avenger's restriction is a moot point and having such a low casting cost is huge for me. Again, with my 8 pump up enchantments, the Avenger almost always hits the table at 4/4 or bigger.
Swords to Plowshares: I've considered Path to Exile as a replacement, but my main defense is blowing up all my opponents land. It seems counter-productive to give them 1 back for free.
I feel that the Armageddon, Crusade, Honor of the Pure and Flagstones of Trokair cards are integral to the deck and need very little in the way of explanation.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
We didn't make out too badly, all the cards were sleeved (double sleeves didnt exist at the time) and nothing was destroyed. A lot of the cards were damaged, mostly none worth mentioning except the 1 Mana Drain, the 1 Force of Will, my alpha Demonic Tutor, and 1 of my Juzám Djinns. Like I said, none of these cards were a total loss and theyre all still playable in sleeves, but it also still kind of bugs me every time i see them.
Im a big believer in proxies.
i make high quality copies of my cards and glue them to basic lands. Then I mark the back with a sharpie and sleeve them up. With a quick glance, or on the table during a game, they look just fine, if you really look or take them out of the sleeve, theyre obviously photo copies, even if you dont turn it over and see the big black "PROXY" written on it.
At first, I just made proxies of my expensive cards, Moxes, duals, and the like.
but when youre talking about something like a magic card, thats the thickness of a piece of paper, then you glue another piece of paper to it, its twice as thick as the real cards in the deck.
Even in sleeves the cards felt different. If i touched my deck, I could tell if the next card i was going to draw would be a proxy or not.
The deck shuffled weird. All the proxies seemed to gravitate to each other when you shuffled it. Like i'd get ALL of the proxies stacked right next to each other.
The deck cut weird. Almost any time you would cut the deck, it would cut to one of the proxies. A friend of mine at the time wanted to prove a point, he cut the deck 50 times and over 40 of them one of my proxies was right on top. It's kind of fun being almost sure that youre going to start the game with one of the power 9 in your hand, but its certainly cheating.
So I proxied the entire deck. From the cards that list in the thousands, down to the cards that sell for less then a dollar. Since then the deck has played fine, shuffled fine, and looked fine. Anyone I play against is told before the game starts that all the cards are copies and, like a lot of other people have said, Ive never had anyone turn me down for a game after ive told them.
My short answer is that all of the cards in the deck have to be proxies or none of them can be. For me, the cutoff is around $100. If cards in the deck routinely sell for more then 100, Ill proxy the entire deck. Most of my decks are made of real cards with no proxies.
I take great pride in my proxies, I try to make them look as much like my real cards as I can. My alpha cards are made from alpha lands, and yes i spilled beer on my proxies of the beer damaged cards.
Ever since I copied my deck, I basically bring it everywhere. It sits in my backpack, I take it on the train with me to work everyday, it comes on vacation with me. On more then one occasion ive met a total stranger or walked into a store in a different state and wound up playing a quick game, just because i happen to have the deck with me.
Sometimes on the train, some one who plays magic will see me messing with my cards and its fun to watch them bug out on my cards until i explain that theyre copies, then we sit and talk about magic for the rest of the ride.
Since the copies are basically worthless from a monetary point of view, I have no problems letting my kids play with them. Watching my 7 year old daughter get the Time Vault combo right to beat the 10 year old boy from next door was a lot of fun.
Without the copies, none of these things would happen. My favorite decks, some of which ive been playing with for 20 years, would just sit in my house hidden away and unused.
Thats how I feel about proxies in casual play between strangers or slight acquaintances. With your friends, or in your usual play group, the decision would have to be up to the people involved. Personally I cant imagine refusing to play with someone who has decent proxies. I say 'decent' because Im not that familiar with a lot of the newer cards, so if the proxy doesnt have the card text clearly shown, I might not be able to play against it.
As far as tournaments go.....
If youre going to play in tournaments where cash and prizes are on the line, I believe you should have to own all the cards in your deck. Otherwise I feel that its unfair to the people who do actually own the cards, and why should anyone buy any cards at all if copies are going to be treated the same way as real cards? Yes, some formats are more expensive then others, but thats life. I like race cars, but I cant have a formula 1 racer because they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. I CAN afford to rent time at a local track and race a camaro around for a few hours, so thats the type of racing i can do.
That being said, things happen. I simply dont play in vintage tournaments because even the small chance that something could happen to the cards in that deck is too much for me to take. I know it's a shame that monetary concerns have come into my enjoyment of my hobby, but in real life I bought A LOT of magic cards in the 90s just because I loved them, but now it looks like im going to be able to use them to help pay for my daughters college. Shuffling with them, playing with them, laying them out on a table in a room full of dozens of strangers....its just not something im going to do.
I wish there was a way you could "register" your cards. Like I show the judge 4 mana drains, and Im authorized to use 4 mana drain proxies for the duration of the tournament. Then I could lock the real cards back in my car, or tie them around my waist or whatever. Maybe there could even be a permanent, or yearly registration with the DCI although I dont really know how that would work in practice.
4 Llanowar Elves
4 River Boa
4 Mire Boa
4 Cudgel Troll
3 Silvos, Rogue Elemental
4 Giant Growth
4 Predator's Strike
4 Nourish
4 Hurricane
21 Forest
Please note that none of the cards cost more then a dollar or 2, and theres not any complicated mechanics.
Naturally, now my 5 year old daughter wants a deck too.
I want to make a deck that is similar in power as the green deck i listed above. Id like the deck to be white, and here are some cards that im considering:
Serra Angel
Crusade
Savannah Lions
Swords to Plowshares
Order of the white shield
Order of Leitbur
tundra wolves
Suntail Hawk
Lantern kami
isamaru, hound of konda
elite vanguard
ive never really played white, so im not that familiar with the cards. Most of my cards are from Tempest and earlier, but im not against buying a few cheap cards.
Maybe some other crusade style cards? or life gain?
Id love to hear some suggestions.
thanks.
is there a way to put a deck list in my signature?
or a spot on the site i can make deck lists and then link to them in my signature?
thanks