green is my favorite color to play, and I favor midrange. Though I also appreciate tempo and control, and in Commander, I have some fun with Voltron builds, too. I have played aggro now and then. I'm not fond of playing combo, though.
I actually did the strangest thing I saw in a game. Opponent had a Spellskite, and I used Mindslaver without the infinite loop while using my mono-blue Tron deck. During the opponent's turn, I targeted something with a spell, then made the opponent pay 2 life to activate Spellskite's ability to redirect the spell onto Spellskite. With the spell still on the stack, I just activated that ability for 2 life a bunch of times until it was lethal.
I see. Yes, that definitely complicates things. Perhaps what I'll do it seek out the most expensive non-unique cards, cards whose prices aren't so heavily affected by mint condition or being misprints, etc. Just "regular" cards, such as Force of Will or Mana Drain or Misha's Workshop, Alpha duals, Liliana of the Veil, the like.
Hey all, I'm looking to compile a list of the top ~10 most valuable cards. I can guess which they are (power 9, Mishra's Workshop, Underground Sea, etc), but I realize that I have more than one option for card prices: MTG Goldfish, TCG Player, StarCityGames, etc. Which of those, or some other site, would be most definitive for deciding which ten cards are the most valuable? I get the feeling tht there are ultra-specialized sites for this, but I don't know them by name. Any help is appreciated!
My advice is to take sideboards really seriously, and be fully aware of the nature and power of current competitive decks. Homebrews exist, but for the most part, if you're facing Living End or Jund or Tron or Titan Amulet, you'll want to know exactly what you're in for. May decks can win out of nowhere (and pretty fast), so must be ready to predict and estimate what your opponent is trying to do. Often, they will try to bait out removal or counterspells, or bluff, then win once the coast is clear. I mean, standard decks can do that kind of thing too, but Modern takes it to a whole new level. Information is power!
Back to sideboards. I believe that your sideboard must be ready to deal with broad strategies such as winning counterspell wars, nerfing a graveyard, slowing down burn, destroying troublesome lands, and shutting down activited abilities. Grafdiffer's Cage, Relic of Progenitus, Ghost Quarter, Tectonic Edge, Pithing Needle, Chalice of the Void, and Blast Zone can be put into any deck's sideboard. Then cards like Dispel, Fulminator Mage, Slaughter Games, Rakdos Charm, Ancient Grudge, Kataki War's Wage, Spell Snare, Kor Firewalker, and many more can hit particular decks and effects just fine. Even if your opponent crushes you suddenly in turn four during the first game, that doesn't have to be the case for games 2 and 3! I urge you to pay close attention to what kinds of cards each color can contribute to sideboards, and see what kind of cards or strategies they are designed to counter (literally, in some cases).
Personally, I would recommend Modern and Commander, my two favorites. Commander has gotten so big and well-supported, you'll have an easy time building a deck and joining a play group! But I also hear good things about Pioneeer. I wouldn't recommend against you getting into that format, too.
I sometimes say hi on the chat or remark on something interesting that happened in the game. But in my experience, most players ignore the chat. Maybe they think they'll get trolled if they say anything, or they're not the chatty type anyway. I don't worry too much about it, though.
I'd play this if it were casual only, since some guild are a bit stronger than others. I like the idea of making a guild deck with a very deep card pool for ecah guild or a Maze's End deck with lots of options to choose from.
My favorite block is Khans of Tarkir, for the cool pan-Asian setting, fun mechanics and cool cards, great gameplay, and the neat time travel arc involving Sarkhan and Ugin. Sarkhan is one of my favorite planeswalkers besides Ajani and my #1 favorite Tezzeret. And I really like the music in the KTK teaser and full-length trailer.
Whoa, you're REALLY oversimplifying things here. The five colors are distinct for a reason. Blue doesn't ramp extra lands, black doesn't destroy artifacts, green doesn't counter, etc. Each color has staple effects like burn, countering spells, getting lands, pumping creatures, drawing cards, pumping all creatures, and so on. But that's just the basic, simple stuff of how each color works, and cards like those keep the game from getting too complicated and help fill out sets for draft and so on. Otherwise, sets would be more like 80 cards, and that's just silly. And there's TONS of all sorts of neat effects and creatures among all five colors! I"m guessing you're fairly new to the game, because each color has so many cool cards and various effects in them, from huge creatures to flashy sorceries to planeswalkers and utility lands. No way is blue JUST countering stuff or white is ONLY lifegain and soldier tokens. Each Magic set is in the same game, after all. If you're really feeling unexcited by new sets, maybe you should make your own Cube or even just take a break from the game.
Well, there's always Shards of Alara if you want planes with weak or missing colors! And in Dark Ascension, GW didn't have a member of the Captain cycle, because humans were in that color and they were the underdog.
And when and if it does, what will the themes be? We've had 1) good lance (amazing), 2) artifacts (also good, and terrific borders), and 3) uh, random stuff... and nearly unreadable hieroglyphic card names. Gross.
What about Guilds of Ravnica? maybe masterpiece series for guild cycles, like the charms and guild masters and some rares? Or am I asking too much for a Ravnica block? I really want to have another Masterpiece set. IIRC, Wizards is slowing down the series but didn't necessarily kill the project. So, where's the goods?
Back to sideboards. I believe that your sideboard must be ready to deal with broad strategies such as winning counterspell wars, nerfing a graveyard, slowing down burn, destroying troublesome lands, and shutting down activited abilities. Grafdiffer's Cage, Relic of Progenitus, Ghost Quarter, Tectonic Edge, Pithing Needle, Chalice of the Void, and Blast Zone can be put into any deck's sideboard. Then cards like Dispel, Fulminator Mage, Slaughter Games, Rakdos Charm, Ancient Grudge, Kataki War's Wage, Spell Snare, Kor Firewalker, and many more can hit particular decks and effects just fine. Even if your opponent crushes you suddenly in turn four during the first game, that doesn't have to be the case for games 2 and 3! I urge you to pay close attention to what kinds of cards each color can contribute to sideboards, and see what kind of cards or strategies they are designed to counter (literally, in some cases).
What about Guilds of Ravnica? maybe masterpiece series for guild cycles, like the charms and guild masters and some rares? Or am I asking too much for a Ravnica block? I really want to have another Masterpiece set. IIRC, Wizards is slowing down the series but didn't necessarily kill the project. So, where's the goods?