MTG Salvation

I know I mentioned it before (more of a "hey look at this" and not a "hey this is bonkers and needs to be addressed" way), but if you start looking at voltron generals that can be powerful (like Invisible Stalker), I really think Fusion Elemental needs to be watched if you're going to go with the 16 points of general damage. His casting cost isn't really that hard to do with commons, and without any assistance he kills in two hits. Plus, being in five colors gives him access to every piece of ramp, boosting, control, etc.

I propose that we start this ban list off right by either following the EDH philosophy of "with multiplayer in mind only" or consider both equally and don't weigh one more heavily than the other. (Personally since this is an EDH variant, my vote is for ignoring how a card plays in 1v1.)

I also like the idea of allowing anything that's been released as a common, which would include MTGO. The way I see it, if you're already going to Gatherer to determine the rarity, there's no confusion.

To OP, how about starting a thread for ban list discussions. That way this thread doesn't get get sidetracked with two topics.

Quote from GalacticFonz

I would love the casual section to be cut, because I would prefer to optimize any deck I create myself/comment on. I don't want to be told that my deck is 'too competitive' or that my comment is 'removing the casual aspect' from someone's deck.

If you have a casual deck, why do you even care what other people think anyway?

Especially since a description of your deck will do way more than a "casual" or "budget" tag will. What's your budget per card and the whole deck? WHY is it casual? No MLD, no combos?

For example, my MSW deck is defined as casual because it's meant to have silly fun rather than win, but aside from some self-imposed restrictions, I want it as tuned as possible. That to me is competitive(ish).

Quote from Killane

Hilarious. Limited Resources is actually best IN a ramp deck,.since all of your ramp spells can still put lands onto the battlefield, but everyone else is completely locked out.

wow, I don't know how I missed that part of LR. Probably becaus I've never played with or wished to play with that card.

On topic: I'm pretty ok with how the banned list is right now. I think there's a couple of cards that could come off, but for the most part I wouldnt change it.

Quote from SaraceenPsycho

Ultra pro's shuffle better in my opinion.
Are they cut equally? (sometimes I bought sleeves were one was a little bigger than the other).

I have a bunch of Ultrapro (the good Magic licensed ones for $8/80) that are years old and quite worn out. One set still shuffles beautifully, the other set is sticky and hard to shuffle. And no, it's not sticky from food or anything else (pervs), it's just a property of the cards.

As far as the cut goes, I can't say for certainty off the top of my head that they're cut EXACTLY the same, but they're close enough that it hasn't caught my attention.

Quote from EarthBowser

I could -

1. A fun two drop in my Reaper King deck that would also make my Chameleon Colossus unblockable.
3. Gives all your creatures intimidate with Bellowing Tanglewurm.

1. Hardly the most efficient use if that's all you're trying to do. Why not just a Whispersilk Cloak?
3. Intimidate is pretty useless if all creatures are the same color.

Quote from NGW

As an aside, I just realized that we're only about a week away from the new ban list. Wow time really does fly.

Yay!

Back on topic: I haven't voted yet, as I'm still unsure. My problem is that since I haven't actually played against Servant, I haven't witnessed all the fun/unfun things it can do. Both sides certainly make compelling arguments, and I know for sure that Iona or Servant needs to get banned. Right not I'm leaning towards keeping it banned, as there are plenty of other ways to interact with it.

And Wizards knows that state formats means players aren't having fun (which can be measured by lower tournament attendance because if they're not having fun they don't want to play).

Nothing really shocking, but I broke down and bought a set of Dragon Sleeves (the 100 pack) and holy crap they're awesome. They shuffle great, with the right amount of slickness but not so slick that your deck slides apart, and how cool is it that they give you a few extras too? I hated it when I'd get two packs of 50 count sleeves only to rip one and have to look around for an extra.

also, I know this has been mentioned, but the Deck Builders Toolbox box is perfect for three sleeved decks and around 20 sleeved tokens. Really durable too.

Actually, since the ban list is supposed to promote social play and keeping the format fun, cards which produce a stale format IS what the ban list tries to stop.

I run it in Thraximundar (which also runs It That Betrays). Haven't cast it yet, but it seems good enough so far. Outside something as narrow as that, it doesn't seem too spectacular.

Check the decklist forums, people have already started brewing there. Here's one already: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=438132

Quote from aeso

Treating nonlegendary uncommon cards as legendary because they are commanders seems a little weird to me. I get the flavor aspect of matching EDH, but I don't think it's worth rewriting the rules about card supertypes. I can't find a single common card that makes a copy of a creature, so I don't see the issue coming up unless someone is running Clone as their commander, or if two players are running the same commander (which I don't have a problem with).

Oh man, I never realized Clone was originally uncommon. That would make a sweet general.

Quote from Shunma

But you probably don't complain when you see a dual hit the table either. Or do you? If not, I applaud your restraint in how much you spend on your hobbies, and don't trwat people who spend more poorly. If you DO complain, might I suggest you set aside a little something and acquire some of these cards yourself over time? I have responsibilities too but I decided I wanted something and found ways to make it happen instead of stewing in a sea of sorrow.

I probably complain about as much as the guy who runs them complains when he eats nonbasic hate and gets targeted for having an optimized mana base. (the simple answer is no, I don't complain). My most optimized decks run shock lands, bounce lands and M10 duals, and they do well enough. More power to people who got them long ago, or people with enough money to buy them now.

Quote from Cakins

As I honestly don't have much time at the moment to respond to everyone, I found this really interesting, as I had not really thought about it. This would only matter for clone effects and when two people have the same commander however. What do others think? Should this be a rule?

The issue I could see is that in EDH it's clean, because they're legendary to begin with. So in Pauper, do we treat them as legendary, and legend rule if I'm including it in my 99? Or do we need a clause "if you clone a general..."? Flavor-wise, I thinks it's something worth discussing.