How many 2/1 fliers for 1U is too many?
Pre-Unstable, I was plying 4 of them (3 of the generic ones plus Skyship Plunderer). Some part of me really, really wants to put all 4 different versions of Novellamental in, but I wouldn't want to replace Plunderer because strictly better is strictly better. I'd probably drop Labyrinth Guardian, and that would bring me up to 5 2-mana fliers.
Skies is my supported U/W archetype, and I think the 2/1s are playable elsewhere. I tend to see U/R spells come up as a tempo deck rather than a control deck, so they don't hate cheap beaters, and in theory I guess there's a U/B aggro deck out there somewhere.
It feels weird to me to devote so many blue slots to basically the same thing, so I was wondering if you guys supported skies and if you do, how many of the cheap fliers you play.
Personally I think this set is disappointing even compared to IXL. I'll take "interesting but probably unplayable" over "marginal side-grade" most days.
Thanks! Great info. The reason I ask about 1 on 1 commander is that I overheard some players down at my LGS exclaim that "it's not real commander and it's for losers", which naturally made me curious (and a little confused).
The issue here is that "Duel Commander" (a format that is ONLY 1v1) has a separate banlist, and a number of different rules, which in effect make it a different format. There's also Commander on MTGO, which has its own, different banlist from Duel... it's somewhat of a mess.
If you're getting into Commander, and you want to play 1v1 with your friend, you should use the traditional multiplayer banlist, as then your decks will transition into multiplayer games you find locally without any issue.
I'm not sure why your local players have such hatred for Duel, it's really the more competitive format and essentially singleton Vintage. I think it's wonderful, but if it's not what you're into and not what your local players enjoy, you can very safely just ignore it.
I'm guessing the precons are fairly balanced against each other (though I've read opinions stating that they're actually not). How do commander player groups typically handle balancing issues?
There are some precons that are better than others, but you shouldn't concern yourself too much with that. I think the greater concern is picking a deck you like from the get-go, powering it up should be easy, the point is to enjoy it!
As far as balancing issues, the key is just talking to the people you're playing with. Try and find other people who are new, or who enjoy lower-power games, and you should be fine. From a personal point of view, I love very competitive games of Commander, but I always have more casual decks on hand, and I think this is typical of the Commander community.
Long-term, figure out what you want from the format, and just build towards that, and try and find players with a similar mindset. Since you're getting into it with a friend, I'd say you're already ahead of the curve.
I really, really wish Just Desserts dealt damage to players so it could **** up all "strictly better" discussions regarding Lightning Strike variants from now until forever.
I don't want my players to constantly have to be thinking about where their cards are positioned on the battlefield all the time just because of one card.
This spoiler season is exciting for me since I have a couple Cubes. A lot of the cards are very parasitic but there's enough fun stuff that I already have a list of includes. Rakdos as a guild is already going to get a lot more fun in my multi Cube.
I imagine if you're only concerned with EDH this spoiler is more of a headache than anything else, though.
How strong is Menace as an evasion mechanic in your playgroups? The decks I usually see would be able to block just fine, but maybe that's just my environment.
At Common this might be somewhat of a nightmare when people actually draft the set.
How you can tell if your LGS is going one step beyond: They have two land boxes for Un3 drafts: Trees and No Trees.
Otherwise be ready for a mad dash for the land piles during deck construction.
I think we may be selling Crow Storm a little short. At one other spell it's comparable to Midnight Haunting (not instant, but better tokens) and at two spells it's better than Spectral Procession. Its only bad outcome is just casting it with nothing. I get if it's a little underwhelming, but it's not uncubable.
I prefer Primus to Terastodon. Too often when i'm casting T-Don, I find myself targeting a third thing "just because," which doesn't really lend itself to optimal gameplay. Mostly, I just usually find that if most decks at the table are playing a reasonable amount of removal, board states don't get to a point where I need to remove three things. Of course, you can sometimes give yourself the extra 3/3 with T-Don, but there's always a risk to that, and it's not always the right call, even if you have a lot of mana. As many times as the board gets cleared and you're fine, there are times when your T-Don gets removed and the damage from those 3/3s (and their vindictive controllers) starts to add up.
T-Don has a high ceiling but I think it depends more on the board state and how politically you can play with your opponents, which you can sometimes leverage to your advantage but sometimes not. I value Primus because it's results are more predictable.
Ultimately I think a G/B deck can probably use and abuse both of those cards quite well and it just comes down to what your deck is geared to take advantage of and how you like to play - I don't think one is strictly better than the other.
To remove fast mana/cheap tutors from CEDH would completely change the nature of that format. From where I'm sitting, it doesn't make any sense to play "casual" EDH with the current multiplayer banlist with those things legal. But perhaps that's too on-topic for the off-topic thread...
Regardless, I think the most important thing is to find people who enjoy the same things you enjoy, which definitely doesn't happen on MODO, that was my point.
Exactly that. I think competitive EDH can be plenty fun with the current banlist, but online play certainly does not cater itself to communication or putting everyone on the same page, power-level wise, despite the easier access to cards.
I really hope there are more black border cards coming. The contraption thing is nice but if that is all we get and there is no other black border cards, i feel that it would have been a missed opportunity. I mean sure Watermarket is going back to the art aspect but still... I would like some cards that are tournament legal.
The only black bordered card in Unstable is Steamflogger Boss. That's the whole point of Un-sets. To print cards that they feel can't or shouldn't be in black bordered, particularly standard legal, sets.
Yes. Steamflogger is only black-bordered because it's a reprint. As far as I'm aware, there aren't going to be any other reprints in this set, and certainly no new cards with a black border.
My favorite card has always been Counterbalance. I just love that it turns deck-manipulation spells, like Brainstorm or Telling Time, into counterspells. I just like building around it. I'm a Blue mage at heart.
Pre-Unstable, I was plying 4 of them (3 of the generic ones plus Skyship Plunderer). Some part of me really, really wants to put all 4 different versions of Novellamental in, but I wouldn't want to replace Plunderer because strictly better is strictly better. I'd probably drop Labyrinth Guardian, and that would bring me up to 5 2-mana fliers.
Skies is my supported U/W archetype, and I think the 2/1s are playable elsewhere. I tend to see U/R spells come up as a tempo deck rather than a control deck, so they don't hate cheap beaters, and in theory I guess there's a U/B aggro deck out there somewhere.
It feels weird to me to devote so many blue slots to basically the same thing, so I was wondering if you guys supported skies and if you do, how many of the cheap fliers you play.
If skies is an archetype you support with signal cards (Thunderclap Wyvern, Sprite Noble, Favorable Winds, Warden of Evos Isle), it's probably a downgrade.
Personally I think this set is disappointing even compared to IXL. I'll take "interesting but probably unplayable" over "marginal side-grade" most days.
The issue here is that "Duel Commander" (a format that is ONLY 1v1) has a separate banlist, and a number of different rules, which in effect make it a different format. There's also Commander on MTGO, which has its own, different banlist from Duel... it's somewhat of a mess.
If you're getting into Commander, and you want to play 1v1 with your friend, you should use the traditional multiplayer banlist, as then your decks will transition into multiplayer games you find locally without any issue.
I'm not sure why your local players have such hatred for Duel, it's really the more competitive format and essentially singleton Vintage. I think it's wonderful, but if it's not what you're into and not what your local players enjoy, you can very safely just ignore it.
There are some precons that are better than others, but you shouldn't concern yourself too much with that. I think the greater concern is picking a deck you like from the get-go, powering it up should be easy, the point is to enjoy it!
As far as balancing issues, the key is just talking to the people you're playing with. Try and find other people who are new, or who enjoy lower-power games, and you should be fine. From a personal point of view, I love very competitive games of Commander, but I always have more casual decks on hand, and I think this is typical of the Commander community.
Long-term, figure out what you want from the format, and just build towards that, and try and find players with a similar mindset. Since you're getting into it with a friend, I'd say you're already ahead of the curve.
Alas.
yes and differentiating between two types of counters is a nightmare.
This spoiler season is exciting for me since I have a couple Cubes. A lot of the cards are very parasitic but there's enough fun stuff that I already have a list of includes. Rakdos as a guild is already going to get a lot more fun in my multi Cube.
I imagine if you're only concerned with EDH this spoiler is more of a headache than anything else, though.
How you can tell if your LGS is going one step beyond: They have two land boxes for Un3 drafts: Trees and No Trees.
Otherwise be ready for a mad dash for the land piles during deck construction.
T-Don has a high ceiling but I think it depends more on the board state and how politically you can play with your opponents, which you can sometimes leverage to your advantage but sometimes not. I value Primus because it's results are more predictable.
Ultimately I think a G/B deck can probably use and abuse both of those cards quite well and it just comes down to what your deck is geared to take advantage of and how you like to play - I don't think one is strictly better than the other.
Regardless, I think the most important thing is to find people who enjoy the same things you enjoy, which definitely doesn't happen on MODO, that was my point.
Yes. Steamflogger is only black-bordered because it's a reprint. As far as I'm aware, there aren't going to be any other reprints in this set, and certainly no new cards with a black border.