What do you guys think about the new Encase in Ice? Seems great against all tier one decks with the exception of Affinity though.
Encase in Ice
1U
Enchantment - Aura
Flash
Enchant red or green creature
When Encase in Ice enters the battlefield, tap enchanted creature.
Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step.
It seems pretty nice against Tarmogoyf/Siege Rhino decks, but we're not terribly matched against those decks anyway. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that those sorts of decks keep Abrupt Decay in against us, and this is a fine target for that. It has a little value against Burn and Zoo if you see those regularly, but doesn't really deal with Eidolon of the Great Revel all that well either. I have a couple holes in my SB from when Squelch was a little more relevant, so it might be worth a shot to try this if I keep seeing Zoo around.
I've just recently placed an order with MTGIsland. I usually order from facetoface games, but they didn't have everything I wanted in stock and MTGIsland had better prices so I decided to go with them. I took them up on their policy for an invoice in CAD to save a bit of money from the PayPal currency conversion and got a quick reply, but after sending payment have heard nothing despite repeated emails. There's another user on reddit that I've talked to with the same problem. I was wondering if there's anyone else out there having a similar experience, or perhaps knows the owner and could shine a bit of light on the situation.
Tezz isn't card draw, but he does give you the best artifact from your top five cards. Since you're running Salvaging Station, why not run some Spellbombs? Nihil, AEther, Origin, and Necrogen are all solid utility and Origin + SS + Skullclamp is a nice little engine.
Tezzeret is definitely on my "to get" list. I've also been strongly considering swapping my Tormod's Crypt for a Nihil Spellbomb to get that added card draw.
Recently I've put together a Sydri, Galvanic Genius deck and I've been having a lot of fun with it, but it's got a glaring issue that I've noticed. In a fair portion of games I notice myself having emptied my hand due to playing out numerous mana rocks and whatever other utility I played, and then am without anything constructive to do as I few ways to draw into my real threats. The deck is designed to be able to make use of Sydri's ability to turn simple utility artifacts into threats, but when I am without access to her I'm stuck with a board full of things that do nothing but durdle a bit (yet draws a large amount of unwarranted attention).
Anyway, I'm looking for some recommendations for good sources of draw/card advantage. The lineup I currently am including looks like:
I'm just looking for suggestions on some more strong draw effects, preferably tying in with the artifact theme of the deck. I also have a Salvaging Station package, so anything that works with that would be even better. I've thought about Skullclamp, but I don't have enough small creatures/sacrifice effects to get any real use out of it.
I happen to currently be developing a MTG life counter app. It is my first foray into Android development, so the design I have is fairly basic, but that seems to be what you are looking for. As a question, how do you like the act of increasing/decreasing life on such an app to be done? Do you prefer a few buttons (like +1, +3, +5, -1, -3, -5, etc.), or would you like a text field where you can fill in a number and press a button to gain/lose that much life?
So I'm finally making the move to cash in my old Yu-Gi-Oh collection and have come to find that there is actually a decent amount of value in it. Whatever money/store credit I get off of it is probably going straight into EDH, but I have a problem.
I'm one of those sorts who has a bit of a compulsory desire to be building new decks. This forces me into a tight spot whenever I come upon funds to put into EDH things. The decks I own (currently Karador and Niv-Mizzet), are not really "optimized" yet (keeping in mind that "optimized" is a really loose description that varies from person to person), and while they do fairly well in the games I usually play, I do feel the need for improvement when I come upon someone who wants a game and brings in a deck that has a little more card quality or is just better built. I'm left with the choice to either indulge my deck-building impulses or polish up my existing decks.
Do others here face a similar conflict? Which of these options do you generally find more enjoyable? Discuss.
Not ideal for most, but it will help with consistency issues/speed.
Edit:
Besides, you're in green, so you don't really need Evolving Wilds either.
I use the Core/Inn duals in addition to what I listed. Command Tower also gets a nod. Your base there is what I think I should aim for. The Guildgates will come out immediately and the Vivids will only be hanging around as long as I don't have Shocks.
I was playing some EDH the other night at FNM with my newly-christened Karador deck. I had played a bit earlier in the day 1-on-1 with a friend who is on a similar level as myself in terms of budget and overall deck power. The deck performed quite well. I then proceeded to go up against a more finely-tuned Sigarda voltron deck and got smashed pretty well. There were a lot of reasons why, but one that stood out to me was the speed that I was losing due to drawing too many "Comes into play tapped" lands.
It was something I never really noticed when playing against similarly-paced decks, but it's now apparent to me that I am sacrificing too much speed for the ability to hit my colours. I always intend to draw a couple of these lands in the early game to get my colours initially set up, but after that topdecking them when there was a crucial spell I needed to play on curve that turn just feels bad. Plus, being that I am in green, my colour-fixing isn't too bad anyway.
My deck contains the following
3 Guildgates
3 Vivids
3 Rav Karoos
3 Onslaught cycle lands
Murmuring Bosk (No Treefolk in the deck)
Evolving Wilds
Which of these would it just be better to cut for basics? My only other dual lands are the M/Inn check lands. I'm currently working on acquiring Shocks, which the gates will definitely be coming out for. It's also worth noting that I do not have Life from the Loam with which to maximize the use of the Cycle lands, but it is something I'm working on getting as well.
I wish I had one for Niv-Mizzet. Kozilek would be more on-theme but Ulamog's unconditional destruction ability is great for decks that have few answers for certain types of permanents (such as U/R's inadequacy at dealing with enchantments). Also the grave recycling is great to have.
Toronto ComiCon is coming up in a couple weeks and there's a big Standard tournament taking place, which I can only imagine will result in some EDH on the side. This would be my first time attending since I have moved and I was just curious if there are any other MTGSers here that will be going.
I was actually questioned about my choice to run Arcane Denial over Counterspell in my Niv-Mizzet deck. The flexibility of the mana cost combined with the way multiplayer makes the drawback less detrimental makes it a superior choice in my book.
Opinion: The artwork of Arcane Denial is also superior to every Counterspell besides maybe Masques (which I sadly do not own a copy of).
I've been going it over in my head a lot (having had nobody to test with as of late), and I'm thinking Rapid Hybridization will be used as counter-removal in a lot of cases. People trying to kill the early Delver or clear out a blocking Augur may be caught off guard if it suddenly turns into a 3/3.
Hands of Binding on the other hand hasn't really worked out for me. The ideal scenario is encoding it on a Stalker, but I have not yet had the opportunity to do so. Instead, I've seen it dead in my hand a lot without any encoding targets and had wished it was just a bounce spell that would grant me more time. Also, the fact that encoding exiles the spell means it doesn't get along with pike all that well. It seems like it would be more worth running if I had access to Snapcasters, but as is, it may just sit out for now.
I'm currently working on putting together the Mono-U flash deck that you have in the OP, and was wondering if there are any updates that you would bring in from GTC, or any changes you would make if you knew were were headed into a very aggro-centric metagame. I've got my eyes on AEtherize, Hands of Binding, and Rapid Hybridization in particular, but am not sure how I would change the deck to possibly include some of these, or if it's even worth doing.
In testing, I was struggling against a very quick G/R haste aggro. It's more than likely that could be attributed to my own play errors, but it's not really a mystery why a tempo-reliant deck falters when attacked by an army of haste guys.
It seems pretty nice against Tarmogoyf/Siege Rhino decks, but we're not terribly matched against those decks anyway. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that those sorts of decks keep Abrupt Decay in against us, and this is a fine target for that. It has a little value against Burn and Zoo if you see those regularly, but doesn't really deal with Eidolon of the Great Revel all that well either. I have a couple holes in my SB from when Squelch was a little more relevant, so it might be worth a shot to try this if I keep seeing Zoo around.
Tezzeret is definitely on my "to get" list. I've also been strongly considering swapping my Tormod's Crypt for a Nihil Spellbomb to get that added card draw.
Oh yeah, Staff of Nin was one that I already have as well. I'll fix that in the OP.
Anyway, I'm looking for some recommendations for good sources of draw/card advantage. The lineup I currently am including looks like:
Vedalken Archmage
Serum Tank
Trading Post
Mind's Eye
Staff of Nin
I'm just looking for suggestions on some more strong draw effects, preferably tying in with the artifact theme of the deck. I also have a Salvaging Station package, so anything that works with that would be even better. I've thought about Skullclamp, but I don't have enough small creatures/sacrifice effects to get any real use out of it.
Norin the Wary comes to mind for War Inside my Head (he seems to be a bit shell-shocked himself)
I happen to currently be developing a MTG life counter app. It is my first foray into Android development, so the design I have is fairly basic, but that seems to be what you are looking for. As a question, how do you like the act of increasing/decreasing life on such an app to be done? Do you prefer a few buttons (like +1, +3, +5, -1, -3, -5, etc.), or would you like a text field where you can fill in a number and press a button to gain/lose that much life?
I'm one of those sorts who has a bit of a compulsory desire to be building new decks. This forces me into a tight spot whenever I come upon funds to put into EDH things. The decks I own (currently Karador and Niv-Mizzet), are not really "optimized" yet (keeping in mind that "optimized" is a really loose description that varies from person to person), and while they do fairly well in the games I usually play, I do feel the need for improvement when I come upon someone who wants a game and brings in a deck that has a little more card quality or is just better built. I'm left with the choice to either indulge my deck-building impulses or polish up my existing decks.
Do others here face a similar conflict? Which of these options do you generally find more enjoyable? Discuss.
I use the Core/Inn duals in addition to what I listed. Command Tower also gets a nod. Your base there is what I think I should aim for. The Guildgates will come out immediately and the Vivids will only be hanging around as long as I don't have Shocks.
It was something I never really noticed when playing against similarly-paced decks, but it's now apparent to me that I am sacrificing too much speed for the ability to hit my colours. I always intend to draw a couple of these lands in the early game to get my colours initially set up, but after that topdecking them when there was a crucial spell I needed to play on curve that turn just feels bad. Plus, being that I am in green, my colour-fixing isn't too bad anyway.
My deck contains the following
3 Guildgates
3 Vivids
3 Rav Karoos
3 Onslaught cycle lands
Murmuring Bosk (No Treefolk in the deck)
Evolving Wilds
Which of these would it just be better to cut for basics? My only other dual lands are the M/Inn check lands. I'm currently working on acquiring Shocks, which the gates will definitely be coming out for. It's also worth noting that I do not have Life from the Loam with which to maximize the use of the Cycle lands, but it is something I'm working on getting as well.
Opinion: The artwork of Arcane Denial is also superior to every Counterspell besides maybe Masques (which I sadly do not own a copy of).
Hands of Binding on the other hand hasn't really worked out for me. The ideal scenario is encoding it on a Stalker, but I have not yet had the opportunity to do so. Instead, I've seen it dead in my hand a lot without any encoding targets and had wished it was just a bounce spell that would grant me more time. Also, the fact that encoding exiles the spell means it doesn't get along with pike all that well. It seems like it would be more worth running if I had access to Snapcasters, but as is, it may just sit out for now.
In testing, I was struggling against a very quick G/R haste aggro. It's more than likely that could be attributed to my own play errors, but it's not really a mystery why a tempo-reliant deck falters when attacked by an army of haste guys.