MTG Salvation

Glad to hear it. I also always try to help players who seem newer to refine their decks at limited events. Listen to what the seasoned players have to say and you will learn quickly. Learning what fits best (and I am no master) just takes time.

I agree with the above posters. You won't know until you try, but at most places I have dealt with, the players are fairly nice to new players and very willing to explain and give advice. Now, that being said, you really can't expect to go to any even semi-competitive event with a pile of cards or random untested deck and expect to do well(granted, you could come up with the best homebrew ever, but that is the exception). You have to be ready and willing to lose to people who are running proven good decks. As nice and as they friendly as they may be, they are still there to compete and win (I say this having been in that group). So, if you want to have a good time, you certainly don't need to spend much money to go, play, hang out with some cool people, and learn, but if you want to do well, you will most likely have to look into the good cards/decks. However, you also don't have to look at the very top decks only. There are always plenty of semi-viable 2nd-3rd tier decks that are fun to play and can be reasonable successful (I played Naya Walker control and Temur infinite mana combo during the Siege Rhino era to decent success).

I say give it a shot with what you have got. Let people know that you are new and trying to learn. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Pay attention to what the good players say and do. Find out what you like to play and eventually you can build toward a strong version of that.

Good luck!

Quote from tarotplz »

Quick question, is it ever worth it to run more than 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar?

I get that in general Sorin, Solemn Visitor is better in our deck because it buffs our tokens up to insane ammounts and helps stabilize in the aggressive matchups, but on an empty board Gideon seems way more impactful. His token ability doesn't cost any loyality and he can put our opponents on quite the fast clock all by himself.

Recently I´ve seen these B/W Smallpox lists do really well and they play 3 or even 4 Gideons. It made me think about why almost all our lists only play 1 or even 0.

What are your thoughts on this?

Sure, you can run more than one Gideon. I run two (as well as two Sorin). You just get to the question of balance. How many four drops can you afford to have in the deck and not get too many too often? It is generally considered 3-4 in a 23 land build but could be more for a 24 land build. Then you just have to decide what amount of Gideon vs. Sorin you want. Sorin is generally considered a better fit for our deck (hence why you see lists with more or only Sorins) but I love Gideon in it as well. I split 2-2 for my build (23 lands)

Quote from ElAzar »

Yeah, i think that is wrong with magic today. In the old days, if you didn´t have a card, you substituted it with something else. You played with the cards you actually had. Now you cry for bannings or reprints.

The reason is deckbuilding. It used to be part of the skill as a magic player to build your own decks. Nowadays, most people just play whatever list won the last big event, and then cry about card prices because everyone else want to get those exact cards, too.

I feel it's less an issue of this and more an issue of these days certain cards are made very easily better than others and you can't just slot something in instead and it work as well or even close to as well. I feel like the line between allstar cards and "good" cards has gotten much wider over the years. Not every card has to be amazing but there needs to be a certain amount at close to the same playable power level (In different rarities) to be able to effectively have the option to innovate decks when someone doesn't have all of the cards. Otherwise they will lose over and over and decide to go with the few cards that clearly work.

Also, as far as sleeves go, KMC makes very good sleeves as well. If you are expecting to be doing much mash shuffling you definitely want Matte style sleeves as well, no matter the brand.

Quote from MisterMuffin21 »

Made some changes to my deck, I basically added a playset of Street Wraith and condescend the decklist for consistancy at the cost of some life. It also make siding in cards way more easier:

What did you think of running the Street Wraiths? A positive change, or not, or hard to tell?

I was considering going the Domain route with a list something like this (sideboard just thrown in from a previous deck).



This allows Hooting Mandrils to be played mainboard easier, without the BIs, to help against Fatal Push or such.

Really want to play the Narnam Renegade but not sure if it would be better being more hand control and the other swiftspear.

What do you think?

I did get the hooting mandrills out once or twice. I believe I got it out on turn 2 against Jund one of the games (I think it was what I saved with a Boros Charm from an untimely end by his Slaughter Pact). I don't think that the trample was ever relevant but the big body was nice (2 damage from Kolaghan's Command or 3 from Lightning Bolt won't get him!) and very threatening.

I played a local FNM a couple days ago running this list:



I was not expecting to use it as I generally run Mono-Green Collected Stompany but there were a couple new guys there who wanted to play and didn't have decks so I let them borrow my Mono-G deck and B/W/r Tokens as they are more straight forward and easy to understand. I had not actually played any version of Suicide Zoo in competitive play before. Just goldfishing or casual matches but I keep up with the thread and have a general idea of how it works; so I was nervous but felt okay running it. I switched from the basic steppe lynx and Become Immense version to the partial Domain version just for fun a few weeks back and hadn't played much with it. Anyway, on to the matches!

We only played 3 rounds due to low # (8) of people but still had a very interesting group of decks. There were Hatebears, Jund, Tokens, Bogles, Allies, A Jund colors haste/trample brew, Mono-Green Stompy, and myself.

Match 1: Jund (of course)
Game 1: I'm on the draw and wonder of wonders he plays an untapped land but doesn't have a hand disruption spell. I play a land, a swiftspear, a bauble, and then swing. He was saving the mana for the lightning bolt but I had the mutagenic growth to save the swiftspear and get in 5 damage. From there I out-tempo'd him as he played a Tarmogoyf and then I played a creature and pumped the swifspear to kill the goyf and I won in the next turn or two as he could not stabilize and I had the creatures and pumps to get around his last gasp Liliana of the Veil.
Game 2: He keeps a pretty bad 6 that had expensive removal and a Scavenging ooze but not much else. I thoughtseized his ooze and then played a mandrils on turn 2. Then I drew a sideboarded lingering souls which he used a Maelstrom Pulse on just the first half. He got me down to 2 life with 2 Kolaghan's Commands to the face but didn't draw the bolt and with him at 7 and tapped out I swung for lethal and he cast his Slaughter Pact. Luckily for me, I had drawn my sideboarded Boros Charm a couple of turns earlier and had kept the mana up to save my guy and win it.
games: 2-0, Matches: 1-0

Match 2: Bogles
This guy was using a slightly dated deck but was still the basic Bogles idea and probably not too much worse than current ones.
Game 1: I am on the draw again. I get a couple creatures on board and deal some damage the first couple of turn to get him to 16 or 17 and on his turn 3 he turns his bogle into a 5/5 with first strike and vigiliance (he used turn 2 to play a kor spiritdancer which I bolted). On my turn I swing and he doesn't block for fear of losing his creature and I have leathal in hand to take game 1.
Game 2: He never got off of 1 land and even with a slower game of 2 swiftspears and holding 2 Battle Rages I won in a couple of turns by playing a mutagenic growth and both Battle Rages to trample over a slippery bogle and deal 17 for lethal.
Games 4-0, Matches 2-0

Match 3: Only other undefeated: Naya Allies
Game 1: Even on the draw I had a very fast hand and won on turn 3 as he was scared to block with his not very big yet creatures.
Game 2: This one was much closer. He played the growing ally with first strike and vigilance and then the one that gives lifelink when an ally enters the battlefield. I was worried that I was done then. He gained some life back and the turn it entered and then the next turn swung with both for 8 damage lifelink while he was at 10 and all my creatures were tapped out. Thankfully, I had drawn my sideboarded deflecting palms by then and used one there to stop him from hitting me for 5 and dealing 5 to him to drop him to 8 life. Then on my turn, I swung with 2 3/3 Nacatls and a swift spear. He blocked the Nacatls with a 5/5 first strike/vigilance guy and the other with a 3/3 first strike/vigilance guy but didn't block the swiftspear. I was then able to play my might of alara for +5/+5 to get the swiftspear to 7/8 and had to use my second deflecting palm to get prowess for the final damage and victory!
Games: 6-0, Matches 3-0


I got first place so that was cool. Granted there was a small pool (although most of the players were no slouches) and I had some good luck but them is the rolls sometimes.


This deck was super fun in that there is just so much to do. There are so many options and potential plays and it was great fun to watch my opponents have to deal with that, especially when it is something that they are not used to at all. There were a number of times where I had opponents either not block or block because they thought I had a certain pump spell or just a pump spell in general. One time I swung and the guy was like "There is no way you don't have a pump spell". So good. Mutagenic Growth specifically is amazing because even swinging while tapped out has them nervous. I played Might of Alara 3-4 times and got anywhere from +3/+3 to +5/+5 from it but I was happy with it every time (that seems to happen when you are winning). On a random note, I never drew a death's shadow through all 6 games. Rather odd. Also, I won every game being on the draw.

I went 2-2 at FNM again this week with my deck abandoning me in my time of need in round 4.

Round 1 I played U/R Storm. He had beaten me 2-0 a couple weeks ago comboing on turn three each time. This week he was a bit slower as I beat him on turns 4 or 5 both games and was even holding the boarded in dismember to handle the goblin electromancer if he had it second game. Being the decks that they were the games were completely un-interactive and the round was over in under 15 minutes. It felt good to win after the helplessness of the last time.

Round 2 I played against R/W burn. I had a fast start with a noble hierarch into Groundbreaker for 7 damage to face on turn 2 but I needed to get a third land to play my collected company or play a creature and a boost on the same turn but never got the third land and lost. Game 2 I never saw my sideboard cards and he got his deflecting palm to turn my groundbreaker back to 6 damage to my face and end up losing pretty handily. Burn is certainly one of the tougher matchups that I have.

Round 3 I played another burn player, who I had lost to 0-2 a couple weeks ago as well. Game 1, on the play, I fly out of the gates and kill him on turn 4. Game 2 I see all of my sideboarded in cards, 2x kitchen finks, 2x spellskite, and 1x scavenging ooze, through either drawing or companys and gained something like 13 life to attrition him out. Very fortunate drawing there and it felt good after how bad it had been the last time.

Round 4 was where I lost it. This was one of the saddest rounds I have ever played. My opponent was playing Mardu removal/lifegain something. He had lightning bolts, lightning helixs, path to exiles, lingering soulss, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, and shambling vent. He was slow and I was fast. I came out of the gates swinging and forcing him to use his removal very reactionary and had him backpedaling hard. I got him to 1 life with an empty board, after his removal, and no hand, but he had also used up his removal, then... lands... for 4 straight turns. I already had at least 5 on the board and just needed anything that would do anything. It was not to be as in the 4 turns where I did nothing he gained life back and built up a board presence and I lost. Game two was close to the same story with a few more interesting things. I got him to 3 life with him having no board presence and having used up lots of removal. He drops Ajani Vengeant to keep my last creature, a leatherback baloth, tapped and I drew 5 straight lands with 4 or 5 already on the board and my baloth tapped for eternity. It was the worst feeling to know I had the games in hand if I only drew anything usable and turn after turn another land. A couple other interesting things happened in game two. He had boarded in hallowed moonlight and cast it in response to a collected company (and I was still that close to winning). I went ahead and just exiled a birds of paradise for the funs. Another interesting thing that happened was regarding a choice I made on the last combat I was able to do anything. I had the baloth, a strangleroot geist and a birds of paradise on the board and a Aspect of Hydra in my hand. He was at 7 life and had nothing on the board. I swung with the baloth and geist, and he was going to take it if I did nothing. I knew I had to use the aspect to try to get the win but I also knew he almost had to have removal of some sort. So, having not seen a path to exile that game, and knowing that the baloth was more important to keep around if I could, I decided play the aspect on the geist to avoid having the baloth pathed. However, it turned out that he had bolt, and he bolted the geist in response, and in the end (if I had known of course) I could have targeted the baloth with the aspect and he couldn't have stopped it and I would have won. More tears, but hindsight is 20/20.

Overall it played great and I had fun until variance killed me in the end.

https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=397787

Ban death mark while your at it, if I see a person of Color playing this card I will say he is a racist as it is a black card that kills white creatures.........obviously I’m not being serious here, everyone on this planet is a hypocryte or has been a hypocryte, including me.

Quote from RaikouRider »

Along these lines, when does Wizards change the names of the colors to "purple" and "yellow"?

All of these bannings make sense with the exception of Crusade.

Cleanse has nothing racist about it unless you force it into a particular dialog. Virtue's ruin as was pointed out is equally as "racist" and the flavor text is inflammatory if you read it as such. Invoke prejudice I can stand behind. Even Jihad and army of allah I can embrace because of sensitivity to Islam and the negative portrayal of Muslims. Once you get past those 3 you dilute the message to the point of ridiculousness.

As an unfortunate aside, I had poor timing to make a heliod deck last month - aka "devotion to white deck" and I had jihad and crusade. When I say it like that it sounds like a bigot. Did I have the slightest intention to be insensitive? Absolutely not. I just wanted white pips.

Trying to force a narrative where none exists is ridiculous, destructive and dilutes/muddles actual instances of racial/cultural/sexual insensitivity.

First, as a scientist, but let's face it - anyone that has a high school understanding of biology and immunology knows that vaccines work. Many if not most anti-vax people are actually highly educated and the opposition to vaccines stems from a risk-reward and oppression of personal choice. Vaccines have an efficacy between 10-90%, and side effects are difficult to determine and can be realized many years down the line. For instamce, Antibody mediated enhancement can create a catastrophic cascade resulting in much worse outcomes than those in an unvaccinated individual. (And just as an FYI covid is a member of the class of viruses that is difficult to safely vaccinate against)
That said, the idea of turning magic or any other social activity into an online only format is possible in the short term, but as a sustained model, it ends up failing. There is a reason gyms are popular - the competitive aspect, the gloating and encouragement that one gets from human interaction does not produce the same effects when taken out of a social environment. When paper magic dies, magic will die.

Quote from Manite »

How about a Shark Hydra? Or even better, a Dragon Hydra?

Squirrel Hydra. Don't @ Me.

Well, that's a lot of text. Still, it seems that this card is missing "Hexproof from nonpurple", "Can't be countered by an opponent of an opposite sex" and "If it would go to the graveyard, shuffle it into your sideboard instead".

@Chainwhip Cyclops: Whoah. Mind, blown. And stomped. And crushed. And trampled. And sat on...

Raging Kronch and Kronch Wrangler: Another pair of cards that really wanted Partner With. Maybe we'll eventually get a card that lets you choose two creature card names and gives creatures you control with the chosen names Partner With?

Whisper: Pull the lever, Kronch!

Whisper: WRONG LEVERRRRRrrrr...!

Whisper: Why do we even have that lever? *swat* Get out of my way!

How's your own home situation, ie table space and such? Maybe you can invite some friends home for Magic game night? What about your daughter, does she have friends that you can invite over?

I think the store is ridiculous but I'm not sure what you can do there.

It sounds like they are working on something else, so not all hope is lost.

Press F to pay respect for the Hero PEGASUS!

Trusted Pegasus - While Gids talking to the Pegasus Witcher 3 Ost (The Trail) start playing at back
God-Eternal oketra - Oketra starts charging it's bow and Aim for Gid, Witcher 3 Ost (The Trail) chorus
Divine Arrow - Arrow hits Pegasus, Music abruptly stop and enters slow mo while Gids is falling down
Unlikely Aid - Rakdos suddenly appears and catch Gids, Pirates of the Carribbean theme starts playing