MTG Salvation

I have been part of other forums where the moderation was strict. I didn't mind. I do think that here the mods went overboard, and if they are looking to take on board some suggestions for the future, I think that the "spam" infractions were probably the worst/most unwarranted, followed by the flame/troll ones, simply because I often found myself puzzled at seeing what was causing the infractions. It definitely seemed overdone.

Though I am not a big poster overall, at this or any site where I am a member, I did post much less often here than I would have otherwise, simply for fear that my posts would "earn" infractions. I don't suppose fear is the desired atmosphere, so I figured I would put in my two cents here, since now, even if this post were to earn infractions, the site is closing anyway...

Quote from cryogen »

Could you elaborate some? What would you change about our moderation style?

I've been here for a few years. I don't post all that often, but I read a lot. I don't recall personally receiving any infractions, but I do know that my husband ditched this site entirely after receiving an infraction for a "spam post", in which he was saying how much he liked whatever was being discussed. I've noticed a similar "itchy trigger finger", as another user put it, in that same vein.

So yeah.

Same here. I'll be looking out for what you guys post up! EDH is my jam...

I, too, am wondering where to go for deck-building stuff. Reddit is not my cup of tea.

No, I don't regret it. Usually, if I've taken apart a deck it's because it wasn't fun/didn't work/worked too well for my meta.

In other words, if it's fun and I liked it, I keep it. But yeah, I'm at the point, too, where I'm not having to buy too many individual cards for a deck build. I suppose I had to buy Phyrexian Dreadnought for the Jarad deck I took apart, but it turned into Kresh anyway, so the card stayed. (My original Phyrexian Dreadnought was hanging out in Lazav, who still has him, and I didn't have multiples of a card so niche.)

I want a Serra Planeswalker. I've been wanting her since C14, when they trolled me with Nahiri. I also want the WB sister from Innistrad.

More cool reprints would be nice, but those have been covered in this thread. What I want to see are characters from the lore, with their shiny arts.

Oh, and I would love to see the enemy versions of the Battlebond lands and/or enemy versions of the AKH or BFZ duals.

Enchantress. Enchantresses forever. I fell in love with the card type when I first learned how to play Magic, and the first 60-card deck of someone else's that I admired was a UG Enchantress thing that just drew a lot and won with an evasive Verduran Enchantress with Ancestral Mask on.

My favorite deck is my Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis 4-color Enchantress, but I also built Kestia when she came out, and gave my teenage daughter an Enchantment-themed Bolas deck, too. I still have an enchantment itch to scratch, so my Xantcha deck runs a lot of them, too.

I have ... a lot of decks. For me, I have to have a theme I want to build for--and it is totally unrelated to the cards. For example, this particular "concept" has been driving me crazy for 3-5 decks. I played an AD&D Ravenloft game, and the heroine of the story was a Vistana cleric, who ended up searching multiple realms for her lost chief (who as it turns out became a ghost) and whose oath-sworn companion eventually decided he wanted her for himself, so he killed her to prevent the chief from getting her, not knowing the chief was a ghost--and they all three ended up in some weird Ravenloft-appropriate time loop of relieving those last few days. Plus, as a cleric in Ravenloft, she raised a LOT of zombies.

So. I wanted a deck that incorporated zombies, preferably zombie tribal, with a couple of power legendary bombs to represent the chief and the oath-sworn companion, with a fitting general.

AND it had to be able to at least somewhat compete in my meta.

AND be interesting to play.

Right now, I'm on take #5 maybe? I'm going with Lady Evangela at the head of Esper zombies, with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Geth, Lord of the Vault as the two legendaries.

We'll see.

But because every one of my own decks has to start with an idea like that, it means I have lots of decks (gamer here...) and yet for the decks to stick around, they have to work on all the levels I mentioned.

I will occasionally build decks for my children or for my darling just because they want a deck of a particular type or legend, but I find those simultaneously easier to build (no theme to worry about) and less interesting (I like the creativity that is forced by the constraints of the theme).

Quote from Tiro of Meletis »

I'm expecting a Serra with Angel tribal deck.

Please, please, please!

From your mouth to WOTC's ears!

Quote from Narvuntien »

Its unfair in that the typical issue with counters is that you also have to delay your game plan to prevent your opponents play. FoW allows you to have your cake and eat it to.

At the cost of another card in your hand, though. So you have certainly expended resources, even if not tempo.

Totally a fair card.

Usually, no.

When I dismantle a deck, it's usually because I've had my fun with it, and it's time to move on to something new. There's only so many times I could cast Maelstrom Wanderer before calling retiring the deck. Same with tutoring flying creatures with Isperia the Inscrutable. Or blowing people up with Neheb, the Eternal.

The other times I take apart a deck is when it's an idea that does not seem to have a viable execution. I did this most recently with O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami, where I wanted to put other players in a bind of attacking me (and suffering OK's vengeful exile ability), or to punish them for not attacking me (with cards like Luminarch Ascension). Sadly, there were not enough cards to execute the strategy, and players would often dance around OK's punishment with removal (despite my best efforts to protect OK and/or give him haste). I have many other decks that have failed in execution, OK only being the most recent.

As for feeling bad that I've spent money on it... well, no. I've had my fun with the cards I played in my decks; I got a value of joy out of them incommensurate to the money I paid. Further, these cards aren't 'used up' or anything; many I owned before from previous EDH decks, and will be stored away to be played again in another. Even in decks that are relatively short-lived, such as in OK's case, I had Luminarch Ascension in many decks before OK, and will play it again in the future. Any singles I bought to include in OK will have the same life cycle, finding their way into decks, being dismantled and stored away, only to resurface again.

My perspective on it might be different, though. I often buy cards long before they live in an EDH deck, some of which I think because they are neat in form or function. Case and Point, I think I've owned a Defiler of Souls for around 8 years now, but it only just found its way into a deck in the last month (Niv-Mizzet Reborn has no mono-coloured creatures, and Defiler gets drawn by Niv). I've also spent so much money on Magic over the time I've played that, at this point, any regret for an individual purchase or set of purchases would be a bucket of water next to a lake.

I'd give him the perfect score of 5/7.

Quote from 3drinks »

complete the game objective. which is to win the game,

I don't want to be pollyanna too much here but the game objective of EDH for me is far more than to win the game. That's *an* objective. But not the objective. Lots of sub objecives

* Do my thing
* Hopefully see other people do their thing
* Chat with people
* Have a good time


Winning is fairly low on the list for me actually. I mean, I'm trying to win, but if it were the only objective I'd be doing it a lot differently and so would most people.

Why the rush to build and buy? We can take our time and do things right. No sense taking an incomplete project outta the wood shed just to say we played it on day one, because frankly what would that do for us? Nothing.

Besides, I think when you see the initial incarnation I'm currently spinning my wheels on, you'll kick yourself that you missed the approach.

Oh, you like my decorations? I've just been adding some trinkets to add some interest to the room...this little elephant statuette, a craft project my kid made, an 800-pound warhammer...

T1 Colossus Hammer
T2 Ancestral Blade
T3 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer, Blade becomes the Hammer, swing for 11

Check out out my Sisay, Weatherlight Captain deck in my signature. It's a 5 color toolbox build, so you are playing to the table, and so there are in theory correct decision making sequences. It does require some practice to figure out the best use, so sounds perfect.

I have seen a few cool 5 color decks over the years:


* Ramos Enchantress - guy just used Ramos as a mana engine, you cast a couple enchantments and draw a bunch of cards then pull ramos' counters and windmill slam a few more

* Najeela warrior tribal - It's pretty cool. you can focus on the infinite attack step combos if you like, or not, she's just super strong.

* Child of Alara counter lands deck - he just played child as a sweeper in the command zone and made the game go long with every single mana battery land he could play and then played huge bombs.

* Scion of the Ur Dragon dragon tribals Lands - played all the extra land drop and land tutor effects, played huge dragons but also had the alternate Scion voltron kill option