MTG Salvation

Quote from GloriousGoose »

Quote from CheckerKnights »

I prefer the ability to steadily generate cards over turns instead of drawing a couple cards right now.

Would you rather start with Future Sight or Night's Whisper in your opening grip? Obviously landing a Phyrexian Arena on turn 2 and riding it for 10 turns is going to be superior to Sign in Blood, but that's an unfair comparison. You have to look at two things: the draw per mana cost, and the immediacy. Engines tend to be much better at draw per mana cost, assuming they stick around, but their immediacy is generally lacking (Future Sight is kind of an exception which elevates it greatly). That's what's so amazing about these cheap cantrips, their draw per mana is fairly okay but their immediacy is what makes them great.

Then again, I think cramming Brainstorm/Ponder/etc into every blue deck is stupid, so what to I know?

I mean, I didn't say it.

Blue's cantrips, like the Black lose two/draw two cards, are versatile and powerful at every stage of the game. I've often read that those lose two/draw twos are Black's cantrips, which isn't a bad comparison. As Hunding Gjornersen intimated, they both dig for early land drops and turn into powerful card selection for cheap in the late game.

I do not recall ever saying the black draw spells were bad, simply that I don't run them. Granted, I never really got to the point of the thread, which was which black-lose-life draw spell do you prefer, but I just wanted to state my opinion on the matter: the OP seemed to assume that all black decks are running some sort of variation on that card type (sorry if I got that wrong), and I wanted to offer a counter. As you said, the power of gradual draw is more relevant the longer you can use it, and that is what I prefer about them. I comprehend that drawing cards now is better if you need cards now.

As for my comment on blue cantrips, I suppose "stupid" was not the best word I could have used, "silly" might have been more apt. As with the previous chunk of text, I understand that the card manipulation provided by Brainstorm and friends is powerful, I just do not want to put them in every blue deck I build. Having played Magic for any amount of time, I understand that drawing cards is powerful at all points in the game.

When drawing in my non-blue black decks, I prefer things like Lyzolda/Reassembling Skeleton or Grim Backwoods with Ondu Giant variants. Yes they take a long time to get going, but I like that aspect of them. The theme of this whole thread seemed to be preference, if we are instead talking about technically best I will rescind my statements.

Sorry for my tone.

Quote from hyalapterouslemur »

Clearly someone who unfamiliar with Bane of Progress and Austere Command.

I mean sure Austere Command hits Lyzolda and Reassembling Skeleton, but those cards can come back.

Not too many of my decks get locked out by Breya's ability, though it does slow down my Mayael deck and can keep me from generating cards with Lyzolda. Aside from those two, most of my decks do not rely on their generals too much.

However, I tend to be the one playing Breya, and my build is not too threatening: tribal thopters. I can confirm that Breya's ability to keep people off of some generals is pretty useful, helps keep people in check while I assemble the thopter army.

I have never run Read the Bones or the other lose two draw two spells in EDH, and I have never found myself missing them. Three of my black decks have generals that draw cards, so I lean on those pretty heavily, and my other two have blue in them. I prefer the ability to steadily generate cards over turns instead of drawing a couple cards right now.

Then again, I think cramming Brainstorm/Ponder/etc into every blue deck is stupid, so what to I know?

I've had great success with draw go with my Nin, the Pain Artist deck. Much of my success comes from people not wanting to commit things to the board when they know a mass bounce effect is imminent, not wanting to attack when they know a defensive spell is coming, and not wanting to play a power spell through a wall of 20+ counterspells and spot removal. It definitely takes some work, and necessitates playing some resilient defensive cards (Kher Keep, Mazes, etc), but it can be done.

Granted if the entire table focuses you you run the risk of dying, but that is true of pretty much every deck in EDH.

Sounds like someone watched the most recent TCC video.

As a Commander only player myself, I have already slotted a few cards from Aether Revolt into decks. Disallow just goes in blue decks, as all those modes are things you want. Whir of Invention is cool in artifact decks that get a bunch of guys out, like Breya. My LGS was out of Herald of Anguish or I would have gotten one for my Lyzolda deck. Lightning Runner is the only creature that comes with double strike and haste, two abilities my equipment based mono-red deck wants. Ajani Unyielding is getting jammed into my green white control deck as soon as I find room.

There are lots of other cards that have piqued my interest as a Commander only player, and as time goes on I am sure I will find more cards that I want to run. "Intended for Commander" is such a strange phrase, because it seems to imply that Commander players only want dumb 10+ cmc spells, which is not our only interest. But on that note, are you trying to imply that Planar Bridge was intended for any format other than Commander? What about Paradox Engine? Indomitable Creativity? Mechanized Production? These cards seem like they were obviously aimed at players who want big, splashy cards, which is what most people seem to think Commander players want.

There is tons in this set for people in every format, you just gotta look. As for the value of the cards, of course values will be down. Wizards is still including lottery tickets in every pack, so people are going to open the hell out of packs looking for them, meaning more product than normal is being opened, so cards will be readily available. Things that do not have obvious standard applications will naturally be cheaper.

I think any Commander player worth their salt has downplayed a threat, it is one of the factors in a multiplayer, politics-heavy game. I am pretty sure I say "it's not that threatening" most games, but that is just standard stuff in my book.

I will usually frame my powerful plays in reference to what is going on in the game. Sure, my Newlamog is a scary threat, but "we" need it to deal with "their" stuff. Often times a powerful play has a distracting quality to it, and I have lost several games because one of my friends (the same one every time) pathed an eldrazi because it might swing at him the next turn, even though I said out loud where it was going. Granted, that creature might threaten them later on, but I have to assume my friends have worse threat assessment than I do.

As for blatent lies, come on guys, I wasn't able to get her out early enough to threaten you. I'm just going to be sitting here playing lands for the next few turns, there is no threat of me blowing you out of the water: you can relax.

What if the creature gained a buff based on a set number of cards you own in exile, like +1/+1 for every five cards exiled or something (an example, not what it should be). This keeps us from keeping track of cards specifically exiled this turn or since the upkeep or whenever, less clutter is better. An activated ability that allowed for impulse drawing could be cool too, allowing the creature to feed it own ability and keep in line with the card drawing desire for this color combination. So an example of what this text box might look like would be:

The creature gets +1/+1 for every five cards you own that are exiled.
2WR: Exile the top card of your library. You can cast it this turn.

All numbers are strictly for illustrating how this sort of card might work, please do not kill me for the numbers.

Thoughts? Am I an idiot?

I want a poll option for "I am impartial", because I don't really care what deck people play. I will make the caveat that the group hug deck should have a win condition, that there should be some planned avenue for the deck to end the game. Otherwise, the decks are not really playing.

I am a big fan of mono red, and Lovisa is a deck I would have built if it were not for my Ashling, the Pilgrim deck (satisfies my mono red beatdown needs). How does the deck play? What is or is not working?

The enemy colored come into play tapped lands from SOI finished the cycle from BFZ. Those lands are: Cinder Barrens, Meandering River, Submerged Boneyard, Timber Gorge, and Tranquil Expanse.

As for the rare lands, with the lack of the enemy pair rare lands in BFZ (to mirror Sunken Hollow and company) I would not be surprised if we did not get the full cycle in this set, though I would love to be proved wrong.

Another interesting one is Contamination. It might not eliminate the amount of mana, but it might remove their ability to make the correct color.

While it is not color specific, Winter Orb does the trick.

EDIT: Is there a particular aspect of ramp you are looking to keep in check, like x-cost spells or big creatures, or is it all of the above?

A lot of people are saying that playing spells is the fun of the format, but if you have ever been sanwiched between two blue players Capsizing every permanent you play, you start to wonder how much fun you can actually get out of casting a creature only to have it end up in your hand. Someone might respond that you should run answers to that problem; Iona is an answer to that problem.

BCW cardboard boxes in a backpack.