MTG Salvation

Take care of yourself and may the magic in you live forever. Your one of the good ones, thanks for everything you've done for us.

I like modern because I can play several diffrent decks some years apart and go back to them, standard I can't. Standard sometimes makes me play a set/sets I don't like whereas modern isn't affected by the seasonal flavor and always finds a few cards in every set worth playing without me having to go all in on the new sets.
Standard is hard for younger people with limited money to get into, they don't have the money to buy all the cards FAST enough, for most it's get one or two of the most powerful cards and that's all they'll ever get before it rotates. Modern they see long term investment and I think that is a bigger draw to them, and they are the future.
I watched this kid in three years build his eldrazi deck from nothing to a tier deck starting with his first thoughtknot, he didn't have money to get into standard but he had enough to buy a pack here and there and trade into what he could, ultimately he wouldn't have ever made a good standard deck at his price point in a timely fashion to play it before it rotated out. But a modern eldrazi tron deck, he was able to buy a piece here and there with minimal fear and now he's turned into such a good player that I think he could place well at a pro tournament.
If he was stuck with standard and the cost combined with the timeframe to get the cards, he probably wouldn't even still be playing magic.
Idk, I think standard is ok for those that have deeper pockets, modern I feel you get more time out of your investment.
I think modern is more challenging because of its diversity and I prefer it as my format of choice because of that, keeps me on my toes and is never boring.
Standard I can memorize all the decks because all the top ones can be counted on one hand, gets boring fast.

In the original timewarp deck that Farf used to stream years ago, it ran emmy with extraplanar lens (snow-covered islands) and would win by hardcasting emmy after chaining turns until turn 9.

I myself got used to that big mana and have kept lens in my deck, simply because it allows T4 warp and T5 PtW which significantly speeds up the clock. Clock isn't a big deal usually unless we are in game three, sometimes we can't chain turns fast enough. Makes more of a diffrence online though than paper.

Emmy's effect other than straight up winning the game usually was it's shuffle effect, which yes, went into your GY from discarding down to hand size. I'd also like to note that with lens emmy is turn nine and without lens but running PtW as a wincon,it too is turn 9. As I see it, its still a REALLY good wincon and if I had it I'd probably run it since I run lens.

I myself chose to run elixir's for the shuffle effect and it's also relevant vs burn and aggro decks to buy a turn or two since it can be played early. Not to mention it keeps you/opponent from milling you out.

All in all, I say old habits die hard.lol
No matter what version of turns it is, it's a blast taking ALL the turns.

Serum is good,but even in my mono U deck it gets changed out for cards I'm testing. For about a month I did a straight swap for speculations, some games the scry 3 was good, when my mines were under attack and we're either destroyed or countered they were bad. Also I feel it's better late game as I never wanted to see it before I went off.
I use spreading seas lately in serum slots.Mana bases are so greedy and I still get to draw,against blue decks I side them out for counterspells as well as mana dork decks.It also works with chalice which I'm running two MB now.

A few pages back people were commenting on the inability to cast other spells while chaining turns due to mana shortage, I know people hate lens but that's why I play it. It's an artifact that lots of people have hate for but if it eats a decay or something over a mine I'm more than happy.

Corroto, is there a reason your not running bolts? Bolt snap bolt is powerful and can be a wincon in itself especially with all the shadow decks.

Quote from Tanarax »

While researching cards for another deck I came across this long forgotten gem and I immediately thought about how good it might be in our 8-Seas build. Giving away free islands is already extremely effective against non blue decks. One of the things holding the build back is the inability to spam 12 seas. But with annex we can steal what we cannot flood out.

We are already trying to bottleneck their mana with gigadrowse and exhaustion, Why aren't we splashing red for Stone Rain so an additional line to victory would be to lock them out of having lands all together (or at least set them back really far)

If your wanting to tackle the lands with the 8 seas package you can try using ghost quarters with crucible of worlds. I'm using crucible/GQ quite often now in a handful of decks because of how greedy some lists are for non basics.

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I think bridge from below and greater gargadon should be explored a bit.With the inclusion of thug now,gargadon can be put on top for the big beater.

I use two kor firewalker in the side for burn and goblins.hitting double white actually isn't that rough.

So I found reflector mage mirror mockery synergy works really well against dredge,saving counterspells for conflag and other hate.
Still need to adjust mana base,right now I'm back to 17 but I feel like I'm always the one mana short to play as aggressive and interactive as I want.

I'm missing 3 bloodghast then it's complete.
Im also running the gargadon bridge version,that particular build has a single unburial rights but it's only ever used so I can cheat in gargadon.A 9/7 for four mana is a threat and brings back amalgams.I have one main and one in the side.
If I wasn't trying to cheat in the gargadon I wouldn't run it.
Lantern, I like that you do a write up of your matches.I really like seeing how you handle certain plays and explain certain choices(like you thought they were holding up a certain card in hand).Thanks

Eh, 40 bucks for 4 pieces of paper isn't cheap to everyone. Considering he brings up the price of bolts (which for commons are getting up there), calling guide expensive seems to make sense... This is the budget forum. They at least double the price of the deck, and while they are good, you can fill their spot. It gives you something to build toward.

Both burn and goblins are fairly straight forward, but the playstyle of burn can't hold my interest. Goblins have character (and you get to turn them into grenades). To each their own.