... That takes no slight of hand, and in fact is so easy to do that you would find some players doing it by accident (I've seen plenty of casuals who don't understand why mana-weaving is wrong).
Exacty, mana-weaving (stacking the deck so it has 2 cards, 1 land, 2 cards 1 land etc.) is the biggest issue and cutting a deck doesn't solve it at all.
I think it's perfectly fine if an opponent takes my deck and shuffles it. How can he "stack" my deck, if he can't look at the cards? Is OP telling me he can both distract me AND look at the cards in my deck AND cheat the best cards to the bottom half in one swift motion? I don't think so.
He is saying he can do both things, I'm not sure why you think this is so hard. Magicians do this sort of stuff all the time. You must think David Copperfield is a real wizard
Im big fan of the tax/and whittle away of the brown version vs the blowout plan of the white, Is there an updated list or is white just better? I might buy myself some mox diamonds for Christmas If I can get a good deal. I have everything else other than only having 3 Cities. Any input would be much appreciated
Kinda high tide-curious at this point. I have some of the cards. I just built 3 legacy decks over this past year (UW miracles/helm, Eldrazi Post & BR Reanimator) So I don't really have a ton of funds to build this atm, but I do have all the cantrips, counters FOW etc. It seems like meditate and time spiral are the only really expensive cards I would need to get to play this. Is this deck okay? Worth playing? It seems fun
I'm coming into this a little late, how do people feel about Nicol Bolas, the Ravager. He seems fantastic and outside of the running into path or a fatal push that has a fetchland behind it, he is a bruiser with good evasion. He can block mantis rider and other small critters and comes with the free discard. Sorry if I missed this, but were people feeling that the morph cost was prohibitive? Anyone test this and like/dislike it?
I believe that I've been the main proponent of including bolas in grixis so I'll give you the quick TL;DR of my experiences with it. I have been extremely happy with him in my grixis list, even though he started out as just a meme, and have been on two copies for a long time. The way you need to approach thinking of him is as a split card. Part 4/4 wall with a promised 2-for-1 and part cruel ultimatum. Don't think of either part as the primary reason to play him, it's the sum of the parts that makes him quite good. I like that he is a good play on turn four and turn fifteen with the latter being an "I win" button incredibly often. Even against decks like humans, UW or even storm the flip ability is relevant and will win you the game every time in my experience.
You do need to build your deck a touch differently like having some discard to see if tapping out is ok and you can lean on things like AV more since you have a mana dump in case you flood out. All in all he is a great win con and works very well with our plan of whittling down the opponent's hand with snap Kommand and other discard effects perfectly.
Thanks for the great response! Any way I could see your list including him?
I'm coming into this a little late, how do people feel about Nicol Bolas, the Ravager. He seems fantastic and outside of the running into path or a fatal push that has a fetchland behind it, he is a bruiser with good evasion. He can block mantis rider and other small critters and comes with the free discard. Sorry if I missed this, but were people feeling that the morph cost was prohibitive? Anyone test this and like/dislike it?
Hey all. I've been a long time storm player, but made a switch to Reanimator recently due to personal feelings of storm being weaker in the current meta. After running a bunch of BR reanimator to some mild success, I've been playing around with variations of the following 75. Making multiple 4-1's and a 5-0 on mtgo. It's feeling really solid, but thought the variation here could spark some good discussion.
Thoughts behind some of the choices:
Blue Vs. Red:
My friend and I felt blue had more to offer in the sideboard in terms of flexibility. I tried splashing for looting, which works, but ultimately with Arcane Artisan sideboard plan, I wanted more power to go grab basics to stick 3 lands. Also notice 15 lands in the list, to help hitting that 3rd land drop reliably.
Careful study: Faithless looting is by far superior. But study has been a sufficient replacement using Search as the further reach.
Search For Azcanta
I have limited play, but definitely helped in a couple fetches dig for outs. I felt this deck lacks reach sometimes and this seems like a reasonable addition. The ability to bin creatures felt like good synergy.
Echoing Truth
I play this like storm. Usually bouncing problems on the turn prior to going off. Been caught in multiple pieces of hate, and the ability to hit multiples has been very relevant. I avoided Chain of Vapor as I wanted a better answer for Counterbalance and Chalice of the Void
Arcane Artisan
This card is Amazing game 2 and 3. I think I want a fourth. Show and Tell seems like a feasible addition as well being in blue. Maybe its better to have some split of this and Show and Tell for games 2 and 3.
Liliana of the Veil
I wouldn't mind trying to find room for this in the control match ups.
Pack Rat
I like this card and have done well, but Artisan has been much more game breaking.
Seems a pretty good synopsis. I personally have been playing BR and enjoying it, but after getting blown out by sideboard cards in the last few matchups , I am considering attempting to fit some additional alternate win cons in the side instead of running so much Anti-Hate. I think even after sideboard, you want to be a quick proactive deck. Arcane artisan or Show and tell seem to be great for blue. I have been running 2 Stronghold Gambit, but they do a pretty poor impression of blues combo sideboard cards. I have seen Pack Rat and recently BitterBlossom, the latter seems more powerful but more risky. I would love to hear some more ideas. I think from what I see the general consensus seems to be if you have an alternate strategy in BR, it should be a go wide strategy
You cant make assessments about your manabase from 4-6 matches
I'm taking into account all the success I had in many matches with a 24 land mana base prior. I am talking about a different version as well since you are referring to jeskai miracles in your prior response.
The jeskai miracle manabase is very greedy and you should definitely run 25 lands. If you really want to cut a land it would have to be a field of ruin
Secure the wastes has fallen out of favour but it's still decent, weaker with all the sweepers going around though. Generally however I would say that the current UWx decks are so disgustingly good at locking you down once they get going that wincons beyond walker ults and colonnade beats are barely necessary at all
I went with the 25 land build for a store tourney last night and flooded or had to mull due to too many lands every round. I am not on miracles and Field of ruin just felt worthless. I was running four opts, but I will definitely be going back to serum visions. I may try the 25 land version one more time but for me it just felt too durdly to be honest. I guess I would have change my perspective on the 25 land thing. Other than very small percentage points against tron and Celestial Colonnade (although Path to Exile can handle colonnade), what is the really the advantage to running 3 Field of ruin and 25 lands vs 2 Field of ruin and 24 lands. Either way you are running 8 fetches, 5 basics, 5 shocks, 3 celestial colonnade and one glacial fortress or sulfur falls. Doesn't seem to be affecting the mana fixing ability of the deck. Am I missing something? I feel like the deck would be better served with an additional interactive spell than an additional Field of ruin.
Hey all. Getting back into jeskai control. Was playing it a while back. Im gonna do the 25 land list with 3 field and 3 colonnade but i have a few questions. I will be playing 4 opt since i like the option of snapping it back if they do nothing. With 4 cantrips is it safe to cut a land or is the new version still too mana hungry? Also i will not be on the miracles build but will run 2 jace and 2 teferi. Finally should i still be running secure the wastes? The deck seems to have moved away from it in concept
Hate to say it but as a storm player, the deck is absolutely unplayable at the moment. With humans and UW being atrocious matchups and extremely prevelent online and in paper (not to mention a resurgence in burn) and the unrelenting printing of hate cards for an already marginal deck your chances of a game one win and or a game two win are low. Even if you play all the lines to maximum efficiency it takes a ton of luck to succeed. I have played 20 leagues in the past few weeks and despite being skilled with the deck, there is just no respite from the constant bs hurled at you. There is no margin for error and absolutely no way you will make it through a tournament of more than 3 rounds without a loss. I really hope things will change but with wizards printing to hate the mechanic out of the format, there is just no way i will be sleeving the deck up for any upcoming events. Its the honest truth but I want you to know you are not alone in being a fan of a deck that just cant quite get there anymore
With all the crazy fast interactive aggro decks out there these days. I really think eye of ugin should get a second consideration. This may be an unpopular opinion but in a world were you can play two turn one 4/4s and follow it up with a 5/5 and other hasty creatures I dont think its unreasonable. Eldrazi are way less consistant and have no card selection other than mulligans. Eldrazi winter has long since passed and there are so many other stong aggro decks.
With all the crazy fast interactive aggro decks out there these days. I really think eye of ugin should get a second consideration. This may be an unpopular opinion but in a world were you can play two turn one 4/4s and follow it up with a 5/5 and other hasty creatures I dont think its unreasonable. Eldrazi are way less consistant and have no card selection other than mulligans. Eldrazi winter has long since passed and there are so many other stong aggro decks.
I just wanted to post this because I am a long time modern player. I always made decks and had fun. I thought legacy was a dying format and that there was no point because speculaters and the mtg finance crew was making prices untenable. I had this odd longing to try it though. I just loved the wonky art the fun cards from my childhood (I started in Ice Age and was obsessed with "gold cards" but my mom unfortunately threw my collection away during a long haetus while I was at school). I have to say boy am I glad I let nostalgia take hold. I built DnT since I had some of the cards and had a blast with the crazy aether vial interactions. Not to mention it was the cheapest deck. However within the last few weeks I started to realize I should be investing in reserved list cards. I had a lot of miracles stuff since I played it in modern. I had to buy some of the cheap stuff and hunker down and buy the tundras and FoWs. I played my first miracles casual tourney Monday. I went 0-1-2 but hell did I have fun. I am still learning but I plan to sell all my modern stuff and be only a legacy player. At my lgs there were actually as many legacy players as modern but who knew! Anyway I just wanted to share my excitement and hopefully people have similar stories to mine. Much love all!
I think the 4 bauble and 2 faithless looting package in conjunction with street wraiths and thought scour is the better option for turn two. I don't think that the stitcher's supplier really adds any value to the deck
Running 2 brightling in cardboard based on Medea's list from Thraben University. It's been great in testing so far.
Is everyone having the same problem getting hold of them on mtgo? I've only managed to pick up one. A second is proving somewhat difficult,
Tough to get em in paper too. I paid $5 for one last week. Got my second before a casual legacy tourney yesterday. It was the last in stock and it was $20. crazy
He is saying he can do both things, I'm not sure why you think this is so hard. Magicians do this sort of stuff all the time. You must think David Copperfield is a real wizard
warning issued for flaming
Thanks for the great response! Any way I could see your list including him?
Seems a pretty good synopsis. I personally have been playing BR and enjoying it, but after getting blown out by sideboard cards in the last few matchups , I am considering attempting to fit some additional alternate win cons in the side instead of running so much Anti-Hate. I think even after sideboard, you want to be a quick proactive deck. Arcane artisan or Show and tell seem to be great for blue. I have been running 2 Stronghold Gambit, but they do a pretty poor impression of blues combo sideboard cards. I have seen Pack Rat and recently BitterBlossom, the latter seems more powerful but more risky. I would love to hear some more ideas. I think from what I see the general consensus seems to be if you have an alternate strategy in BR, it should be a go wide strategy
I'm taking into account all the success I had in many matches with a 24 land mana base prior. I am talking about a different version as well since you are referring to jeskai miracles in your prior response.
I went with the 25 land build for a store tourney last night and flooded or had to mull due to too many lands every round. I am not on miracles and Field of ruin just felt worthless. I was running four opts, but I will definitely be going back to serum visions. I may try the 25 land version one more time but for me it just felt too durdly to be honest. I guess I would have change my perspective on the 25 land thing. Other than very small percentage points against tron and Celestial Colonnade (although Path to Exile can handle colonnade), what is the really the advantage to running 3 Field of ruin and 25 lands vs 2 Field of ruin and 24 lands. Either way you are running 8 fetches, 5 basics, 5 shocks, 3 celestial colonnade and one glacial fortress or sulfur falls. Doesn't seem to be affecting the mana fixing ability of the deck. Am I missing something? I feel like the deck would be better served with an additional interactive spell than an additional Field of ruin.
Nice I will check it out. I still think eye of ugin at least deserves a second thought to come off the banned list
I think the 4 bauble and 2 faithless looting package in conjunction with street wraiths and thought scour is the better option for turn two. I don't think that the stitcher's supplier really adds any value to the deck
Tough to get em in paper too. I paid $5 for one last week. Got my second before a casual legacy tourney yesterday. It was the last in stock and it was $20. crazy