MTG Salvation

Quote from toctheyounger77 »

If it's just retaliation, well, it's probably not the right thing to do.

Yeah, probably not, but I'm apparently playing against guys with decks named '1,001 Board Wipes' and 'Turn 3 Marit Lage,' so if that's the meta, then that's what we're gonna play.

I miss Tiny Leaders so much.

Hello everyone, I'm getting my toes wet in Commander again, since it's the FNM event at my new local store. I played for the first time last week and noticed there was a significant gulf between what I was expecting and what I received.

Six of us showed up, me with a fun huggy Zedruu deck, one guy with the 2017 Cat deck fresh out of the box, another guy with what looked like a serious-ish Vish Kal good stuff deck, and three players curb-stompy duel decks. I naively believed that our six person game would be fun, lengthy, and would give me the opportunity to do a little politicking with Zedruu. Nope. Turn four, one of the curbstomp players busts a combo that picks up 30 cards off the top of her deck and she then Brain Freezes all of us for 156 cards off the top. Before I even got the chance to cast a third spell.

Game 2 saw the player who won previously wandering off to play Pokemon and the five-man game that remained being longer but not much more fun. The other two curbstompy players largely ignored the three of us at the table who did not show up with curbstomp decks, apart from to throw out a board wipe whenever we had the gall to attack either of them. Essentially, they played a duel with three flies buzzing around their heads.

Now that I have the acme of what Commander is going to be like at my new store, I am desirous of something more brutal and competitive than my current fun decks. What's the vilest, most anti-fun commander? I'm talking someone like Baral. Just a complete fun police build.

Oh, you absolutely can't rely on Faith of the Devoted, or any permanent really, these days. But they HAVE to stop it or they're getting it for 4-8 life every turn it's online.

Best read with a Louisiana accent:

BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE PARISH, HEAR MY PLEA!

It is sweet to be holy, but terrible to face the Wrath of God! In order to obtain a place at the side of the King of Kings in Heaven, you must cast aside worldly concerns, command the devil to get behind you, and cycle away all the BLACK CARDS in your hand to show your faith in the Most Holy! Do this, and the eternal or at least a significant portion of life will be yours if you have the Faith of the Devoted!

Translation for people who don't appreciate my shenanigans:

I made this stupid casual deck for a free play and I'm now not allowed to bring it around any more. I thought someone else might be amused by my stupid deck idea. The point is to cycle furiously until you have 4 lands and Faith of the Devoted on the battlefield, then trigger Faith of the Devoted until the enemy is dead. Desperate Castaways and Gifted Aetherborn are there to block and buy you time until the combo goes off, Archfiend of Ifnir and Vile Manifestation are alternate win conditions, though admittedly not very good ones.

Quote from Colt47 »

Quote from Dan_Fendi »

Tocatli Honor Guard seems like a solid choice to meta against this deck.

Even if you run the Honor Guard that only stops the ETB effects. The deck is actually about out-valuing the opposition on the back of The Scarab Gods ability to eternalize creatures into 4/4s. creating a stream of 4/4 flying beaters is still more than enough to end a lot of games, especially in this format where the biggest fliers at 5 cmc are 4/4s themselves.

The tempo of the ETB effects are what really makes this deck work. I can answer the Scarab God all day long, but not if my opponent rips away all my answers and creatures before I can bring them to bear. If I can't out threat him before he can get the Scarab God online, I deserve to lose.

My point is that a 2-mana creature that blanks half the creatures in the deck seems like a threat that merits a kill card the minute it hits play.

Tocatli Honor Guard seems like a solid choice to meta against this deck.

Jesus. I proxied this deck in an attempt to figure out how The Scarab God shot up to $40 over night. This deck doesn't always win, but it never loses a match. Assuming the pilot is pro, the tempo grinds most other decks to dust. The opponent is basically on the back foot from turn two on, assuming a quality draw. Aggro decks seem to have the best chance, but the odds still aren't a sure thing. Combo decks can beat it, but all that means is that a counterspell needs to be held back.

I do not look forward to facing this deck.

So, enchantment destruction and countermagic will kill the combo, but not my rusty understanding of the rules, got it.

If I have Sunbird's Invocation in play and cast Approach of the Second Sun (hereafter referred to as Tango) from my hand, and in the 7 cards I root through find another copy of Approach of the Second Sun (hereafter referred to as Cash), may I resolve Cash first per Sunbird's Invocation's text, then resolve Tango, which, since it was cast from my hand, would fulfill the necessary requirements to get the alternate win condition?

I built a BG Marionette Master deck that used Clues from Tireless Tracker to kill people. This...blows that deck out of the water. I hope this becomes a thing, because MM is my favorite card in Standard and it charts in Top 20 of all time. ::Begins ordering more Tezzerets::

This set was made to sell MTG Arena to 12 year old boys with iPads. They give absolutely 0 ducks if you like the Dinosaur deck or not. This set is the first one going into Magic's version of I Can't Believe It's Not Hearthstone, so that's why it's simple, parasitic, and low on interactions. Years of dodgy business practices are making the growth lines droop for Magic, and they need to figure out how to hook the new generation if they want to keep doing this. Quit yer bellyachin' about how dinosaurs or merfolk or whatever's got your knickers in a twist is the Death of All Fun. Sometimes you have to sit through a Kamigawa to get to a Ravnica.

Combo with Arguel's Blood Fast? Fill your hand, then swap totals and hit'em with something direct/unblockable, like Gonti's Machinations or a flyer?

Hello! I have been thinking about trying harder to be good at Commander so I can play more Magic, and I want to build some decks of my own rather than just playing the Ob Nixilis and Daxos the Returned precons. I have some requests for guidance.

I've never played a 5-color commander deck before, but General Tazri seems very budget friendly, as there are no Ally cards exceeding $5. The real money sink of the deck seems to be the lands, on account of the needing five colors. I'm not excited to be buying Mana Confluences, but there's plenty of decent uncommon lands that provide 2-3 colors, and a few easily acquired rares that produce 5 (like City of Brass). Apart from all that, what would be the best way to go about this, supplementally? Green has the easiest time getting access to other colors, surely, but are there other cards I might consider? Filters, that say things like pay 1 mana of any color, get a black mana? How many creature/artifact helps should I include? Also, it looks like there are three Ally cards that work with Equipment and three that work with Man-Lands. Which do you think would be a good subtheme? There's plenty of great equipment out there, but thanks to BOZ block there are now dual-colored Man-Lands.

The other deck I was thinking about was Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer. Specifically, my thought was to make the deck almost all artifact creatures that cost 3 or less, like Coiled Tinviper or Yotian Soldier. That way, any amount of creatures other than Kadeen himself will trigger his Metalcraft. There are some cards in BOZ block that trigger off of colorless creatures, like Barrage Tyrant, and cards that look for artifact creatures specifically, like Abuna Acolyte . . . are there any other synergies I might not have thought of? Something like Crystal Chimes, but for artifacts instead of enchantments?

Quote from Etherium Sage »

That was just the Gatewatch, and they significantly toned them down in Hour of Devastation. Even then, they didn't punch out any of the Eldrazi titans just like that. Nissa and Chandra cast Channel + Fireball using the mana of an entire plane while keeping Ulamog and Kozilek fully pulled into Zendikar's 3D reality using information given to them by Ugin (a former oldwalker), and while there was a massive hedron network created by oldwalkers that already primed the titans for this strategy. Emrakul had them down for the count on Innistrad, but essentially locked herself up in Innistrad's moon for reasons we have yet to fully know or understand. That might still be considered to be plot armour, but they at least had help.

If the point was to make the Eldrazi seem like timeless infinite unstoppable monsters, then I conceded such a plan should have worked, because I imagine the front and center story goal was probably 'good guys and Liliana win,' but the price should have been everyone but Jace dead, and Jace a babbling lunatic carving Eldrazi heiroglyphs into every flat surface he can find, and even that's pushing it. If you want to have the Gatewatch fight Godzilla and win, great, but don't tell me they can Forest Gump their way into defeating two Great Old Ones that eat gods for breakfast.

But we're getting off track. This is a thread about the Dominaria return.

Quote from Caranthir »

Quote from Dan_Fendi »

I know Jamuraa got the bad end of a lot of things, but I would really like to see Teferi undo what he did and possibly irrevocably screwed up in Invasion block. I'd like to see Zhalfir again.

Unless they retcon it, Zhalfir is lost forever.

I know, that's why I said 'possibly irrevocably.' And I hasten to point out that the current story team plays fast and loose with rules anyway...new planeswalkers are supposed to be weaker and mortal, as opposed to the old planeswalkers, yet they all appear to be able to cast the spell 'Infinite Plot Armor' and use it to punch out Cthulhu-level beings on the reg.