Thanks for the input thus far! One thing I forgot to mention in OP: Obviously I am also interested in your experiences with Scavenger Grounds, if you have played with that card.
I am in the process of updating my decks to include a bit more graveyard hate. For this reason I ordered a bunch of Scavenger Grounds and now I am going through my decks looking for something to cut for these lands. I do not want to play excessively many colorless utility lands in decks with more than two colors, so I am considering other utility lands as potential cuts.
Do you have experiences with these cards? How would you rate them? Do you jam some of them (like Reliquary Tower) into any deck, or not play them at all, or only in specific strategies?
My cousin. He is not active in any online communities or shares decks online, but he is the most genius deckbuilder that I know. Over the years that we have been playing together he has built a plethora of delightfully creative and strong, synergistic masterpieces. My current favorite? Varina, Lich Queen omnitribal which combines Amoeboid Changeling and Unnatural Selection with things like Swarmyard, Mercenary Informer and Spirit Mirror.
I have thought about this a lot recently, and I am wondering if there is a dominant strategy among the three strategies mentioned by OP irrespective of the decks present at the table. Do you have a default attack pattern in EDH? What are your experiences?
There are some interesting webpages that you stumble on when you accidentally enter MTGD instead of mtgs into your taskbar... http://www.medicagogenome.org/
Today was a good day. After a couple of weeks in the countryside without access to Magic or the internet, I got back to my old home city today and decided spontaneously to buy a couple of packs at a Müller store in the city center (a large retail store, comparable to Walmart). I bought two packs from M19 and two packs from Hour of Devastation, while thinking about how buying booster packs is a bit like buying lottery tickets. Opened a Crucible of Worlds and an Invocation Through the Breach.
And as if this wasn't enough, one of my best friends who works as a gaming journalist interviewed Richard Garfield today and got me a signed, personalised copy of Richard Garfield, Ph.D.. A good day indeed.
Worst is subjective. If I find a deck does not do what I want. I take it apart. Sometimes a deck does not survive a single night (only reason it makes it home intact, I am not dismantling it at the store)
Pretty much this. I have a couple of decks lying around on the chopping block, waiting to be taken apart. I found that I do not enjoy playing them, either because they don't do what I want them to do, or because they keep underperforming in terms of powerlevel, or because their general strategy got stale or unexciting. The decks of mine that I do enjoy playing are all on a similar powerlevel (not cutthroat, but strong enough to keep up with most "fair" decks).
- Scoop only in sorcery speed
- Try not to play combo decks
- We abondoned the bannlist save for several cards like solring and prophet of krulphix, so don't abuse the other ones too hard.
- You may take back actions as long as no new information was revealed
- You may take upkeep triggers even after you drew a card if it was obvious you'd be going to use them (Like paying for pacts, or "upkeep may draw a card"
- If you forgot a forced trigger and new information was revealed you have to take the worst outcome for you
- As long as your land count't isn't below 34, you may basicly stop mulligaining at 5 scry 1, so you don't need to start with 2 or 3 cards (as long as its not abused)
- Unwritten Rule: Pacts made are quite binding, we had broken pacts 2 times in the last several years^^
Thanks! What do you mean by "try not to play combo decks"?
So, I am working as a mason over the summer until uni classes start again. I am living on my Grandma's farm with barely any internet until October, in the deep rural south of Germany. On the one hand, it is a very rewarding experience and super good for my mental health. On the other hand, I got some deck ideas yesterday and kind of really want to build and test these decks and order the cards now. Ah well.
How do you handle house rules in your playgroup (if you have any)? Are they more like loose social conventions (e.g. land destruction and infinity combos are generally frowned upon and no one builds decks with that because they don't want to cause groans or bad blood), or do you have strict rules (e.g. land destruction and combos are expressly forbidden by some sort of explicit agreement)? Or do you even have certain in-game house rules, such as "Basic lands are indestructible", "Sol Ring can't be cast before turn 3" or "If a combo could be repeated infinitely, the player may only repeat it X number of times."? How did you come up with the rules? Are there disputes about how to apply the house rules? If so, how do you resolve these disputes?
EDIT: To clarify, I am not asking so much about which specific house rules you have (although you are welcome to give examples or otherwise elaborate) but rather about the character of your house rules. How strictly are they codified?
I do not have extremely strong preferences for certain archetype over others. However, Ireally really enjoy seeing archetypes in colors they do not usually appear in. For instance, two of my favourite decks currently are Mathas, Fiend Seeker spellslinger and Jeskai Blink (lists in my sig). A friend of mine had a cool Temur land matters deck, Varina, Lich Queen Omnitribal and a Gisela, Blade of Goldnight deck that wins with Pariah and Boros Reckoner effects. Another friend has a monogreen spellslinger deck. I enjoy these decks as they are new and underplayed strategies in their colors.
I am interested in hearing your experiences with Homeward Path, Detection Tower, Arcane Lighthouse, Reliquary Tower, Temple of the False God and Myriad Landscape. I am especially interested in your experiences with the first three. For instance, I have been playing Homeward Path in my Riku of two Reflections deck since the deck's creation seven years ago but I cannot remember a single instance where Homeward Path was actually useful. Now obviously this might be very meta dependent, but I am looking to get a bit of anecdotal data about the average effectiveness of these cards in your personal experience. I personally haven't been playing with Detection Tower and Arcane Lighthouse long enough to have reliable in game experiences. Also, I am fairly high on Temple of the False God, whereas Myriad Landscape has sometimes been a bit too slow for my taste.
Do you have experiences with these cards? How would you rate them? Do you jam some of them (like Reliquary Tower) into any deck, or not play them at all, or only in specific strategies?
In other news, I tried Arena today for the first time. I am actually pleasantly surprised. Might do a draft there every once in a while.
And as if this wasn't enough, one of my best friends who works as a gaming journalist interviewed Richard Garfield today and got me a signed, personalised copy of Richard Garfield, Ph.D.. A good day indeed.
EDIT: To clarify, I am not asking so much about which specific house rules you have (although you are welcome to give examples or otherwise elaborate) but rather about the character of your house rules. How strictly are they codified?