MTG Salvation

If I have a Master Biomancer out, and I cast Fathom Mage, do I draw two cards, one card, or no cards?

My thinking was "one card" because the "draw cards" triggered ability would trigger once even though it's two counters. But, a friend of mine said it would be "no cards" because Biomancer says that the creatures enter the battlefield with the counters. They are not "placed on."

Very underwhelmed by this card, but every set has its ten-cent-rares. I think I would always want some kind of pump spell or enchantment instead of this. It seems like a "win more" card if you're able to get through with that many creatures to make it worthwhile.And, obligatory...

Homer: Five-alarm chili, eh?
Ned: Uh-huh.
Homer: [eats some] One, two… hey, what’s the big idea?
Ned: Oh, I admit it. It’s only two-alarm, two-and-a-half, tops. I just wanted to be a big man in front of the kids.
Todd: Daddy? Are you going to jail?
Ned: We’ll see, son. We’ll see.

If you cut invisible stalker (and therefore all your blue), you could run Rancor instead of Predator's Gambit, and you could run Orchard Spirit or Wandering Wolf in place of the stalker. Just a thought. It looks very strong without any changes.

I went 1-2 with jund midrange -- won against B/R zombies, lost against two bant aggro decks

Jund midrange, but I'm not sure I feel good about it. I've been trying to design some kind of R/G deck with thragtusk and huntmaster of the fells and I was waffling between R/G/U control (with Jace and Tamiyo) or R/G/B midrange (with olivia voldaren, rakdos return, and dreadbore). If I go against a lot of control, I should be fine with R/G/B, but if it's all aggro, all day, I may be wishing I had played R/G/U... what do ya'll think?

Do people here think Huntmaster is essential to the deck? It seems like he has trouble flipping, and if he doesn't do that, he's not contributing enough to the deck (2/2 blockers aren't enough versus something like zombies). Maybe I'm thinking about that wrong?

EDIT: It also seems like G/W tokens are strong, and most of their tokens are going to be 3/3 centaurs. Huntmaster just seems to get owned by that.

A thought -- would you consider playing G/W instead of U/W? You could still protect your elocutors with Ranger's Guile or Rootborn Defenses and you could run real fog effects like Fog or Druid's Deliverance or Clinging Mists or Terrifying Presence or Safe Passage

Running green would also give you a different way of defending yourself. You could run token generators and the two populate cards I mentioned above (rootborn defenses & druid's deliverance) to stall. It could even give you an alternate win condition by just overrunning them with tokens if they Slaughter Games your Elocutors. Just build up the tokens and don't chump block with them until you have the elocutors out.

Also, budget-wise, I'd avoid Detention Sphere (I think the card is a bit overrated anyway) and I'd cut the Jaces for another Tamiyo since it's more in theme.

EDIT: Also, as paronomasiac mentioned above, green would give you access to a little mana accel so you can build up to elocutors quicker.

Sewer Nemesis has always been gigantic when my friend's played it against me...Mortivore is another excellent one.

I would cut curiosity for Mana Leak. It might be helpful vs. board sweepers or combo. I like the Tree of Redemption sideboard

Would comes-into-play triggers occur with The Mimeoplasm?

Shrine of Loyal Legions was absolutely insane last night at the triple phyrexia tournament I went to. I'd have to say I lost because I went up against that card, and because I didn't draft it (picked Porcelain Legionnaire over it). The format is slow enough to allow you to build up like 8 counters.

Gremlin Mine was a lot better than I thought too since it kills phyrexian mana creatures as well as removes counters from shrines.

Right, besides Rage Extractor I have a few notes on what I've seen after looking through the spoiler. This will be my first triple NPH draft tonight.

- Geth's Verdict seems like it isn't that great in this format, since very often it will hit something subpar (I'm talking about a splicer, germ, or a myr token).

- I'm guessing pretty much any creature with phyrexian mana is going to be a high pick. Porcelain Legionnaire locks down the board so well on turn 2 and beyond that it may warrant a first pick many times.

- All of the four mana cost splicers are really great. Reminds me of Ambassador Oak except even better. Maul Splicer seems too slow to matter.

- Undecided about the Trespassing Souleater cycle. They seem like late picks.

- Overall, I'd say the format is going to be incredibly fast based on all of the phyrexian mana cards. My plan (I guess) is to use the phyrexian costs sparingly, as in only when I need to stabilize/control the board in a hurry. Against an infect deck, you just want to absolutely unload on phyrexian mana though, I'd wager.

Great job! You're a really good drafter...I found myself learning a lot from your videos.

Quote from ljossberir

I just had to.

Oh wow, that's terrific! I love the look on his face!

Clearly Glissa the Traitor is going to turn out to be Hillary

I really hope this isn't considered spam but I didn't know where else to post this. Anyway, check this out:


Notice a familiar symbol? Has the Great Work begun?!?!

(my apologies if someone has pointed this out before)