I like to think of it as players wanting to avoid modern-legality confusion, so they use modern framed cards. Shatterstorm and Hurkyl's Recall are other good examples.
GDS3 does seem the most likely possibility at this point. He's said in the past that they wouldn't do another GDS until they had an open slot to fill. Does anyone know if any Magic designers have left recently?
Apparently people cannot read today. Zegana has a replacement effect, so if Kruphix is already not a creature, as in "If Zegana is activating Kruphix", then Zegana does not "see" Kruphix when entering the battlefield.
I have an opportunity to buy a playset of Japanese Mox Diamond for $90 and Japanese Non-Foil Grim Monolith for $80, in LP/NM conditions. For strictly speculation purposes - is this a good deal? Ebay seems to scream yes, magiccardmarket says meh. Would appreciate an input.
The deck can turn into a midrange deck off a Cascade into Entering" target="blank">Entering (Breaking/Entering). By cycling Eternal Dragon on Turn 2, by Turn 3 you can have a 5/5 flying dragon on the battlefield attacking! (6/6 with Ardent Plea). Shriekmaw and Aethersnipe all are solid removal/beaters that also don't interfere with Cascade.
I haven't tested the deck yet, but it looks pretty good in theory. Probably could use a little more removal / draw / lifegain which I delegated to the sideboard for the time being. I'd appreciate some intelligent suggestions and insight to make the deck more consistent.
I'm slightly confused by glacial chasm... You don't get priority during the untap step, so you can't play spells or abilities and can't print off creatures or lay down land. So if you end with sundial before the cumulative upkeep happens, you avoid the penalty, but also aren't advancing your position at all?
Glacial Chasm was a suggestion only if you included some of my other suggestions. It's a catch-all protection that keeps you safe while you ping them to death.
The point of Dimir Aqueduct and Growth Chamber is that if I only get 3 lands in the first 5 turns, I can end up with 4 or 5 mana still, instead of 3.
Yes, but in that scenario you can end up with an opening hand of double bounceland (11~15% likelihood). I see that you've reduced them down to 4 which is much better than 8. Dimir Aqueduct also works well with Sundial to get around the drawback.
Consider an island + 2 lands that comes in tapped and then only provides one mana, such as halimar depths. Halimar has awesome utility, and I do plan to add it, but it is slower and less card advantage (by itself, not taking its ability into consideration, I mean) than dimir aqueduct. Two halimar + an island would go like this by mana vailable per first three turns: U (island) U (halimar, but tapped) UU (second halimar goes down tapped, first one becomes available)
versus if i start with an island and then bounce a simir growth chamber: U (island) U (use the island before bouncing it, then lay down dimir) BUU (dimir becomes available and you also play your island again)
...so faster, just as much blue mana, AND only takes up 2 spaces in my hand thus creating basically a +1 card advantage at the same time.
This still doesn't fix the tempo loss for a combo deck. You need 2 mana on turn 2, and you don't have any 1-mana plays so that "using the island before bouncing" trick doesn't even matter. Also you can't compare a situation where you draw 2 Halimar Depths in one hand with Double Bounceland...the odds of drawing 2 Halimar Depths are much lower. Either way since you removed 4 bouncelands this is a fixed problem. Moving on...
I tested and logged the results extensively, and that single change made the combo ready to go on turn 7.4 on average versus turn 9.6 on average, and very little by way of inconvenience in early plays usually.
Not convinced that adding bouncelands made a deck combo off 2.2 turns earlier than before. If that was the case then everybody should be using these.
Actually the reason I have those cards is because I've used that deck before, almost the exact same as the one as you listed. Yes, 4/5 times it won, but it seemed to bore me. I just want to try something new, if that makes sense.
Well this is insulting. Why wouldn't you say something like that in your first post before somebody wastes their time having to look up each card individually?
The deck might not be consistent enough - I wish there was some more draw for the deck. You'll have to search for Liquimetal Coating aggressively using the Faithless Looting and Ichor Wellspring (you'll have to destroy the Wellspring with your own cards - i.e. Phyrexia's Core).
A combo-control deck might be difficult for a new player to play with, but once you get the hang of it, the deck is a lot of fun.
Edit: OP apparently likes to waste other people's time.
2. Lifetap is not a good card, period. The life you gain against green creature decks will quickly be offeset by attacking creatures.
3. You're not fully taking advantage of a Fabricate toolbox with only 2 targets in the deck. As you say, you need more ways to kill creatures in this deck. A classic combination is Prodigal Sorcerer + Deathtouch. Try out artifacts like Basilisk Collar or Gorgon Flail. If you go this route you'll need more cards like Prodigal Sorcerer.
Last one IIRC was Billy Moreno last year.
Relevant Ruling: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-rulings/549308-zegana-gods-devotion-question
And Kruphix has 4 power. What world are you in?
Rishadan Port (Spanish) - $70 and Cryptic Command (Portuguese) - $23? These are still in pre-spike prices.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=319030
I highly recommend Head Games or Jester's Mask.
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Godless Shrine
2 Temple Garden
4 Sunken Ruins
4 Vivid Creek
1 Shelldock Isle
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Nephalia Drownyard
1 Volrath's Stronghold
4 Vedalken Mastermind
4 Shardless Agent
4 Eternal Dragon
4 Shriekmaw
4 Aethersnipe
2 Eternal Witness
Sorcery 8
4 Breaking // Entering
4 Glimpse the Unthinkable
Enchantments 4
4 Ardent Plea
Planeswalkers 2
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
2 Fiend Hunter
2 Captured Sunlight
1 Consuming Aberration
1 Jester's Scepter
1 Pack Hunt
4 Aluren
4 Cavern Harpy
The deck can turn into a midrange deck off a Cascade into Entering" target="blank">Entering (Breaking/Entering). By cycling Eternal Dragon on Turn 2, by Turn 3 you can have a 5/5 flying dragon on the battlefield attacking! (6/6 with Ardent Plea). Shriekmaw and Aethersnipe all are solid removal/beaters that also don't interfere with Cascade.
I haven't tested the deck yet, but it looks pretty good in theory. Probably could use a little more removal / draw / lifegain which I delegated to the sideboard for the time being. I'd appreciate some intelligent suggestions and insight to make the deck more consistent.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=273810
Haven't played with it in a while, but I recall it was fun.
Devoted Druid is a great card that ramps to a Turn 3 Pattern of Rebirth and can destroy itself at the same time.
Glacial Chasm was a suggestion only if you included some of my other suggestions. It's a catch-all protection that keeps you safe while you ping them to death.
Yes, but in that scenario you can end up with an opening hand of double bounceland (11~15% likelihood). I see that you've reduced them down to 4 which is much better than 8. Dimir Aqueduct also works well with Sundial to get around the drawback.
This still doesn't fix the tempo loss for a combo deck. You need 2 mana on turn 2, and you don't have any 1-mana plays so that "using the island before bouncing" trick doesn't even matter. Also you can't compare a situation where you draw 2 Halimar Depths in one hand with Double Bounceland...the odds of drawing 2 Halimar Depths are much lower. Either way since you removed 4 bouncelands this is a fixed problem. Moving on...
Not convinced that adding bouncelands made a deck combo off 2.2 turns earlier than before. If that was the case then everybody should be using these.
Well this is insulting. Why wouldn't you say something like that in your first post before somebody wastes their time having to look up each card individually?
Here is a red combo-control deck with a green splash:
Liquimetal ComboMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Lands 24
Artifacts 9
The idea is to utilize Liquimetal Coating to turn something your opponent controls into an artifact, and then destroy it with Manic Vandal, Ancient Grudge, or Hoard-Smelter Dragon. You can even destroy lands this way! Liquimetal Coating also helps you meet Metalcraft requirements for Galvanic Blast and Kuldotha Phoenix.
16 Mountain
2 Buried Ruin
2 Phyrexia's Core
4 Transguild Promenade
Creatures 13
4 Perilous Myr
4 Manic Vandal
3 Kuldotha Phoenix
2 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
4 Liquimetal Coating
4 Ichor Wellspring
1 Spine of Ish Sah
Spells 14
2 Faithless Looting
4 Ancient Grudge
3 Shock
4 Galvanic Blast
1 Flames of the Firebrand
The deck might not be consistent enough - I wish there was some more draw for the deck. You'll have to search for Liquimetal Coating aggressively using the Faithless Looting and Ichor Wellspring (you'll have to destroy the Wellspring with your own cards - i.e. Phyrexia's Core).
A combo-control deck might be difficult for a new player to play with, but once you get the hang of it, the deck is a lot of fun.
Edit: OP apparently likes to waste other people's time.
1. You can achieve the same thing with Sundial of the Infinite which is also fetchable via Muddle the Mixture. This should open up a lot more space in the deck.
2. Lifetap is not a good card, period. The life you gain against green creature decks will quickly be offeset by attacking creatures.
3. You're not fully taking advantage of a Fabricate toolbox with only 2 targets in the deck. As you say, you need more ways to kill creatures in this deck. A classic combination is Prodigal Sorcerer + Deathtouch. Try out artifacts like Basilisk Collar or Gorgon Flail. If you go this route you'll need more cards like Prodigal Sorcerer.
4. Psionic Blast could be a decent removal card.
5. I don't understand the need for Dimir Aqueduct and Simic Growth Chamber. You have crucical plays on Turn 2, and these are not good as they will slow you down in the early game. I suggest utility lands in place of them, like Desert, Quicksand, Halimar Depths, or Glacial Chasm which works quite well with Sundial of the Infinite.
Hope something in there helped.