One of the core issues that hasn't been thoroughly addressed is the fact that a 'turn sideways and beat face' player's best option against an 'I win out of nowhere' combo player is to kill him immediately and mercilessly, preferably with the help of the table. This then results in the near universally agreed upon bad situation of 1 player watching others finish a long game. This is the core concern that I think people are missing, is that the non-combo players are faced with a dilemma: play to win, and gang up on the combo player at the table; or play the social format, and resolve to little if any chance of winning.
There may be arguments about 'running more answers' but at a certain point if you run more answers you need to run less threats; if you run less threats you need your threats to be more potent; if you need your threats to be more potent, the best way to play is to play a combo. The 'run more answers' solution very quickly turns into 'just play a deck like mine, instead' if taken to its logical conclusion.
So, the question to I-win-out-of-nowhere combo players is rather simple: would you rather play archenemy against a table in which, whenever you lose, you end up watching the rest of the table play the game out while you do nothing, or would you rather play something less out-of-nowhere? It really is the combo players decision and if you want to play with your style, more power to you: but don't you dare get upset when you get teamed up on and killed aggressively every game, because the rest of the table has no clue if you're a dozen turns from winning or could win on your next turn and the only safe way for them to play is to assume your win could come imminently and play accordingly.
QFT. This is exactly the problem. My group is about the fun of playing, not neccesarily winning and frowns upon infinite combo to, while strong combo's are considered okay. It's all about the level of interaction. If my opponents uses an overrun to instantly win, then that means he has spend some turns building up a big board presence, which in turn means the other players have had a window of opportunity to deal with it. This interaction is missing against infinite combos: that's just playing solitaire.
Infinite combo in EDH is like bringing a knife to a gun fight. Shooting guns is not wrong or unfun perse, but knife fights aren't the proper place to use them.
Love the concept. I was wondering what to do with Teferi, and this seems like a solid idea.
Would Ertai, Wizard Adept not be a good include as a source of repeatable countering without costing a card? Also, perhaps more lands that tap for more than one mana? Lotus Vale or Scorched Ruins? It will give more mana when Teferi untaps with his ability. And Academy ruins to go with that Unstable Obelisk. I'm also missing Capsize, if only to bounce your own Winter Orb. Last but not least, Sand Silos may have finally found a home.
I don't see the need for Nevinryall's Disk. Blows up too much of your own stuff imo.
Given he is time travel related, like Karn Liberated, makes me think he might have a similar ultimate to Karn, but to save yourself. Something like
Ugin, Spirit Dragon 9
Planeswalker - Ugin
+3: Ugin deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
-2: Exile target permanent
-15: You get an emblem with "If you would lose the game, sacrifice this emblem and end the turn instead. Your life total becomes 20. Shuffle all cards you own into your library, draw 7 cards and take 3 extra turns after this one."
6
Basically, the ultimate inserts your coin to continue.
I was just browsing though (nearly) the entire set, and I felt somewhat disappointed. I was very excited to Return to Ravnica, with the original Ravnica block being the block that pulled me back to playing magic after quitting after Apocalypse.
So yeah, they reprinted the shocklands and yeah, the dedicated postercards for the set are really powerfull and cool, but once you look behind that, the rest of the set seems kind of meh. The creatures cost one or two mana to much to cast, the abilities are prohibitively costed (Scavenge) or nearly useless (Unleash) save for the rare cards that have these abilities. Maybe it's just nostalgia taking over or a 'Everything used to be better' kind of feeling but the original Ravnica block had a lot of commons and uncommons that you would also play in a constructed deck. The good card / gilbic card line has been drawn quite clear through this set, or so it seems.
1
1
QFT. This is exactly the problem. My group is about the fun of playing, not neccesarily winning and frowns upon infinite combo to, while strong combo's are considered okay. It's all about the level of interaction. If my opponents uses an overrun to instantly win, then that means he has spend some turns building up a big board presence, which in turn means the other players have had a window of opportunity to deal with it. This interaction is missing against infinite combos: that's just playing solitaire.
Infinite combo in EDH is like bringing a knife to a gun fight. Shooting guns is not wrong or unfun perse, but knife fights aren't the proper place to use them.
1
1
Would Ertai, Wizard Adept not be a good include as a source of repeatable countering without costing a card? Also, perhaps more lands that tap for more than one mana? Lotus Vale or Scorched Ruins? It will give more mana when Teferi untaps with his ability. And Academy ruins to go with that Unstable Obelisk. I'm also missing Capsize, if only to bounce your own Winter Orb. Last but not least, Sand Silos may have finally found a home.
I don't see the need for Nevinryall's Disk. Blows up too much of your own stuff imo.
1
Ugin, Spirit Dragon 9
Planeswalker - Ugin
+3: Ugin deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
-2: Exile target permanent
-15: You get an emblem with "If you would lose the game, sacrifice this emblem and end the turn instead. Your life total becomes 20. Shuffle all cards you own into your library, draw 7 cards and take 3 extra turns after this one."
6
Basically, the ultimate inserts your coin to continue.
1
3
So yeah, they reprinted the shocklands and yeah, the dedicated postercards for the set are really powerfull and cool, but once you look behind that, the rest of the set seems kind of meh. The creatures cost one or two mana to much to cast, the abilities are prohibitively costed (Scavenge) or nearly useless (Unleash) save for the rare cards that have these abilities. Maybe it's just nostalgia taking over or a 'Everything used to be better' kind of feeling but the original Ravnica block had a lot of commons and uncommons that you would also play in a constructed deck. The good card / gilbic card line has been drawn quite clear through this set, or so it seems.
Do you guys agree or am I just being to negative?