I feel like I am one of the lucky ones with valakut ramp in that MGE doesnt exist in my meta, at this point. Im sure I will see one soon but for now, nothing.
How is the matchup for G1 with MGE for valakut ramp?
Yea I agree with some of the above posters. Just plain test the deck with guys who you normally play with. Find your own balance with the deck and what you like to play. I personally do a couple things different with my deck than say, Conrad Buff, but its because our metas are so different....
How about against White Weenie (not the Quest/Equip version, but the Arbiter/Firewalker version with possibly Sword of Body/Mind)? I had forgotten my original purpose for AiD (to blow out Elfdrazi and WW a turn before they killed me), and I've had problems with a certain guy playing WW in the past. I need to playtest it against this deck, maybe Wurmcoil can do just as well...it could really halt their attacks, but AiD could be the card I need to switch this match in my favor.
Ahhh well then. I cant really say much. My meta plays mostly white weenie equipment versions so its meh. It does blow out the Elfdrazi or any elf deck for that matter so it may be worth it just for that.
Reviving this thread for people's opinions. All is Dust served me well in the past but I fear its failing to impress post-Scars (along with the Baloth). I see less lists running it in the sideboard these days, and with many more artifacts it is no where near the aggro-killer it used to be. Can kill Jaces/Slayers/Titans against U/W if you play around counters, though, and this control matchup is beginning to frighten me more and more for some reason. Thoughts?
Hmmm I personally don't like all is dust too much anymore. Most of the decks that I would use it against have added artifacts to the point where it doesnt seem like itd be too effective. U/W control is the place where I would think itd have the biggest impact as well but I am waiting to test against a solid U/W deck.
Personally, I like the wurmcoil a lot more than the inferno titan. From my playtesting and FNM games, I noticed that dropping the wurmcoil against lets say, white weenie, was devastating. They wouldnt swing at me because more than likely, they would lose one weenie, and any damage that hit me was almost negated due to the lifelink.
ok , what if I went
-4 lightning bolt
-1 heart expedition
+4 overgrown battlement
+1 cultivate
iss that better?
and maybe I could put another avenger in place of kozilek
I really put him in there for the decks I seen running SoBaM I think the milling would hurt if it took out lands, threats etc...
for my land
-1 raging ravine
+1 evolving wilds
this will bring it up to 6 fetches.
with out the harrow+epedition combo tho I guess turn 4 titan will be more reliable on something like
turn 1 land
turn 2 land overgrown battlement
turn 3 land explore land cultivate land
turn 4 land titan
hmmmm seems a bit more stable, didnt realize this till now
Sounds a lot better but I would personally keep the bolts in over the pyroclasm unless aggro is THAT big of a deal. By turn 4 you should have a bomb in play and I doubt they will have THAT much in play but who knows. Also a mill deck will maindeck leyline so your graveyard wont exist. After game 1, you can side in the kozilek if you think they sided out the leyline.
Im fairly new to valakut as well but I notice some BIG issues with your decklist, and the main issue is your land spread. I literally made my valakut deck 3 days ago and played in FNM the other night, placing 2nd. Aka, I dont have much experience BUT, I can tell you the following:
You need to have atleast 12 green sources from land. You at the moment have 10 if you count the ravine. Personally, I would say swap a mountain for a forest, and then cut a card from the deck to get to 27 lands and make one of them either a wild or an expanse. 26 lands is too few in my opinion and the green sources are too few as well
Also, run 4 cultivates. You think harrow is better, and that is perfectly fine, but still 4 cultivates is the way to go. If your meta is so very aggro heavy, drop the kozilek and put in another inferno or a wurmcoil (aggro hates wurmcoil). Also, I suggest dropping the khalni hearts since its such an aggro heavy meta. Drop the 4 hearts and the kozilek, and add a cultivate, an expanse, and 3 more bombs (inferno or wurmcoil or avenger).
Again, this may be horrible advice so wait for someone to call me out or support it. Good luck!
A friend at the local store wanted some altered bolts. Got a stack of them and just did some quick alters. A playset for him and a playset for trade (probably already pending).
Anywho, here they are:
Got another stack of 11 bolts to alter in another fashion. I know bolt alters are overrated but hey, they wanted em.
I decided to give this a shot and installed a life counter mechanism in there:
I learned that I should use a new blade. My current XACTO knife blade is very dull and thus the edges arent very clean. I also gotta find some better beads. Thanks for looking!
Here are a few more alters I did last week. Finally posting them.
First up are 2 Wild Nacatl. One was for a guy at the store and the other one is for my random collection. I think they were decently done but I need to spend some more time color matching on some parts:
Next up is a Putrid Leech that I did from a tutorial article I saw online. I didnt follow his exact color matching suggestions but the idea is the same:
Finally is an alter of my favorite card, Goldenglow Moth. I personally believe this is my best alter:
I personally have blanked cards using the eraser method which takes some time but works just fine. Acetone will work a lot faster but I have never done it, just heard.
I say if you have the time, erase away since there is less of a chance of messing up and I personally don't like to use chemicals.
Over the past couple of days, I have done a few more alters.
First up is an oblivion ring from Lorwyn. I did a simple borderless alter by extending the black on the bottom half and the green/blue for the top and sides. Overall, wasn't difficult but I liked how it turned out.
Second is another oblivion ring but this time from Shards. Also a simple alter:
The third card is a daze with a partial alter to have the "bubbles" extended throughout the card. My friend suggested this one and told me he saw one online, most likely from cardkitty:
Finally, I did a second copy of my first Akroma alter. I did this for a person at the shop I play at. The card was VERY beaten up so this alter makes the card more aesthetically pleasing for sure:
After my last post of cards, I got a few PMs of suggestions and decided to continue altering some more cards. I have quite a few here, some of which I saw versions of online and decided to try my own to practice.
First are 2 lightning bolts:
This one was supposed to look like the bolt extended and started burning the card, unfortunately, I dropped some water on it and the colors smeared a bit. I tried to fix it but just gave up:
The second bolt just has a simple extension and addition of lightning:
I saw a moonglove changeling way back in the day sometime and remembered it looked easy to alter if I found a way to color match, so I tried it:
As with the moonglove, the kathari remnant was the same color match practice:
The next few cards were done just because they looked fun: Sorceror's Strongbox:
Finally, I altered a playset of wild nacatl because this true warrior should not be rocking little daggers. I have a few more nacatls that I am working on and finally a foil that will have altered grass and swords:
Thanks for looking guys! Again, ANY and ALL comments and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is appreciated. Please pm or post Thanks!
Hey guys! I first want to say, this thread is AMAZING! The artwork is truly beautiful and very enjoyable to look at. That being said, I decided to start altering cards myself.
Some history about my painting ability: I have none. I have done ceramics/pottery for 6 years now but aside from the elementary school watercolor projects in which a well drawn person was a mere stick figure, I have no painting experience. I have admired alternate arts for as long as I can remember but never had the opportunity or cash flow to buy them. A friend suggested I start trying to alter as everyone starts somewhere.
Anywho, I ran to michaels and got some brushes and borrowed some acryllic paint from the same friend. I started altering on Friday (2 days ago) and since then have altered 4 cards that I REALLY want some feedback on.
My very first alter is a Seething Song. I kept the name, mana cost, and flavor text then extended the rest, or atleast attempted to. Please let me know. I was going to try and keep the little volcanic mountain landscape under the lava but it wasn't looking pretty. I must also say, this idea WAS NOT MINE, I googled a picture of an altered seething song quite a while ago and did this up from what I remembered of that one:
The next morning, I decided to alter a Mayael the Anima. I use her as my general for EDH so I figured, why not? I was a little worried since this was my only mayael but I went with it. Again, I saw this mayael on an auction at some point I believe. I was loving every part of the card until I did the flower in the middle right. I just could not get the depth perspective correct on it. Please do let me know:
That afternoon I had another bit of spare time and decided to alter a Shock. Burn spells seem easy to alter if all I wanted to do is extend the flame. Shock, naturally, seemed really easy so I went with it. I think it turned out well. I painted over all of the original flame to make sure the card blended well. Is that a good thing to do or no?:
Finally, this morning, I decided to alter an Inner Fire. This was another red flame extension similar to shock but I had a lot more fun doing it. I plan to go back and fix some of the lines as they seems jagged but then again I also like the look of the jagged edges since it is fire :/ Here it is:
Thanks for reading through all of that. ANY and ALL comments are appreciated. I really do wish to get better and thoroughly enjoyed these first few. Thanks again!
Changed it just now to what I actually played.
I really love that SoBaM! Amazing! The others are very nicely done as well but that wolf is just mmmmm.
How is the matchup for G1 with MGE for valakut ramp?
Ahhh well then. I cant really say much. My meta plays mostly white weenie equipment versions so its meh. It does blow out the Elfdrazi or any elf deck for that matter so it may be worth it just for that.
Hmmm I personally don't like all is dust too much anymore. Most of the decks that I would use it against have added artifacts to the point where it doesnt seem like itd be too effective. U/W control is the place where I would think itd have the biggest impact as well but I am waiting to test against a solid U/W deck.
Sounds a lot better but I would personally keep the bolts in over the pyroclasm unless aggro is THAT big of a deal. By turn 4 you should have a bomb in play and I doubt they will have THAT much in play but who knows. Also a mill deck will maindeck leyline so your graveyard wont exist. After game 1, you can side in the kozilek if you think they sided out the leyline.
You need to have atleast 12 green sources from land. You at the moment have 10 if you count the ravine. Personally, I would say swap a mountain for a forest, and then cut a card from the deck to get to 27 lands and make one of them either a wild or an expanse. 26 lands is too few in my opinion and the green sources are too few as well
Also, run 4 cultivates. You think harrow is better, and that is perfectly fine, but still 4 cultivates is the way to go. If your meta is so very aggro heavy, drop the kozilek and put in another inferno or a wurmcoil (aggro hates wurmcoil). Also, I suggest dropping the khalni hearts since its such an aggro heavy meta. Drop the 4 hearts and the kozilek, and add a cultivate, an expanse, and 3 more bombs (inferno or wurmcoil or avenger).
Again, this may be horrible advice so wait for someone to call me out or support it. Good luck!
Anywho, here they are:
Got another stack of 11 bolts to alter in another fashion. I know bolt alters are overrated but hey, they wanted em.
I learned that I should use a new blade. My current XACTO knife blade is very dull and thus the edges arent very clean. I also gotta find some better beads. Thanks for looking!
First up are 2 Wild Nacatl. One was for a guy at the store and the other one is for my random collection. I think they were decently done but I need to spend some more time color matching on some parts:
Next up is a Putrid Leech that I did from a tutorial article I saw online. I didnt follow his exact color matching suggestions but the idea is the same:
Finally is an alter of my favorite card, Goldenglow Moth. I personally believe this is my best alter:
Thanks for looking!
I say if you have the time, erase away since there is less of a chance of messing up and I personally don't like to use chemicals.
First up is an oblivion ring from Lorwyn. I did a simple borderless alter by extending the black on the bottom half and the green/blue for the top and sides. Overall, wasn't difficult but I liked how it turned out.
Second is another oblivion ring but this time from Shards. Also a simple alter:
The third card is a daze with a partial alter to have the "bubbles" extended throughout the card. My friend suggested this one and told me he saw one online, most likely from cardkitty:
Finally, I did a second copy of my first Akroma alter. I did this for a person at the shop I play at. The card was VERY beaten up so this alter makes the card more aesthetically pleasing for sure:
Thanks for looking!
First are 2 lightning bolts:
This one was supposed to look like the bolt extended and started burning the card, unfortunately, I dropped some water on it and the colors smeared a bit. I tried to fix it but just gave up:
The second bolt just has a simple extension and addition of lightning:
I saw a moonglove changeling way back in the day sometime and remembered it looked easy to alter if I found a way to color match, so I tried it:
As with the moonglove, the kathari remnant was the same color match practice:
The next few cards were done just because they looked fun:
Sorceror's Strongbox:
Finally, I altered a playset of wild nacatl because this true warrior should not be rocking little daggers. I have a few more nacatls that I am working on and finally a foil that will have altered grass and swords:
Thanks for looking guys! Again, ANY and ALL comments and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is appreciated. Please pm or post
Some history about my painting ability: I have none. I have done ceramics/pottery for 6 years now but aside from the elementary school watercolor projects in which a well drawn person was a mere stick figure, I have no painting experience. I have admired alternate arts for as long as I can remember but never had the opportunity or cash flow to buy them. A friend suggested I start trying to alter as everyone starts somewhere.
Anywho, I ran to michaels and got some brushes and borrowed some acryllic paint from the same friend. I started altering on Friday (2 days ago) and since then have altered 4 cards that I REALLY want some feedback on.
My very first alter is a Seething Song. I kept the name, mana cost, and flavor text then extended the rest, or atleast attempted to. Please let me know. I was going to try and keep the little volcanic mountain landscape under the lava but it wasn't looking pretty. I must also say, this idea WAS NOT MINE, I googled a picture of an altered seething song quite a while ago and did this up from what I remembered of that one:
The next morning, I decided to alter a Mayael the Anima. I use her as my general for EDH so I figured, why not? I was a little worried since this was my only mayael but I went with it. Again, I saw this mayael on an auction at some point I believe. I was loving every part of the card until I did the flower in the middle right. I just could not get the depth perspective correct on it. Please do let me know:
That afternoon I had another bit of spare time and decided to alter a Shock. Burn spells seem easy to alter if all I wanted to do is extend the flame. Shock, naturally, seemed really easy so I went with it. I think it turned out well. I painted over all of the original flame to make sure the card blended well. Is that a good thing to do or no?:
Finally, this morning, I decided to alter an Inner Fire. This was another red flame extension similar to shock but I had a lot more fun doing it. I plan to go back and fix some of the lines as they seems jagged but then again I also like the look of the jagged edges since it is fire :/ Here it is:
Thanks for reading through all of that. ANY and ALL comments are appreciated. I really do wish to get better and thoroughly enjoyed these first few. Thanks again!