- Sharpened
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Member for 14 years, 8 months, and 28 days
Last active Tue, Feb, 14 2023 23:04:24
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1
DirkGently posted a message on Banning Criteria discussion: Allow players to win out of nowherePersonally I think the #1 reason to ban it wasn't so much "wins out of nowhere" so much as "takes forever to win while everyone else sits there staring at their hands and longing for death".Posted in: Commander Rules Discussion Forum -
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LouCypher posted a message on Which Goblin is the best General?How DO you people keep finding 7 year old threads and still think the discussion is ongoing? Please, enlighten me.Posted in: Commander (EDH) -
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robot posted a message on [[Official]] Unreleased and New Card DiscussionI'm surprised you keep posting to let people know an emblem is better than a permanent. Of course something that cant be interacted with in any way is good. Unfortunately you need to play Serra to get it, so the only way to analyze the emblem is to analyze Serra as well.Posted in: Commander (EDH) -
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Buffsam89 posted a message on Protean HulkWell, to be fair to frogsplosion here, the test was to put hulk into "prexisting" decks, which sounds exactly like what was done.Posted in: Commander Rules Discussion Forum
I'll admit that I to have found difficulty in playing PHulk fairly. It's also warped a few of my groups decks. More blue decks are running Bribery, a card that had almost fallen completely out of favor. Stunt Double and Body Double have also been dropped into some decks that are primarily there to just take advantage of a potential PHulk appearance. And just to be clear, there are currently 7 decks out of 22 that run Hulk in our group.
Now, from my experiences with Hulk, it's almost always an insane value engine, and some of the time a game ender. When I cast into an appropriate board state, and whether I sac it or it dies via Wrath of God, this is where the problem happens. I find myself first trying to find the best value, but after realizing that it will amount to a tidal waves worth of advantage, I go for option 2, which also seems going overboard so then I just end up grabbing a pair of random utility/beaters. While this is totally a fair use, it still doesn't seem "right". By that I mean, if I throw Hulk into a presxisting deck, I wouldn't be making changes to make it better, I'd be making changes to make it worse. Almost all of my Wx decks run Karmic Guide. I recently got my hands on a Sneak Attack, and this was mentioned above with how powerful these 2 are together. I run Natural Order, GSZ, Summoning Pact, etc. in most of the decks I play, so getting it out isn't entirely difficult.
I guess what I'm saying is ive found myself "dumbing down" my decks when I include PHulk, because as my decks currently stand, he's just a combo engine without even trying. We've talked locally about leaving him on the BL, and it will probably end up being the case. I'm sure other groups have varying levels of experience, but my concern is playing with a group of unknowns and being exposed to the types of shenanigans that PHulk can do.
On top of the power he brings, he's also been linked to some abnormally long games due to loops and what not. We had a 3hr game the other night in which protean hulk, or clone/ reanimate of, hit the table roughly ~6 times. It was exhausting and while their were some epic and fair plays, the only thing we can remember is the constant shuffling. Not exactly a memorable experience. -
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Sheldon posted a message on [Discussion] Let's Talk MaRo's Nuggets of InsightI fully support WotC printing cards that players want to buy. I'm sure that every member of R&D wants to make Magic the perfect game and strives every day to make cool and interesting cards. In that, they're an interesting allegory to the format: the key is NOT breaking it. Could R&D print a 1-mana 10/10 Trampler with no drawbacks? Of course they could. They choose not to because they believe in a kind of purity and balance to the game.Posted in: Commander (EDH)
Still, they're a business, and people have to buy their product in order for them to survive. If they made the esoterically perfect set but no one bought it, it wouldn't matter how perfect it is. This is why there are some virtuoso musicians starving while complete hacks make piles of cash. The product has to be accessible to the fan base and the fan base has to be large enough to support the effort.
Is power creep a potential problem? Sure, eventually. Is it the death knell of the format? Not likely. With the raw number of cards available, lateral development is increasingly difficult. Combine that with the fact that they create cards with many formats in mind, I don't find it a sin for the occasional card to be possibly playable in Modern and completely busted in EDH or exactly what EDH needs and unplayable in other formats.
I don't always agree with MaRo, especially when he expresses opinions about this format, but he's a fine human being and I respect the job he's done over the years. I'm willing to give him and the R&D gang quite a bit of leeway when it comes to making cards. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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So you built a deck that was not designed to win and are complaining because the game didn't match you up against the NO other players who were trying to play a game with sub-precon level decks?
The game can only match up people who are actively looking for a game. It can't create opponents playing badly built common only decks for you.
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I think this is the important point that too many people seem not to get. The banlist philosophy is pretty straightforward.
If you want to do broken and unpleasant stuff, they cannot stop you. There are too many powerful cards, and there is no way to police all of them without making the banlist 10 times the size it currently is.
Primeval Titan is banned. Hermit Druid is not.
You can do much more broken things with the druid than with the titan - not close.
But unless your trying to do (and set up for) broken things, the druid is innocuous and tends not to be anything other than a nice card.
The titan, on the other hand, changes/warps/wrecks the game regardless of whether you try and set up silly things or just love his value.
If you want to watch the world burn, the rules committee cannot stop you. Their goal seems to be to remove the most common causes of accidental fires, and it seems to be working well.
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Paradox Engine and Iona banned. Painter's servant freed.
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I think this is the post that somes up what this thread is for.
Reliquary Tower is fantastic at what it does. It's just that what it does is not worth doing most of the time. Sure, the cost is low. But that cost can and will matter, especially if you are not doing something to take advantage of the effect.
A well built manabase is a fantastic thing. Reliquary Tower almost always makes the manabase worse.
If your reason for running Reliquary Tower comes down to "I might...." then you shouldn't be running it. If you just run a lot of card draw and end up with a lot of cards in hand, you still probably shouldn't be running it (You should be figuring out how to better deploy your resources rather than hoard them).
It's not that there aren't uses for the Tower. There are. It's just that they are far rarer than most people believe, and because the cost of running Tower is small (although not as small as it appears), many people run it when they shouldn't.
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Obviously, you can't run a 3 legged race (even with the worlds fastest man as your partner) as fast as you'd run a regular one. But when you do run that race, you still try to run as fast as you can.
Singleton is obviously a limitation. Some people embrace the chaos. Some people do not. Some people take joy in building the most consistent, streamlined deck possible despite the limitation. Some people like decks that play differently every game. Some people search to find a balance.
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You are abusing the program and violating the rules to try and make other people have an unpleasant time without playing or trying to win the game. These forum have rules that forbid me from telling you what I think of you, but I'm sure you can guess.
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Prereleases used to be rare, there may only be 1 or 2 locations in your state that had the prerelease. The cards and what they do were not known (generally speaking, leaks were common). It was a rare, small event to hype the new set and a way to draft going into a format almost completely blind.
Obviously, the current incarnation of Prereleases are nothing like that now.
The current "Prerelease" events are fine, I just fail to see the benefit from separating them from the release. It's not to promote the set, as that information is already out there. It's not to create an environment for people who like drafting a completely unknown format (new =/= unknown).
Drop the "Pre", let people buy their cards that weekend and be done with it. Virtually nothing would change, and everyone would be happier.
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Bazaar decks were a thing, even though dredge wasn't (hello Worldgorger combo)
Workshop decks were a thing, because of course they were - even though chalice, trinisphere and tons of other lock peices didn't exist yet.
Control was viable, in various multicolor forms.
Psychatog was also a major beater in the format.
Here are some 2003 Vintage decklists to give an idea:
3 Duress
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
4 Brainstorm
2 Merchant Scroll
3 Cunning Wish
2 Intuition
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Deep Analysis
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
2 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tropical Island
2 Island
1 Fire / Ice
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Mind Twist
3 Coffin Purge
1 Lim-Dul's Vault
2 Pernicious Deed
1 Artifact Mutation
1 Naturalize
1 Berserk
3 Red Elemental Blast
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Cadet
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Raging Goblin
4 Goblin Piledriver
3 Siege-Gang Commander
Burn and pump (16)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Goblin Grenade
4 Reckless Charge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
Mana (19)
1 Mox Ruby
4 Barbarian Ring
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Volcanic Island
5 Mountain
4 Rack and Ruin
4 Scald
4 Null Rod
3 Blood Moon
4 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Ambassador Laquatus
3 Animate Dead
3 Dance of the Dead
2 Necromancy
Setup (15)
4 Squee Goblin Nabob
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Intuition
3 Compulsion
Counters (4)
4 Force of Will
Others (5)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Rushing River
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
3 Underground River
1 Swamp
1 Island
4 Illusionary Mask
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Phyrexian Negator
3 Tormod's Crypt
4 Goblin Welder
4 Juggernaut
3 Su-Chi
1 Karn Silver Golem
1 Triskelion
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Squee Goblin Nabob
1 Wonder
1 Anger
Other artifacts (7)
3 Sphere of Resistance
3 Tangle Wire
1 Memory Jar
Other spells (7)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
4 Survival of the Fittest
1 Metalworker
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Taiga
3 Tropical Island
2 Forest
2 Blood Moon
3 Bottle Gnomes
2 Elvish Lyrist
1 Flametongue Kavu
2 Rack and Ruin
4 Red Elemental Blast
1 Uktabi Orangutan
Blue (22)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
3 Brainstorm
4 Cunning Wish
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Future Sight
2 Morphling
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Mind Twist
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 The Abyss
3 Duress
White (3)
1 Balance
2 Swords to Plowshares
Mana (27)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
3 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 City of Brass
4 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
1 Island
2 Red Elemental Blast
4 Pyroblast
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Disenchant
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Ebony Charm
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Diabolic Edict
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Do not buy fakes.
I repeat, do not buy fakes.
It's damaging to the game, and the hobby that we all love.
I'm kind of appalled both that you would ask, and the fact that no one here has forcefully condemned the practice.
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So here's a quick rundown of where we are (thats relevant) and how we got here, as far as I can tell:
Mending of Dominaria:
Prior this, planeswalkers were practically gods. Afterwards, they are not. Nicol Bolas is pissed about his downgrade in power, and is scheming to be more powerful.
Gatewatch exists, with the goal of protecting the multiverse-
Gideon, Jace, Nissa, Chandra, Liliana
Kaladesh:
Gatewatch gets requested here by Dovin Baan, and originally refuses, as his concerns are small. Ends up going as a result of it being Chandra's home and Tezzeret being involved.
There's an inventors fair, an uprising led by Chandra's mom, and plenty of other stuff. What matters is that a Planar Bridge is invented, allowing more than individuals to move through planes. Tezzeret steals it, working for Bolas (we know that, right?). Ajani joins the Gatewatch, and the Gatewatch decides to go after Bolas, heading to Amonkhet.
Amonkhet:
Bolas has warped the plane. Turns out, he's created an entire system to kill off the best warriors through a series of trials. They are to be reanimated as his Eternals (specially made to be able to survive travel through the Planar Bridge). He shows up, claims his army, and beats the Gatewatch. Showing up to the fight without a plan was a bad plan. Gatewatch is scattered, Jace's mind is wiped.
Ixalan: (whoops, originally mislabeled this plane)
Jace is here, and gets picked up by Vraska. Vraska is on a mission from Bolas to find something. They work together, become close, and end up finding the Eternal Sun, which is something that locks planeswalkers on a plane. Vraska helps Jace recover his memories, and they realize she's being played by Bolas (he offered to help her make the Golgari powerful), but fears she is screwed. She and Jace decide to play along, so Jace wipes her memories of him and she delivered the Eternal Sun to Bolas.
Dominaria:
Liliana, Chandra, Nissa, and Gideon arrive here. Nissa feels used that the Gatewatch is just killing demons to get Liliana out of her contract, leaves the Gatewatch and peaces out. The other 3 work together and with the Weatherlight crew and protect the plane, killing Lili's last demon. Turns out her contract defaults to Nicol Bolas (oops), and she has no choice but to leave with him. Teferi is restored as a planeswalker and joins up with the Gatewatch.
Ravnica:
There's plenty of chaos as the guildpact (Jace) has been absent. 5 Guilds, led by planeswalkers, are being manipulated behind the scenes by Bolas.
Vraska is working with him because the Golgari are downtrodden.
Dovin Baan found him from investigating Tezz, and he agreed to help him rise in the Azorius.
Kaya has taken over the Orzhov to free them from ghosts.
Ral Zarek is building something with the Izzet.
Domri is now in charge of the Gruul.
Summary:
Bolas has an undead army, a portal to move them, a way to trap planeswalkers, and control of Liliana who has to work for him.
Most of the remaining Gatewatch is together, with Jace the most informed off on his own.
Bolas has worked to prepare Ravnica for his next move.
What did I miss? What else do we need to know before the events of the War of the Spark?