In my experiences, they seem to be a more common rare card. I cracked a box with 5 in it and at the prerelease, there were man-lands all over the place. But I agree, they are way undervalued at the moment.
Once everyone gets off the Stoneforge Mystic kick and gobble them all up, they'll realize Jund still wrecks them and then Raging Ravine will go up (but that's a discussion for another thread). I doubt any of them will be consistently above $10 though so don't expect to make a fortune investing on them now.
I wasn't expecting to make a fortune or anything .. I wanted to have a playset of each because I think they're fantastic cards, and I was excited to pick them up for cheap.
Regarding the earlier comparison to mutavault and treetop village, I think they are trying to do different things. These are mana fixers that happen to turn into beefy creatures late-game. Treetop and Mutavault are early beaters that strain your mana base by either giving you a single-color tapped land or not giving you any color at all. The new manlands, in my eyes, are dual lands first with a huge late-game perk. If the format slows down at all I think they will become even more powerful.
I cracked a couple boxes of Worldwake to get a good pool of cards to work with, and one of the things I was most excited about was the man lands. ended up getting 4 B/U, 3 W/U, 2 R/G, 2 B/R and no G/W's. I hopped on eBay to purchase the ones I didn't come up with .. and holy crap, the're still cheap. Is there a reason these are priced so low? They are at the very least as good as the M10 lands, and it could easily be argued that they are better. I would have thought that they'd come out of the gates around $10. I was picking the ones I needed up for $4 apiece. I mean, it's awesome that I didn't have to shell out much, but am I completely off in my assessment of them? I can't wait to play with these things.
Shutting down fetchlands is a very underrated ability.
I don't think it's underrated. The issue with that is that you have to guess guess which fetch is in their hand. If you drop one while a fetch is on the board, they're just going to crack it in response. If you call arid mesa and they don't have one, you just gave them card advantage with a complete blank on the board. There might be an occasion where you guess right and mana screw them, but that is probably the exception rather than the rule.
Pithing Needle is a decent card, no doubt, and against some threats it's one of the better options. The thing that keeps it from being used more is that it is a "do nothing" card. At its best it is a 1 for 1 answer, occasionally shutting off multiple permanents, but I don't think you can count on that. The problems that it has is that, like oblivion ring, it has to stay in play to continue to be an answer. Additionally, it doesn't "destroy" anything. Naming a planeswalker will shut down a card completely, but those other options you mentioned just reduce functionality. Naming a man-land still leaves them with a dual land. Naming a knight of the reliquary still gives them a beater, even a substantial one if they have been throwing fetches in the yard. Unearth creatures already were used once. It generates no card advantage, and it costs you a card just to stall one of theirs or gimp it.
I think the best uses for pithing needle are going to be against jace decks, or in a deck that can bounce them with something like kor skyfisher, in order to keep them relevant. It's good, but I don't think it can be considered a catch-all for random stuff. Your sideboard cards should be hopefully be a bit more potent against as many of the expected metagame weaknesses as possible. If time sieve combo makes a comeback along with jace decks, I think the needle will start landing in more sideboards.
So if he'd played Hell's Thunder first it would've been game. Path would've enabled Searing Blaze for 3, and Punishing Fire would deal the rest. Damn, I was so routing for the red deck.
Not quite. At the point where he cast Hell's Thunder, he tapped 3 of his four lands. The path land comes into play tapped so he had no chance to cast searing blaze alongside it. There were a couple turns where he needed to draw a land to win and he didn't.
I was thinking that too. Evan Erwin predicted it quite some time ago on twitter, and it was speculated numerous times in this very thread as well.
Here's my prediction. There are only three abilities and they are either very wordy and required more of a text box, or the proportions on the gigantic card are simply off by a bit.
buy common/uncommon x4 sets of shards/conflux/reborn (you can get all three for under $100), then get 2 M10 boxes and 2 Zendikar boxes. This will get you a great foundation of cards to work from. Most of the rares from the alara block are relatively inexpensive, with far less value overall than m10/zen. You can either pick up singles as needed or trade for them.
Yesterday I attended the SCG 5k Standard tourney in St. Louis, as it's only a couple of hours from here. This was my first major tournament, aside from States which had a fairly different vibe.
I'd first like to say that the Starcitygames.com crew was awesome. The whole process felt very professional and well-handled, they had tons of judges that were all more than happy to help with various questions, and the card buyers/sellers were fantastic. Everything felt very organized.
Being my first major event, it was really cool seeing some of the names I've read articles or tournament reports from. Cedric Phillips was a great guy to talk to and was very helpful in discussing his standard deck (green/white). Brad Nelson I only got to exchange greetings with but he was quite friendly throughout the day as I watched a couple of his matches. I got to play next to Tom Ross and David Saylor (the infamous cheater) at the 5-2 table areas. I almost said something but I wasn't 100% sure if that was *the* Tom Ross and *the* David Saylor. Turns out it was the real Tom. I guess one thing I took from it was that, when it all comes down to it, all of the magic pros are just players like us that happen to go to more events and do better at them. They're not some kind of super hero. It was really cool to be playing alongside them and they all carry themselves really well, even if they tournament doesn't go as they'd hope. It makes me so much more likely to attend whatever events I can.
As for the coverage guys, Bill Stark was really busy covering but still had time to rip off a few one-liners while frantically hammering away match reports on his laptop. The GGSlive crew that was webcasting was awesome. They seem to genuinely enjoy what they do (who wouldn't?) and it shows in their upbeat mood throughout the day.
I ended up going 6-3, narrowly missing a top 16 payout in a jund mirror that went to game three with both of us hovering around 3 life in topdeck mode. I played a total of six Jund mirror matches with a record of 4-2 during them, one to mana screw twice. Them's the beats though!
Red Deck Wins took the tournament against Barely Boros in the finals. Only two jund decks made the top 8, along with 2 grixis control, a junk deck and a spread'em. The meta was filled with jund, so I think it was actually under-represented in the top 8. The whole line of table 1 each round was filled with 60-70% jund decks so I guess they just thinned one another out.
In conclusion, if you're ever wanting to attend a big event to see some big names, do it! You won't regret it. Go up and talk to them and enjoy the event as much as you can. I stuck around and watched the whole top 8 just to kind of absorb the experience and it was well worth it.
I think it comes down to whether or not you want to perform well (Jund) or have fun (deck of your choice)
I want to perform well, and that's why I'm leaning towards Jund. I have FNM's to have fun at. Is Jund still the hands-down best answer? That's an awful lot of mirror matches I'll have to power through.
I tried a homebrew Naya deck at States, and while it had been performing admirably at FNM's and other small events for the last month, it completely took a dump on me with multiple mana issues, and a couple of games where my opponent just had a god-draw. I couldn't really be mad about it, but it was disappointing to drop at 1-3 after going x-0 or x-1 at every event I sleeved it up for.
Anyways, sob story aside, The SCG 5K tomorrow in St. Louis is going to be the first big money tournament I've been in and I want to give myself the best opportunity of winning. Here's what I've considered so far:
The only notable cards missing for any of these decks are noble hierarchs and lotus cobras (both of which would go in the G/W). I've got baneslayers and all of the fetches and everything else to make pretty much any other deck happen.
My mind is telling me to just stick with the proven good deck, Jund, and use the fact that I played it for months pre-Zendikar to hopefully outplay some of the newer Jund-wielders. My creative side, however, is wanting me to make the G/W deck work because it feels a lot more fun to be dropping stuff like knight of the reliquary and emeria angel, and smashing face with a baneslayer angel is awesome.
You should walk into every match knowing your going to win, cause in your mind you should be playing the best deck to your knowledge. If your piloting a suboptimal deck your asking to not win already before even registering your deck....
This reads like an instructional sentence on the usage of "your" versus "you're". How many errors can you find?!
And this post reads like spam. Really, this isn't relevant to the topic at hand.
-Memnarch
Usually with M10 packs, I like to open the pack very carefully. I check the back of the pack to see if I got a foil. If I got a foil, I'll look at it and set it aside. Then I move to the land at the back of the pack and slow-roll the rare to see if it's white. If it's white, I slowroll the casting cost to see if it's 3WW. We all know that the best card in the set costs 3WW. If it is, I check to see if it's a Lightwielder Paladin. If it is, I happily throw it into my white deck!
I know in Cedric Phillips recent article he mentioned going...and playing time sieve.
That'd be great to meet him ... and ask him what the hell he's thinking, playing that deck without solid counters to back it up. WTF! I mean, I'm sure he knows what he's doing, but I don't think I'd have the sack to try that deck right now.
I wasn't expecting to make a fortune or anything .. I wanted to have a playset of each because I think they're fantastic cards, and I was excited to pick them up for cheap.
Regarding the earlier comparison to mutavault and treetop village, I think they are trying to do different things. These are mana fixers that happen to turn into beefy creatures late-game. Treetop and Mutavault are early beaters that strain your mana base by either giving you a single-color tapped land or not giving you any color at all. The new manlands, in my eyes, are dual lands first with a huge late-game perk. If the format slows down at all I think they will become even more powerful.
I don't think it's underrated. The issue with that is that you have to guess guess which fetch is in their hand. If you drop one while a fetch is on the board, they're just going to crack it in response. If you call arid mesa and they don't have one, you just gave them card advantage with a complete blank on the board. There might be an occasion where you guess right and mana screw them, but that is probably the exception rather than the rule.
I think the best uses for pithing needle are going to be against jace decks, or in a deck that can bounce them with something like kor skyfisher, in order to keep them relevant. It's good, but I don't think it can be considered a catch-all for random stuff. Your sideboard cards should be hopefully be a bit more potent against as many of the expected metagame weaknesses as possible. If time sieve combo makes a comeback along with jace decks, I think the needle will start landing in more sideboards.
Stoneforge Mystic is going to see play, probably more once people come up with more creative ways to use and abuse equipment tutoring.
Manlands are the real deal and should be in nearly every deck of their colors.
Oblivion Ring is fantastic removal.
If you're tired of getting mana screwed, run 27 lands.
Jace is great but probably not $60 worth of great in Standard just yet.
Not quite. At the point where he cast Hell's Thunder, he tapped 3 of his four lands. The path land comes into play tapped so he had no chance to cast searing blaze alongside it. There were a couple turns where he needed to draw a land to win and he didn't.
I was thinking that too. Evan Erwin predicted it quite some time ago on twitter, and it was speculated numerous times in this very thread as well.
Here's my prediction. There are only three abilities and they are either very wordy and required more of a text box, or the proportions on the gigantic card are simply off by a bit.
I'd first like to say that the Starcitygames.com crew was awesome. The whole process felt very professional and well-handled, they had tons of judges that were all more than happy to help with various questions, and the card buyers/sellers were fantastic. Everything felt very organized.
Being my first major event, it was really cool seeing some of the names I've read articles or tournament reports from. Cedric Phillips was a great guy to talk to and was very helpful in discussing his standard deck (green/white). Brad Nelson I only got to exchange greetings with but he was quite friendly throughout the day as I watched a couple of his matches. I got to play next to Tom Ross and David Saylor (the infamous cheater) at the 5-2 table areas. I almost said something but I wasn't 100% sure if that was *the* Tom Ross and *the* David Saylor. Turns out it was the real Tom. I guess one thing I took from it was that, when it all comes down to it, all of the magic pros are just players like us that happen to go to more events and do better at them. They're not some kind of super hero. It was really cool to be playing alongside them and they all carry themselves really well, even if they tournament doesn't go as they'd hope. It makes me so much more likely to attend whatever events I can.
As for the coverage guys, Bill Stark was really busy covering but still had time to rip off a few one-liners while frantically hammering away match reports on his laptop. The GGSlive crew that was webcasting was awesome. They seem to genuinely enjoy what they do (who wouldn't?) and it shows in their upbeat mood throughout the day.
I ended up going 6-3, narrowly missing a top 16 payout in a jund mirror that went to game three with both of us hovering around 3 life in topdeck mode. I played a total of six Jund mirror matches with a record of 4-2 during them, one to mana screw twice. Them's the beats though!
Red Deck Wins took the tournament against Barely Boros in the finals. Only two jund decks made the top 8, along with 2 grixis control, a junk deck and a spread'em. The meta was filled with jund, so I think it was actually under-represented in the top 8. The whole line of table 1 each round was filled with 60-70% jund decks so I guess they just thinned one another out.
In conclusion, if you're ever wanting to attend a big event to see some big names, do it! You won't regret it. Go up and talk to them and enjoy the event as much as you can. I stuck around and watched the whole top 8 just to kind of absorb the experience and it was well worth it.
I want to perform well, and that's why I'm leaning towards Jund. I have FNM's to have fun at. Is Jund still the hands-down best answer? That's an awful lot of mirror matches I'll have to power through.
Anyways, sob story aside, The SCG 5K tomorrow in St. Louis is going to be the first big money tournament I've been in and I want to give myself the best opportunity of winning. Here's what I've considered so far:
Vanilla Jund
Sedraxis Specter Jund (Decklist)
Green/white tokens
Boros
Spread 'em
The only notable cards missing for any of these decks are noble hierarchs and lotus cobras (both of which would go in the G/W). I've got baneslayers and all of the fetches and everything else to make pretty much any other deck happen.
My mind is telling me to just stick with the proven good deck, Jund, and use the fact that I played it for months pre-Zendikar to hopefully outplay some of the newer Jund-wielders. My creative side, however, is wanting me to make the G/W deck work because it feels a lot more fun to be dropping stuff like knight of the reliquary and emeria angel, and smashing face with a baneslayer angel is awesome.
Any advice is appreciated!
This reads like an instructional sentence on the usage of "your" versus "you're". How many errors can you find?!
And this post reads like spam. Really, this isn't relevant to the topic at hand.
-Memnarch
That'd be great to meet him ... and ask him what the hell he's thinking, playing that deck without solid counters to back it up. WTF! I mean, I'm sure he knows what he's doing, but I don't think I'd have the sack to try that deck right now.