Blightsteel is criticized for playing poorly with Welder, being too expensive to hardcast most of the time, and mixing infect damage with regular damage. It doesn't change the fact that it allows for an insane T2 kill and can steal wins out of nowhere lategame. I feel it's a key component to most Forgemaster decks. It does not "just stand there." It swings for 11 infect and blocks and kills every single ground creature in the format barring Progenitus or Tower of the Magistrate shenanigans.
If Drain were unbanned, decks would definitely try to play it. It's just way too much tempo advantage when it resolves.
Can we all just stop talking about ridiculous things like Drain and Yawg Win and Bargain and Necropotence? The meta is fine right now. Nothing needs banning and nothing needs unbanning. WOTC knows what they're doing, at least in this case. I'm surprised that the thread has had this much activity given how stable the meta is right now. A different deck wins SCG Opens every week, and even though there's a heavy blue presence, it is always going to be like that. Maybe a few cards could come off the list without a major impact, but who cares? Are you all really dying to play with Worldgorger Dragon in Reanimator when Jin-Gitaxias is just better or to play with Mind Twist in your already-bad Junk deck? People in this thread need to go play some real Legacy instead of just speculating about cards they've never even read correctly, let alone played with.
today i traded for a russian infernal tutor. it isn't a foil... but still pretty cool. anyone know what it's worth?
@ coda- nice report. that's cool that you play lands. my only experience with lands was playing belcher against it at the most recent scg open LA and turn 1ing him both games and having no clue what he was playing until he told me after the round. he was a cool we ended up talking for a while.. you happen to know someone named tony from LA? he plays aggro loam and is a lands fan.
Tutor won't be more than $2-3 more than the normal, unless you can really find someone who wants one. They looks hot as hell though.
Yeeaaaah I think most nonblue decks are pretty bad against Belcher. Just be careful not to go for ETW because Tabernacle and/or EE will eat you alive. But combo decks are pretty poor matchups for the deck. Some are literally unwinnable game 1... but that's mostly just High Tide.
I don't think so. I'm actually from up north, closer to San Francisco, and I flew down for SCG LA. I might have talked to him though, because I showed an Aggro Loam player my deck at the end of the day on Sunday at the Open.
I think this thread is precluding the possibility that the best sword is a Jitte, which is probably the right answer without knowing the other variables to this equation.
No. Explorer is terrible. It totally shuts off synergy with Charbelcher and allows them to actually use whatever counters/burn/other answers are in their hand, and if we fizzle then there is almost no chance of recovering like there normally is.
Scars itself felt like a complete garbage set to me, and it's made the least impact on any formats as of now excluding the fastlands, even though it was the large set. Besieged was garbage except for a handful of overpowered rares and mythics that ended up being pretty format warping (SoFaF, GSZ).
WOTC's claim of "reduced power levels" is bull****, just as it is in Innistrad right now - they may have toned down the explosiveness of the power levels (i.e. Goblin Guide, Lotus Cobra), and they may have stopped printing 8/8s for 6, but honestly, I kind of prefer that to what we have now. What we have now is "hmm this doesn't feel good enough, let's just stick a ton of abilities on a dude, make it hard to kill, and call it mythic." Huntmaster of the Fells, Thrun, the Last Troll, and Geist of Saint Traft are prime offenders here. Both Troll and Geist are mythic and do not feel that way in the slightest; where's the flavor? Huntmaster's text box is 8 lines long, and he's just another bear that does more things that a single card should do.
Besides the power creep, New Phyrexia was probably the most game-warping set Magic has seen in quite some time. Batterskull broke Caw-Blade and enabled Legacy Stoneblade, Deceiver Exarch was running Standard over for a few months, and almost every single Phyrexian mana spell has been a staple of multiple formats simply because WOTC made them too versatile. The "pay things other than mana" mechanic worked in Alliances/Masques/whatever because you actually had to disadvantage yourself significantly to play the cards, but that's not the case with Phyrexian mana.
That said, I did really love New Phyrexia as a block. There are some really awesome cards in it, and most of the art is phenomenal.
But overall, I thought Scars block was an overpowered, game-warping block and Wizards should really be thinking hard about how hard they ****ed it all up, because that's exactly what they did.
I hate Innistrad block way more though, so there's that.
@Malacoda: If I could read Russian, I'd probably get some, but again, odd 'letters' are odd to me. To be honest, I'd have to ask someone else what something does and they'd probably lie to me. LOL
Either way though, grats on the tournament.
Thanks! Yeah, I'm actually learning Russian in college, so I can read most of my cards
well, I guess my search for Russian Foil Lodestone Golems shall begin then....
and thats awesome.
engrish ones float around 250 last I checked.
Good luck. Russian Worldwake is hard to find. The last foil Russian Lodestone I saw was also signed and went for $54. Keep in mind that it's pretty heavily played in Workshop in Vintage, hence the hideous price tags. English ones are about $3 right now.
He said Classic, which is a lot more like Vintage than Legacy.
My current list is just PSI with a couple changes here and there:
2 Goblin Charbelcher
2 Tendrils of Agony
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Infernal Contract
4 Cruel Bargain
1 Eternal Witness
1 Wild Cantor
1 Odious Trow
2 Manamorphose
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
4 Land Grant
1 Bayou
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Carpet of Flowers
4 Xantid Swarm
2 Oxidize
2 Deathmark
2 Duress
1 Goblin Charbelcher
Red: also Gamble! Also so good.
Artifact: Altar of Dementia for sure.
Green: Exploration
White: Serenity
Blue: Curfew
Land: Command Tower
Multi: Solaran_X made me remember about Lim-Dul's Vault. HOLY CRAP I WANT.
Can we all just stop talking about ridiculous things like Drain and Yawg Win and Bargain and Necropotence? The meta is fine right now. Nothing needs banning and nothing needs unbanning. WOTC knows what they're doing, at least in this case. I'm surprised that the thread has had this much activity given how stable the meta is right now. A different deck wins SCG Opens every week, and even though there's a heavy blue presence, it is always going to be like that. Maybe a few cards could come off the list without a major impact, but who cares? Are you all really dying to play with Worldgorger Dragon in Reanimator when Jin-Gitaxias is just better or to play with Mind Twist in your already-bad Junk deck? People in this thread need to go play some real Legacy instead of just speculating about cards they've never even read correctly, let alone played with.
Tutor won't be more than $2-3 more than the normal, unless you can really find someone who wants one. They looks hot as hell though.
Yeeaaaah I think most nonblue decks are pretty bad against Belcher. Just be careful not to go for ETW because Tabernacle and/or EE will eat you alive. But combo decks are pretty poor matchups for the deck. Some are literally unwinnable game 1... but that's mostly just High Tide.
I don't think so. I'm actually from up north, closer to San Francisco, and I flew down for SCG LA. I might have talked to him though, because I showed an Aggro Loam player my deck at the end of the day on Sunday at the Open.
I saw a Brainstorm on eBay the other day. Keep an eye out. Sylvan will probably cost you a fair bit
MOTL tends to be pretty solid. I bought a fair amount of Russian stuff this weekend on there and from a guy on the Source.
On another note, I finally opened that FS box with a friend today. No Goyfs, but...
Not too bad, but I was kind of surprised/disappointed we missed Bridge From Below, Akroma's Memorial, Sliver Legion, AND Tarmogoyf :\
Agreed. Anything with a lot of versatility and a lot of options. I like decks that make me think.
Jitte's banned.
WOTC's claim of "reduced power levels" is bull****, just as it is in Innistrad right now - they may have toned down the explosiveness of the power levels (i.e. Goblin Guide, Lotus Cobra), and they may have stopped printing 8/8s for 6, but honestly, I kind of prefer that to what we have now. What we have now is "hmm this doesn't feel good enough, let's just stick a ton of abilities on a dude, make it hard to kill, and call it mythic." Huntmaster of the Fells, Thrun, the Last Troll, and Geist of Saint Traft are prime offenders here. Both Troll and Geist are mythic and do not feel that way in the slightest; where's the flavor? Huntmaster's text box is 8 lines long, and he's just another bear that does more things that a single card should do.
Besides the power creep, New Phyrexia was probably the most game-warping set Magic has seen in quite some time. Batterskull broke Caw-Blade and enabled Legacy Stoneblade, Deceiver Exarch was running Standard over for a few months, and almost every single Phyrexian mana spell has been a staple of multiple formats simply because WOTC made them too versatile. The "pay things other than mana" mechanic worked in Alliances/Masques/whatever because you actually had to disadvantage yourself significantly to play the cards, but that's not the case with Phyrexian mana.
That said, I did really love New Phyrexia as a block. There are some really awesome cards in it, and most of the art is phenomenal.
But overall, I thought Scars block was an overpowered, game-warping block and Wizards should really be thinking hard about how hard they ****ed it all up, because that's exactly what they did.
I hate Innistrad block way more though, so there's that.
I cannot speak for Occam, but I have also heard rumors of a test print Crucible.
I should be getting a couple of piles of Russian stuff next week
Thanks! Yeah, I'm actually learning Russian in college, so I can read most of my cards
Good luck. Russian Worldwake is hard to find. The last foil Russian Lodestone I saw was also signed and went for $54. Keep in mind that it's pretty heavily played in Workshop in Vintage, hence the hideous price tags. English ones are about $3 right now.