Well, seeing as I seem to appear at random intervals, let this be one. On the subject of the new set, does anybody have any ideas for decks? I'm trying my hardest to put Desolate Lighthouse and Mad Prophet into a deck for all of the deck looting....though I lack a win condition. What other tinkerings do we have around here?
There's a potion for that in the sixth storage room.
Other than that, you didn't miss too much.
I'm actually kind of glad then; my worst fear was being sent to the Erratic Portal for not posting.
Shock Lands, you say? I feel bad and kinda happy if they do reprint them: bad because my set of signed Stomping Grounds will go down in price, but Steam Vents will also go down.
Question though: how much has Ravnica changed really? Do we know anything since the Guildpact Festival incident? Last I remember, Momir Vig was ripped to shreds and the Simic was hence disbanded, the Boros Legion was decimated by the Rakdos, House Dimir fell apart, Szadzek had his head ripped off, Savra was dismembered and there's a new Golgari guild leader (some elf guy), the Selesnya Conclave was trying to recover from their Quietmen being brainwashed and slaughtering thousands, Teysa took control of the Orzhoz Syndicate and is actually running it fair now (with many debts to pay off to the Gruul and Izzet for their help), the Gruul have been brought together and then torn back apart by the Nephilim invasion, we the Izzet have a new guild leader as placed by Niv himself and given the Firemind (some goblin, I forget her name), the Rakdos have lost Lyzolda because they killed her in a frenzy chasing down the now leader of the Golgari and the ghost of Agrus Kos, Rakdos himself has been beaten to high hell from the Kraj Experiment created by the Simic, and finally the Azorius had their main courthouse turned to rubble by Skyhome after it crashed down from the sky because Szadek turned an army of ghosts against the angels of Ravnica and slaughtered them, even Razia. Did I miss anything?
Only just noticed that my list's been put into the first post... I feel accomplished now
I had a couple of ideas for protecting the combo, one of which was pact of negation, pricy as it is (moneywise)... problem is you need to have both pieces in play, because if you play T2 pala, and they try and kill it, if you stop it with the pact then you'll need to pay for the cost next turn instead of bringing out the architect. That's part of the reason I have springleaf drum in there. T1 drum T2 pala leaves you spell pierce available in case of removal. If I was playing my list again I'd probably drop the parasite from the main in favour of a third drum (wouldn't play the full 4 because after turn 1 its kind of 'meh', but it -is- useful to get the pili-pala tapped). Sideboard could definitely use some work, mine was deliberately metagamed towards the decks I expected to see so I wouldn't use it as a base for building a deck in a vacuum - would definitely leave Exsanguinate in though
Oh, I've figured any sideboard will be wonky with this kind of combo seeing as you can produce any colour mana. Here's my sideboard for reference.
Anti-artifacts, quick win, anti-aggro, land dest., anti-reanimator X3, Karn....(why not?), anti-soul sister life, anti-free spell (cascade), and the rest I have to protect my pieces in case something calls for redirection or split second.
....I step out to study for a few weeks during school, come back home, and nearly have a heart attack. By the machines, what else have I missed here?
Thank you, Arti, you almost killed me by natural causes; not what I want to happen. ;-;
Aggro: Spreading Seas and just out countering/bouncing seems to be the only answer unless anything else better comes along. Perhaps Evacuation or is that too much mana?
Colour choice: Do we actually have a full on consensus of what we could splash or do we want to continue to keep mono-U? Green and Red seem the most viable since they offer more counterspell options with Voidslime and Double Negative.
Finishers: Banefire seemed to be the best option in the last board post along with the UG version featuring Helix Pinnacle. One thing perplexes me though: What if you don't draw into it? The only Transmute for 1 mana is Dizzy Spell and that by itself is a bad filler. Would Train of Thought to draw into it be best? If so, why not just Transmute into Pyromatics and end it? My opinion, Pyromatics and Invoke the Firemind seem the best since you can kill with either or draw into backup counters with Invoke.
I'm actually interested in hearing anyones answer to the "but what if aggro?" question. Jund aggro (along with splinter twin but i can handle that) is a serious problem in my area, and it's the main reason i get wrecked some nights. I run Echoing Truth and enough counters to slow people down a little while i build, but ultimately i end up getting wrecked in most match ups. the postmortem lunges have helped an ungodly amount, but short of an angel's grace or some similar card for this deck (which i realize isn't a good solution, just giving an example) i'm tapped for ideas.
Anyone know how these sorts of decks handle the main threats/how to counter them?
The only answer I can come up with is the same one that slowed down Jund in the past: Spreading Seas. And even then, it just slows them down minimally.
*The door swings wide open from the vent chambers and billows of smoke pour into the meeting hall. A short figure shuffles from the steam, burn marks showing signs of tearing on its apendages. As the smoke clears, the figure of a burned and blackened man can be made out, and it appears he is using a broken Hydro-Coil as a cane. He lifts his head and smiles warmly, and a few teeth seem to be missing from his charred face.
Hey guys, long time no see, eh? Looks like I can survive 18 hours of school. How have the rest of you been? Oh, and anybody want one? They're fresh from the iron-smelters.
Many of these problems have been addressed in my thread for this deck.
Blightsteel, Demonfire and Invoke are all pretty much inferior to what was considered by many earlier as the easier go to kill spells:
Banefire- Straight uncounterable and unpreventable damage. Exsanguinate- Gets around leylines Pyromatics- Difficult to counter, can kill creatures etc if they have something like Worship
Looking back over the list, I did forget to add my 4 Phantasms; they are in there though. They were right about me being bait for aggro decks, but I'm finding it difficult to squeeze room in for much else. The Blightsteel and Demonfire are just placements in there until I can find more Invoke, as those too can be tutored up with the Phantasms. The question is though, what could I take out or put in the board against aggro decks and still be more consistent?
Note: Nix is still in the board because I'm that deathly afraid of suspend and pacts. One experience traumatized me during a pre-release of Future Sight.
Question: Is it me or has everyone forgotten that Counterspell is still legal in Modern? Its last printing was in 8th and that's where the cap is for Modern. Not to mention, well....it's just how good it says it is: "Counter target spell". Can you really dispute that for two blue? Seems like it would be an instant four-of.
Hey ya'll; just popping in to say I'm not dead or gone just yet and being eradicated would probably be bad as well. School has been keeping me busy and working beyond belief cuts that time even shorter. I should be returning sometime after the semester dies down (perhaps at the end) and hopefully I should still be alive then. Best of luck to ya'll. (returns to damp, dark library)
I was just wondering guys - do you read books often? I used to read a loooot like a year ago and now it looks like my habit is back in full-force. It started with 1984, continued with Steve Jobs' biography and now Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. And Nick Cave with The Death of Bunny Munro is in the queue, Neuromancer and Brave New World after it.
I'm getting more back into reading right now because of school; and not just school books. I still have a ton of magic books to finish after I get done with "Life and How to Survive It", by John Cleese.
A mascot should generally be athropomorphised, I believe...:-/ A steaming pipe might be in character for us, but shows none of our uniqueness, IMHO.
Chibi. Chibi is a little overdone. I could probably google 'chibi robot Niv-mizzet' and get a good picture... No, no I can't. Anyway, chibi is for the [toycrafters]. We're the Izzet; sleek, metallic and exploding (actually, exploding anything) is what people know us for.
I dunno about anthropomorphizing a dragon; that could prove more disastrous than the Guidpact incident with Kos. What about just a giant, overly-geared, steam-powered robot weird? It covers pretty much all of our bases, and we'd only have to imagine what it would be in the shape of. Perhaps just an amorphous blob with gears running the internal systems? The weird could even be see-through so we can see the gyrating madness within....it could even have an electrical field radiating around it! Or is that too much?
All of the yes.
I'm actually kind of glad then; my worst fear was being sent to the Erratic Portal for not posting.
Shock Lands, you say? I feel bad and kinda happy if they do reprint them: bad because my set of signed Stomping Grounds will go down in price, but Steam Vents will also go down.
Question though: how much has Ravnica changed really? Do we know anything since the Guildpact Festival incident? Last I remember, Momir Vig was ripped to shreds and the Simic was hence disbanded, the Boros Legion was decimated by the Rakdos, House Dimir fell apart, Szadzek had his head ripped off, Savra was dismembered and there's a new Golgari guild leader (some elf guy), the Selesnya Conclave was trying to recover from their Quietmen being brainwashed and slaughtering thousands, Teysa took control of the Orzhoz Syndicate and is actually running it fair now (with many debts to pay off to the Gruul and Izzet for their help), the Gruul have been brought together and then torn back apart by the Nephilim invasion, we the Izzet have a new guild leader as placed by Niv himself and given the Firemind (some goblin, I forget her name), the Rakdos have lost Lyzolda because they killed her in a frenzy chasing down the now leader of the Golgari and the ghost of Agrus Kos, Rakdos himself has been beaten to high hell from the Kraj Experiment created by the Simic, and finally the Azorius had their main courthouse turned to rubble by Skyhome after it crashed down from the sky because Szadek turned an army of ghosts against the angels of Ravnica and slaughtered them, even Razia. Did I miss anything?
Oh, I've figured any sideboard will be wonky with this kind of combo seeing as you can produce any colour mana. Here's my sideboard for reference.
1 Shattering Spree
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Platinum Emperion
1 Sundering Titan
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Karn Liberated
1 Rain of Gore
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Swerve
2 Trickbind
2 Nix
Anti-artifacts, quick win, anti-aggro, land dest., anti-reanimator X3, Karn....(why not?), anti-soul sister life, anti-free spell (cascade), and the rest I have to protect my pieces in case something calls for redirection or split second.
....I step out to study for a few weeks during school, come back home, and nearly have a heart attack. By the machines, what else have I missed here?
Thank you, Arti, you almost killed me by natural causes; not what I want to happen. ;-;
Current Problems:
Aggro: Spreading Seas and just out countering/bouncing seems to be the only answer unless anything else better comes along. Perhaps Evacuation or is that too much mana?
Combo Hate: Surgical Extraction: Simple; Nix, Noxious Revival, and Postmortem Lunge bypass this unless you outright counter it.
Colour choice: Do we actually have a full on consensus of what we could splash or do we want to continue to keep mono-U? Green and Red seem the most viable since they offer more counterspell options with Voidslime and Double Negative.
Finishers: Banefire seemed to be the best option in the last board post along with the UG version featuring Helix Pinnacle. One thing perplexes me though: What if you don't draw into it? The only Transmute for 1 mana is Dizzy Spell and that by itself is a bad filler. Would Train of Thought to draw into it be best? If so, why not just Transmute into Pyromatics and end it? My opinion, Pyromatics and Invoke the Firemind seem the best since you can kill with either or draw into backup counters with Invoke.
Thoughts? Opinions?
The only answer I can come up with is the same one that slowed down Jund in the past: Spreading Seas. And even then, it just slows them down minimally.
Hey guys, long time no see, eh? Looks like I can survive 18 hours of school. How have the rest of you been? Oh, and anybody want one? They're fresh from the iron-smelters.
Looking back over the list, I did forget to add my 4 Phantasms; they are in there though. They were right about me being bait for aggro decks, but I'm finding it difficult to squeeze room in for much else. The Blightsteel and Demonfire are just placements in there until I can find more Invoke, as those too can be tutored up with the Phantasms. The question is though, what could I take out or put in the board against aggro decks and still be more consistent?
1 Academy Ruins
1 Mystifying Maze\
22 Island
1 Banefire
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Invoke the Firemind
4 Rune Snag
4 Remand
4 Telling Time
4 Compulsive Research
4 Muddle the Mixture
4 Pili-Pala
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Demonfire
1 Platinum Emperion
1 Sundering Titan
1 Shattering Spree
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Karn Liberated
1 Rain of Gore
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Swerve
2 Trickbind
2 Nix
Note: Nix is still in the board because I'm that deathly afraid of suspend and pacts. One experience traumatized me during a pre-release of Future Sight.
...*#$%@! That's what I get for not doing research at 3am. My bad. In any case, what about Remand? It semi-counters with a cantrip.
I'm getting more back into reading right now because of school; and not just school books. I still have a ton of magic books to finish after I get done with "Life and How to Survive It", by John Cleese.
I dunno about anthropomorphizing a dragon; that could prove more disastrous than the Guidpact incident with Kos. What about just a giant, overly-geared, steam-powered robot weird? It covers pretty much all of our bases, and we'd only have to imagine what it would be in the shape of. Perhaps just an amorphous blob with gears running the internal systems? The weird could even be see-through so we can see the gyrating madness within....it could even have an electrical field radiating around it! Or is that too much?