You can Tendrils on your turn with Manamorphose and Quicken, with a lot of counter backup. It would only require a marginal amount of luck to pull off, you'd need to hit 10 specific cards after drawing 28 cards (4 cards in hand, 19 off Necro, and 4 cards during the combo). That's 18 draws you can whiff/draw into countermagic and still win T1
It is possible to get a turn one kill with the decklist I posted - it's just not the primary gameplan. You don't even need Necro or Quicken or anything:
Swamp
Ritual
Ritual
Ritual
Ritual
Tendrils of Agony
Tendrils of Agony
I was playing in a PE and won both games of a match on turn 1. The first game I had a hand like the one above and just hit Tendrils for 20 on T1. In game two my opponent went first. He was playing Necropotence also, played turn one Necro and drew 19 cards. I Soul Spiked him before he got his cards.
On your turn 1 end step? Most of the key cards there (PIF, Tendrils) are sorceries. If you really want to go "draw a ton of cards, kill you," you might have better luck with some kind of Solidarity-ish "kill you with Brain Freeze" build, but that would be so ridiculously unstable that it's not worth consideration.
Your turn 2 kill rate, on the other hand, would be downright frightening.
Also, Necrologia seems like a worse Ad Nauseam to me, at least in a Storm build, since the average converted mana cost in Storm is less than 1, so you pay less than 1 life per card on average.
As I mentioned earlier, I played this deck a lot in Classic on MTGO before Necropotence got restricted. I'm not sure if this would be the best Necro strategy in Legacy (probably not) - but it's a starting point. Here's a sample list from around 2008.
1. Play Necropotence with Dark Ritual or whatever.
2. Pay 19 (or less) life, draw tons of cards.
3. During your end step, cast Soul Spike once or twice on your opponent.
4. Discard down to a hand that can win with Tendrils on the next turn.
It's pretty straightforward to sculpt a monster of a hand for the next turn, with the win plus protection. The Soul Spikes really help with this. If you are able to hit your opponent with one or two Spikes, then you don't have to storm very much to get to lethal. This allows you to keep more protection.
Cast a second enter the infinite, drop Emrakul and swing on the free turn, cast enter again?
Yeah, this is mostly the plan - although I'm not sure what you mean by starting off with 'cast a second enter the infinite'? If you've already cast Enter the Infinite and lost the clash to release the ants then you already have your deck in hand and already have Emrakul.
So the situation is:
Put in Omniscience into play with Show and Tell or Dream Halls
Cast Enter the Infinite. Draw your deck. Put copy #2 of Enter the Infinite back on top of your deck
Cunning Wish for Release the Ants.
Cast Release the Ants. Bummer you don't win the clash. Your opponent has Emrakul on top of his library.
So from this situation, here's what you do:
Cast Emrakul. Get an extra turn.
Draw Enter the Infinite #2.
Attack with Emrakul.
If your opponent is still alive, cast Enter the Infinite #2. Put Enter the Infinite #3 on top of your library.
Chaining together Enter the Infinites this way allows you to keep your entire library in hand for multiple turns. This should be enough to handle pretty much everything.
Necro is way too powerful to be unbanned in Legacy. Check out the NecroSpike deck that was played in Classic on MTGO before Necro was restricted to get an idea.
Anyone out there have a real, true scary story that happened to them or someone they know? I'm not talking about urban legends, I'm talking legit terror here. Maybe it's a little bit supernatural, maybe it's not. I've talked with a bunch of friends about this, and it's surprising how many of them have pulled out real-life tales of terror.
I'll start. Here's the scariest thing that's happened to me:
My girlfriend at the time and I are on a backpacking trip through northern Vermont. Ten days of hiking and camping in the great outdoors. We were carrying everything we needed for the entire trip (food, supplies, etc) and weren't planning on leaving the trail at all. I've been doing outdoors stuff my entire life and feel very comfortable on trips like this. My girlfriend had done a decent amount of hiking and camping, but had never been on a trip this long. Honestly I was totally psyched to have a girlfriend interested in this sort of thing, my previous girlfriends had been good for a day hike but that's about it.
Anyway, the woods and (more importantly) weather were beautiful and everything on our trip was going great. Our routine was pretty simple. We'd hike around 15 miles during the day, and then when it started to get a bit dark we'd hike off of the trail into the woods a few hundred yards or so and find a nice flat place to setup our tent for the night.
It's always surprising to me how alone you can be out in the woods. The first few days we saw maybe 3-4 other hikers each day, usually just walking by us in the opposite direction. By the fourth day we had stopped seeing others hikers at all. This is because we had hiked farther north by this point into a more secluded area that gets a lot less foot traffic.
So it's the seventh night and we haven't seen anyone else for probably three or four days at this point. I fall asleep and wake up very early, as I always do while camping, Typically I had been just lying in my sleeping bag waiting for my girlfriend to wake up, but while I was lying there I heard a noise outside of our tent of something walking around.
We were pretty close to the edge of a river/lake, and I was excited thinking that I might get to see a moose. I got out of the tent as quietly as I could. It was still dark out, the sun was not up yet - but my eyes were used to the low light. I scanned around for a moose or other animal, but didn't see anything. Eventually I made something out though because of movement. There was a man standing about 100 feet from where our tent was, and as I watched he turned off and walked into the woods.
You know that feeling you get on a rollercoaster when everything drops out from under you? I had that exact same feeling out in the woods and had no idea what to do. A lot of possibilities were racing through my head. Was he a hunter or random camper who just stumbled on our tent? If so why was he out so early in the morning? The sun isn't even up yet. I checked my watch: 4 AM! If he wasn't a hunter then were unintentionally we on his property? Was he pissed? Why didn't he say anything? I was having trouble coming up with explanations that made sense and weren't just completely terrifying. What is this guy's DEAL???
I ended up getting my girlfriend up a lot earlier than normal and we hiked lots of extra miles that day. I had no idea if this guy was following us or what. I spent all day looking over my shoulder, expecting 100% to see him every single time coming up from behind. Of course nothing happened and we finished out the trip safely. The vision of this guy walking off into the shadowy woods is still completely etched into my mind years later.
So that's mine! Anyone else have a true scary story to share?? Let's hear them!
I don't think it's worth playing a one of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, as an alternate win condition. Progenitus might be the better option.... not as flashy... but Blue... so it's not a dead card early....
I've been testing this deck a lot lately and Emrakul has been a total MVP. I wouldn't cut it without a really good reason, and I don't think Force pitchability of a singleton is really worth it in a dck with around 40 blue cards.
One of the best uses for Emrakul is against Maverick, or any deck that plays Gaddock Teeg. Lets say you play Show and Tell and drop Omniscience, but they drop Teeg. With Emrakul you are able to go - Cunning Wish for Eladamri's Call, Call for Emrakul, take an extra turn, annihilate their board. If you get Progenitus in this situation the you have to say 'your turn' and hope for the best. You also might not be able to win a race, even with Progenitus in play.
Unlike other Emrakul decks, this one actually has the potential to cast it and get the extra turn, it's not just 'put into play' 100% of the time. Maybe there are some situations where Progenitus really shines, but I don't really see them.
The lore doesn't overlap. Also you don't really need a way to 'explain' why MTG planes are in D&D - just do it. Your game takes place in Dominaria or wherever. Come up with an MTG-centric storyline, retemplate existing monsters/items/etc. to have more Magic-like flavor, and get at it. If something important seems missing, then make it up yourself. Have fun!
Let's play a game... Since CoP isn't overpowered, how about this... you can make a monoblack or monored deck with absolutely ANY cards in it you want, from the entirety of magic's history, just that it's a monoblack or monored deck. However, I get to make a currently standard legal monowhite deck, but I get a CoP: black/red in my opening hand, everything else is random. Who do you think would win that game? The only way you could, is if you get a Duress effect and get rid of my CoP within the first two turns. Or as red, if you get a Leyline of Punishment in your OPENING HAND. Otherwise, you're not doing anything to me. And THAT is why CoP is overpowered, because for certain decks, you need very specific cards that aren't always there to counter it, otherwise you unquestionably lose the game.
COP:Whatever can be rough against mono-colored decks, but there are tons of ways to deal with them. I played Mono Black during the time of Urza's and played Duress and Thran Lens to fight COP: Black. Any color can use Pithing Needlem shuts down any circle of protection easily. Blue can bounce it and then counter it on re-entry. Red has 'damage can't be prevented' effects like Skullcrack, Banefire, Flames of the Bloodhand, Demonfire, Everlasting Torment.
Sure they're strong sideboard cards, but I've played a lot of formats with COPs, and they can be rough but weren't huge format warpers.
I was a young kid getting into Magic at the start of the game (1993-4ish). At the time there was a huge backlash against the game, Unholy Strength was obvious evidence that kids were pledging their souls to the Dark Lord to get +2/+1 and then later 2-for-1'd. My group of friends were getting into the game, and probably about half of the parents wouldn't let their kids play. And I don't come from an overly-religious location. I think this was a bigger deal back then, now people have moved into blaming video games for everything.
For me personally, if a one night stand is a 1 then sex with someone you are in a deep and caring relationship with is a 100. I've had both and am mostly only really interested in category B at this point.
I'm pretty much forgiving to a fault. It can be very painful sometimes, but most if the time it works out great. I know way more people in pain because of lack of forgiveness, compared to too much forgiveness. It's a tough balance, and I've personally decided to err on the side of forgiveness.
These questions are generally hard to answer without knowing a LOT more about you and the people around you.
My wife and I didn't have a really traditional wedding process, but our family and friends are the type of people who think non-traditional is 'fun, interesting, and more personal' instead of 'bad and disrespectful'. There are a lot of people in camp #2 out there, and you and your girlfriend care what a lot of them think - then a more traditional approach might make sense. It's potentially a tough balance, and I'm thankful it's not something I had to personally worry about!
Also you can get an idea of the type of ring your wife will want without actually picking it out together. My wife and I went to look at different rings long before we got engaged, and I got a general idea of what she liked - but picked one out myself based on this information. My wife isn't a very picky person when it comes to stuff like this though, so it might have been easy in my case.
It sounds like you want your thirst for revenge to be validated here. We don't know anything about your relationship with your friend other than you owe him $80 and he's angry because it took you 2 years to even acknowledge the debt. Furthermore, you have gone on about how much he owes you and how ungrateful he is and how unsuccessful he is. This has led me to the conclusion that you are incapable of giving a sincere apology and should just give the guy his $80 and never talk to him again. Also, get over however he may have wronged you in the past because there is more to life than petty intrigues and humanity spends way too much time running small issues into the ground. Become a successful businessman and show your ex-friend how its really done. In the end, success really is the best revenge.
This is a great post, and very good advice. I'd go with this - except I'd add that not everyone's motivation 100% of the time is monetary. Just because your friend isn't making the optimal financial decision doesn't mean that he's "wrong" or an idiot. People have motivations other than money, and in this case he was obviously very hurt by what happened (intentional or not).
It is possible to get a turn one kill with the decklist I posted - it's just not the primary gameplan. You don't even need Necro or Quicken or anything:
Swamp
Ritual
Ritual
Ritual
Ritual
Tendrils of Agony
Tendrils of Agony
I was playing in a PE and won both games of a match on turn 1. The first game I had a hand like the one above and just hit Tendrils for 20 on T1. In game two my opponent went first. He was playing Necropotence also, played turn one Necro and drew 19 cards. I Soul Spiked him before he got his cards.
As I mentioned earlier, I played this deck a lot in Classic on MTGO before Necropotence got restricted. I'm not sure if this would be the best Necro strategy in Legacy (probably not) - but it's a starting point. Here's a sample list from around 2008.
4 Polluted Delta
4 Swamp
1 Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Brainstorm
4 Demonic Consultation
4 Ponder
4 Duress
4 Force of Will
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual
4 Soul Spike
4 Tendrils of Agony
Here's the gameplan:
1. Play Necropotence with Dark Ritual or whatever.
2. Pay 19 (or less) life, draw tons of cards.
3. During your end step, cast Soul Spike once or twice on your opponent.
4. Discard down to a hand that can win with Tendrils on the next turn.
It's pretty straightforward to sculpt a monster of a hand for the next turn, with the win plus protection. The Soul Spikes really help with this. If you are able to hit your opponent with one or two Spikes, then you don't have to storm very much to get to lethal. This allows you to keep more protection.
Yeah, this is mostly the plan - although I'm not sure what you mean by starting off with 'cast a second enter the infinite'? If you've already cast Enter the Infinite and lost the clash to release the ants then you already have your deck in hand and already have Emrakul.
So the situation is:
So from this situation, here's what you do:
Chaining together Enter the Infinites this way allows you to keep your entire library in hand for multiple turns. This should be enough to handle pretty much everything.
I'll start. Here's the scariest thing that's happened to me:
My girlfriend at the time and I are on a backpacking trip through northern Vermont. Ten days of hiking and camping in the great outdoors. We were carrying everything we needed for the entire trip (food, supplies, etc) and weren't planning on leaving the trail at all. I've been doing outdoors stuff my entire life and feel very comfortable on trips like this. My girlfriend had done a decent amount of hiking and camping, but had never been on a trip this long. Honestly I was totally psyched to have a girlfriend interested in this sort of thing, my previous girlfriends had been good for a day hike but that's about it.
Anyway, the woods and (more importantly) weather were beautiful and everything on our trip was going great. Our routine was pretty simple. We'd hike around 15 miles during the day, and then when it started to get a bit dark we'd hike off of the trail into the woods a few hundred yards or so and find a nice flat place to setup our tent for the night.
It's always surprising to me how alone you can be out in the woods. The first few days we saw maybe 3-4 other hikers each day, usually just walking by us in the opposite direction. By the fourth day we had stopped seeing others hikers at all. This is because we had hiked farther north by this point into a more secluded area that gets a lot less foot traffic.
So it's the seventh night and we haven't seen anyone else for probably three or four days at this point. I fall asleep and wake up very early, as I always do while camping, Typically I had been just lying in my sleeping bag waiting for my girlfriend to wake up, but while I was lying there I heard a noise outside of our tent of something walking around.
We were pretty close to the edge of a river/lake, and I was excited thinking that I might get to see a moose. I got out of the tent as quietly as I could. It was still dark out, the sun was not up yet - but my eyes were used to the low light. I scanned around for a moose or other animal, but didn't see anything. Eventually I made something out though because of movement. There was a man standing about 100 feet from where our tent was, and as I watched he turned off and walked into the woods.
You know that feeling you get on a rollercoaster when everything drops out from under you? I had that exact same feeling out in the woods and had no idea what to do. A lot of possibilities were racing through my head. Was he a hunter or random camper who just stumbled on our tent? If so why was he out so early in the morning? The sun isn't even up yet. I checked my watch: 4 AM! If he wasn't a hunter then were unintentionally we on his property? Was he pissed? Why didn't he say anything? I was having trouble coming up with explanations that made sense and weren't just completely terrifying. What is this guy's DEAL???
I ended up getting my girlfriend up a lot earlier than normal and we hiked lots of extra miles that day. I had no idea if this guy was following us or what. I spent all day looking over my shoulder, expecting 100% to see him every single time coming up from behind. Of course nothing happened and we finished out the trip safely. The vision of this guy walking off into the shadowy woods is still completely etched into my mind years later.
So that's mine! Anyone else have a true scary story to share?? Let's hear them!
I've been testing this deck a lot lately and Emrakul has been a total MVP. I wouldn't cut it without a really good reason, and I don't think Force pitchability of a singleton is really worth it in a dck with around 40 blue cards.
One of the best uses for Emrakul is against Maverick, or any deck that plays Gaddock Teeg. Lets say you play Show and Tell and drop Omniscience, but they drop Teeg. With Emrakul you are able to go - Cunning Wish for Eladamri's Call, Call for Emrakul, take an extra turn, annihilate their board. If you get Progenitus in this situation the you have to say 'your turn' and hope for the best. You also might not be able to win a race, even with Progenitus in play.
Unlike other Emrakul decks, this one actually has the potential to cast it and get the extra turn, it's not just 'put into play' 100% of the time. Maybe there are some situations where Progenitus really shines, but I don't really see them.
COP:Whatever can be rough against mono-colored decks, but there are tons of ways to deal with them. I played Mono Black during the time of Urza's and played Duress and Thran Lens to fight COP: Black. Any color can use Pithing Needlem shuts down any circle of protection easily. Blue can bounce it and then counter it on re-entry. Red has 'damage can't be prevented' effects like Skullcrack, Banefire, Flames of the Bloodhand, Demonfire, Everlasting Torment.
Sure they're strong sideboard cards, but I've played a lot of formats with COPs, and they can be rough but weren't huge format warpers.
My wife and I didn't have a really traditional wedding process, but our family and friends are the type of people who think non-traditional is 'fun, interesting, and more personal' instead of 'bad and disrespectful'. There are a lot of people in camp #2 out there, and you and your girlfriend care what a lot of them think - then a more traditional approach might make sense. It's potentially a tough balance, and I'm thankful it's not something I had to personally worry about!
Also you can get an idea of the type of ring your wife will want without actually picking it out together. My wife and I went to look at different rings long before we got engaged, and I got a general idea of what she liked - but picked one out myself based on this information. My wife isn't a very picky person when it comes to stuff like this though, so it might have been easy in my case.
This is a great post, and very good advice. I'd go with this - except I'd add that not everyone's motivation 100% of the time is monetary. Just because your friend isn't making the optimal financial decision doesn't mean that he's "wrong" or an idiot. People have motivations other than money, and in this case he was obviously very hurt by what happened (intentional or not).