Capricious Efreet would like a world with you. Beyond that, artifacts fill the gap (not always very well).
(into the core being the only exile thats not creature related.)
3. red cant deal with indestructable anything.
How can you mention Into the Core and then claim red can't deal with indestructible permanents? Furnace Dragon also exiles artifacts, though I'd be hesitant to play it in a monored EDH deck.
gamble is awful.
Even with no cards in hand, it's an Entomb. You could do much worse.
while land destruction is a great strength for red, it alienates players.
Yep, though this varies by group. The first game of EDH I ever played included somebody casting Armageddon just because they could - I don't even think they had a creature on the board. We all rolled with it. I'd like to see a little more tolerance for mass land destruction in the format.
lack of any recursion. this again seems to be under slow address from wizards.
Hammer of Bogardan and Shard Phoenix are super old. They're a little small for EDH but still useful. Recursion as been a red thing for ages.
Competitive Magic didn't start in 1996. I am curious where decks from 1994-1995 would fall in the ranks. It was before the initial power-level of the game came down but there were also much fewer cards to choose from, especially combo enablers.
Bertrand Lestree's deck looks like solid aggro; Zak Dolan's seems a little bizarre.
As far as combo goes, Alpha/Beta/Unlimited would have excelled at that if not for the limited list. 4x Moxen, Lotus, Time Walk, etc would put even standard Academy to shame. You could consistently win on the first turn. I've fooled around with unrestricted original set decks on Apprentice and they're ridiculous. So it's not quite correct to claim power creep for Magic. Combo started out as king, was suppressed by restrictions, and only later returned to prominence.
I still stand by Kuldotha Phoenix. Metalcraft is pretty easy to obtain, and having a recurring, hasty beater, ready to pick up any blades, and that flies even, is pretty incredible.
While I wouldn't call it the strongest standard deck ever, Randy Buehler's draw-go deck from 1999 Worlds deserves inclusions in such tournaments. That deck actually had a better standard record than Kai Budde's famous Wildfire deck, as did Jakub Slemr's mono-black control and Jamie Parke's sped red.
Identity Crisis is pretty annoying when multiple people are playing, since it only sets one player back rather than all of them and the game is usually at its best when you keep things balanced.
My new super-secret tech is Unfulfilled Desires. That is some extremely efficient looting. Obviously for raw card advantage, if you're paying life you'd rather have Necropotence or some such, but for GY-based strategies that want to dump a lot into their yard but don't want to lose card advantage, it's sweet. Pitch whatever you need, keep the good stuff, colorless activation, instant speed. I had Compulsion in my Sedris deck for a long time and this replaced it.
I adore Unfulfilled Desires both mechanically and aesthetically. The flavor lends itself to the plausible scenario of digging through your library for the last combo piece only to die before you can use it. Not a powerhouse card, but a beautiful one.
Here is my Eron EDH deck. It lacks pricey stuff, obviously. Nim Deathmantle support the relentless theme and provides combo power with Life Chisel, enter-the-battlefield creatures, and echo creatures.
Fire Dragon would be sweet if you have access to it. Word of Seizing is also always good, especially sac outlets. I thought about building this deck but decided I couldn't afford it. And I'm too in love with Eron the Relentless.
I think we're looking at different Tops. You can get a Top for ~$10 shipped right now.
I was looking at what popped via the link, which turns out to be the From the Vault version. $10-15 is still a bit beyond me. And Force of Will really is $60-70 now. I also sold two of those for a few bucks. I wish I had held onto my cards. I think I sold everything at exactly the wrong historical moment.
I'd be happy with a copy of Sol Ring and Sensei's Divining Top for my Dakkon Blackblade deck. (Oh my God a top costs forty bucks now. I used to have two and sold them from a few dollars.) I'm way poorer and/or less willing to invest in cards than the rest of y'all. I sold everything valuable a while back. (In retrospect, as noted above, I should have waited.)
But if price literally weren't an issue, I'd fill my decks with beautiful old cards and entirely eschew the new card face. I adore Alpha, Beta, Arabian Knights, Antiquities, and Legends. My aforementioned Dakkon deck would have Demonic Tutor and Mana Drain. I'd play monored with Gauntlet of Might, Wheel of Fortune, Fork, and Zodiac Dragon.
Ain't never going to happen, though. The only plausible way would be if future desktop printing setups can produce perfect copies. (I don't care about the status, I just love the old cards. I still regret not investing twenty bucks in Alpha when I had the chance.)
Capricious Efreet would like a world with you. Beyond that, artifacts fill the gap (not always very well).
How can you mention Into the Core and then claim red can't deal with indestructible permanents? Furnace Dragon also exiles artifacts, though I'd be hesitant to play it in a monored EDH deck.
Even with no cards in hand, it's an Entomb. You could do much worse.
Yep, though this varies by group. The first game of EDH I ever played included somebody casting Armageddon just because they could - I don't even think they had a creature on the board. We all rolled with it. I'd like to see a little more tolerance for mass land destruction in the format.
Hammer of Bogardan and Shard Phoenix are super old. They're a little small for EDH but still useful. Recursion as been a red thing for ages.
Bertrand Lestree's deck looks like solid aggro; Zak Dolan's seems a little bizarre.
As far as combo goes, Alpha/Beta/Unlimited would have excelled at that if not for the limited list. 4x Moxen, Lotus, Time Walk, etc would put even standard Academy to shame. You could consistently win on the first turn. I've fooled around with unrestricted original set decks on Apprentice and they're ridiculous. So it's not quite correct to claim power creep for Magic. Combo started out as king, was suppressed by restrictions, and only later returned to prominence.
It also combos rather well with sacrifice effects. For example, Life Chisel gives you 4: Gain 4 life. Ashnod's Altar plus Warstorm Surge gives you 2: 4 damage to target creature or player. Throw in Stalking Vengeance and Vicious Shadows if you want to get ridiculous.
This. Nothing screams mean like Identity Crisis.
I adore Unfulfilled Desires both mechanically and aesthetically. The flavor lends itself to the plausible scenario of digging through your library for the last combo piece only to die before you can use it. Not a powerhouse card, but a beautiful one.
I was looking at what popped via the link, which turns out to be the From the Vault version. $10-15 is still a bit beyond me. And Force of Will really is $60-70 now. I also sold two of those for a few bucks. I wish I had held onto my cards. I think I sold everything at exactly the wrong historical moment.
But if price literally weren't an issue, I'd fill my decks with beautiful old cards and entirely eschew the new card face. I adore Alpha, Beta, Arabian Knights, Antiquities, and Legends. My aforementioned Dakkon deck would have Demonic Tutor and Mana Drain. I'd play monored with Gauntlet of Might, Wheel of Fortune, Fork, and Zodiac Dragon.
Ain't never going to happen, though. The only plausible way would be if future desktop printing setups can produce perfect copies. (I don't care about the status, I just love the old cards. I still regret not investing twenty bucks in Alpha when I had the chance.)