How boring would it be for every damn green creature to have Trample? I would much rather have Reach, vigilance, Undying etc since there are about a billion ways to give your creatures trample.
How boring (not to mention a rip off) is it to have every set have a "He's a big dumb green creature that will never see play outside of this draft, you might as well drop it in the 5 for a $1 bin on your way out, thanks for the $4 for the pack though!"
Green creatures? Without Trample? That's crazy talk
Creatures printed at rare, with stats and abilities that make them unplayable and end up right in the garbage can after your draft? That's crazy talk!
Maybe you like spending money on packs and opening trash rares like this. A lot of people don't. Stop defending bad cards. You sound like one of the people who was trying to defend Thorncaster Sliver or Tidebinder Mage in M14. Stop making excuses for bad cards! We will never get better cards designed if we hopelessly apologize for bad ones.
Junk like this is bad for the game. Getting excited for junk like this is bad for the game. Buying pack and boxes with junk like this is bad for the game. Nothing will get better in MTG unless you start voting with your wallets.
What the hell is even the flavor of that card? It's an incredibly clunky design and has awful readability.
LOL. If you think that card has awful readability, then you must have a very hard time playing this game. An enchantment with flash that has an ETB effect. No need for a PhD to get that one. The card is far from clunky, has perfect readability, it's great design it that it ties in an effect with multiple themes in the set. Face it, if that card was spoiled tomorrow you and everyone else would be swooning over it like teenage girls at a Justin Beiber concert.
It just shows how terrible MaRo is as a designer, when it's trivially easy to make cards lightyears better than anything he comes up with. I'll start a series: Fixing bad cards, by Valarin.
And the best counterargument I can make to this is Negate has only ever been reprinted in core sets, which have no specific lore associated with them. Which is the principle reason Lightning Strike was made, to reflect Theros lore since there is no one who chucks flaming spears in this plane.
and you know that cause you visited or something?
It's make believe. Theros could have legions of flaming spear throwers just by saying they did. And spears were a pretty big weapon in Greek Mythology.
All printing Lightning Strike did is just put more junk cards in MTG. If you are going to have junk cards, at least reprint them so they don't multiply.
It would have been amazingly simply to differentiate this card is some interesting way. This is just pure lazy design. And there's just no need for it. Lightning Bolt doesn't break Legacy, it doesn't break Modern, it doesn't break Standard, it doesn't break limited. Making bad cards for no reaosn just makes Magic a worse, more boring, bland game.
The problem, like I stated above, is no one in Theros would actually throw a spear of fire. Unless you just want them to crowbar things in so you don't to re-buy a $.40 card
Not only are spears common in greek mythology, we have multiple Theros cards with spears in the art. A spear of fire fits in just fine.
This is kind of in question. Kavu.Ru (that's the URL) lets you see your win percentages overall. Heck, I'm just a PTQ grinder and my win percentage is 67% overall. The pros who shared their stats usually hovered in the 70-75% range. Now 60% on the pro tour is a different story.
i would say 60% at comp REL is probably closer to what he meant.
lb is just too strong for standard. thats it. as a red mage i would love to have lb too, but its just too strong.
No it's not. Lightning Bolt was in M10 and M11 and didn't warp limited OR standard during the 2 years it was legal. It's in no way "too good" for standard
This is the laziest of lazy designs, especially in a set with devotion being an obvious way to make a new burn spell, AND a way to tie into enchantments.
You could easily have somehting like
Bolt Enchantment1R Enchantment
Flash
When Bolt Enchantment enters the battlefield, it deals 3 damage to target creature or player
We still get instant speed 3 dmg for 2 mana, we have an enchantment that powers up "enchantment matters" cards, AND it give you another point of devotion to red. Just another missed opportunity for an interesting card design.
I was holding out on hope that Lightning Bolt was coming back but this is the next best thing
Very happy with this
I was very unhappy with this, specifically because I was holding out for a Bolt reprint. If there was ever a set that had lightning bolt written all over it.
Was Searing Spear not popular?
It's the same card.
It was used, it was not popular. It's a terrible card, it's just the only option available.
The only thing that really differentiates pros from anyone else is the amount of time they play. Despite people thinking otherwise, Magic is not a hard game with all sorts of tricks and tips and edge sharking going on. There's not really any innate advantage anyone has over anyone else. It's not like someone who is 7 feet tall having an inherent advantage on the basketball court.
Deckbuilding is a solved problem. The internet will find the best decks you can build. Card availability is not a problem, anyone can pop onto any major website and with a high enough CC balance buy any deck they want. All that leaves is experience. The more you play, the tighter you play, the better you play. That's what makes a pro a pro in just about any game/sport/activity. You get good at baseball by playing a LOT of baseball, you get good at chess by playing a LOT of chess, you get good at guitar by playing a LOT of guitar, you get good at Magic by playing a LOT of Magic
I don't remember the exact quote, I think it was Yo Yo Ma, but a fan ran up to him and said "I would give anything to play as good as you!" and he replied "Will you practice 8 hours a day, every single day, for the next 20 years? Then you can be as good as me"
There's no secret to getting great at something. You need to put in the time.
Lion isn't entirely a 2 drop, you really need to treat him like a pseudo-5.
I disagree. I think you treat him as a 3/3 2 drop. You don't play him for his Monstrous. He's good as a Watchwolf/Centaur, it's all he needs to be.
If they can deal with him as a 3/3, they will, and he never goes Monstrous
If they can't deal with him as a 3/3, being a 4/4 Indestructible Hexproof doesn't make much of a difference, it's win more at that point.
I've been playing drownyard control. Not straight U/W so I haven't had to play with mutavault yet, I will be post rotation though.
Double aetherling has actually been incredibly good for me, as I see him almost every game now. But in new standard with thoughtseize everywhere, I think making sure you can't have him be discarded is very important.
- about ratchet bomb, to me this just seems like your pre boarding for tokens. There are lots of match ups it's do slow even if your hitting 2 drops. Basically against non tokens it seems bad.
I agree with 4 verdict I always want verdict, personally I run 3 sphinx's but 4 seems reasonable as well
OK, I agree Ratchet Bomb is a meta choice, but there seems to be a fair number of token producers in Theros, and I think they are going to be all over the place.
I don't like relying too heavily on any one finisher in a control deck. Slaughter Games kills you, for one. And there are plenty of control finishers out there, no need to double up. Haunted Plate Mail, Keyrunes, Mutavaults, Obzedat, they all fill the role nicely. 1 Aetherling probably makes sense, I wouldn't run more than 1.
If there are a lot of hasty dudes to go along with that new dragon and the Xenagos tokens, then blind Obedience needs to be mainboard. It's pretty much the sole card that makes the current R/G aggro match playabale.
I think Ember Swallower is a fairly weak choice for a bomb. You are better off ramping into a finisher.
(reposting from the aggro thread)
I see the core creatures for a RG Midrange deck being
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Burning Tree Emisarry
4 Zhur Ta Druid
And possible 4 Gatecreeper Vines, it's another 2 drop that can be cast off BTE and it lets you put a land in your hand.
Creatures on board are how you ramp into your win cones. BTE gets creatures on board, I see no reason not to play her. I wouldn't play any 3 drop creatures, I would play 1 and 2 drops, and then bombs. The fact we will have 3 mana dorks you can cast of BTE (Mystic, Carayatid, and Zhur Ta Druid) is pretty much why the deck works. You're basically recreating Cascade.
The bombs can easily be swapped out for any other bombs you like. Maybe fit a Mizzium Mortars in there or something. But I think that's the basic shell RG Midrange needs to start with. Spend a few turns spamming as many mana dorks as you can, drop Xenagos, and play a bomb of your choice.
To begin with, we'll have an enhanced front page and an on-site card database
Does the internet need yet another MTG card database? vBulletin is a pretty supported forum software paltform.
I mean, it seems like a lot of downside, and I'm not just talking visual, I understand that is mostly personal preference and some people may like the new sites look better, but moving the site to a server that is blocked by the majority of work firewalls? A move that will directly impact ad revenue? All for a local card database that isn't really adding anything and having multiple spoilers live which saves you, what, 2 clicks over what's there today?
I mean, I'm not Curse, obviously it's their call, but choosing to make a site less profitable by moving to a platform just to get what seem to be incredibly minor enhancements doesn't seem like a good idea. I guess I just don't see how cutting off access to a huge number of users for 8 hours a day makes the site more sustainable long term. But whatever, it's their site, their decision. Just stinks, I came to this site after WoTC ruined thier forums with thier "upgrade", now I might have to find a third option after MTGS goes through the same thing.
Nothing is impossible, but Curse would have to convince the web proxy companies out there not to consider them a gaming site, which I don't really see happening.
Really surprising that they are going full steam ahead with this when it's likely going to crush visits during US working hours, and they make their $$ by putting eyeballs on the site. Just seems like an all downside move to me, but then again, most website redesigns I've seen usually are, so they aren't breaking any new ground or anything.
Something to consider: the latest update changed some of the default styles, in particular the specificity of some of the CSS selectors. In addition, some CSS properties now have the !important qualifier.
This will make changing some things trickier. Remember that a property with !important always takes precedence (unless two properties that would affect the same thing both have the !important qualifier). After that it comes down to specificity of the selectors. If something doesn't seem to be changing check the default page style for !important qualifiers that would affect that element and see if you need to increase your selectors' specificity.
Stylish seems to be doing a good job of taking my !important's and applying them, although I have found several cases where you need to declare things more than once (Setting the font to back to Verdana is taking a lot of duplicate entries). It's just a matter of using Firefox's Style Inspector to dig through the pages structures one element at a time and see what properties to change. It's slow going, but so far it's moving along. I have most of the fonts changed back and have slowly starting eliminating all the black from the site and reverting it back to white.
I have to say this is one reason I'm rarely a fan of website redesigns. Invariably the involve a whole lot of effort to undo the "improvement" and get the site back to something readable in nature. Nis's start saved a LOT of time, but I can tell I'll be hunting down little straggling CSS oddities for a long time. I can't say the benefit of having a card database or multiple spoilers is nearly worth the effort this is going to take to make the site pleasurable to my eyes again. And I'm only on the forum listing, then you have to do the post listings, the post and reply pages, the edit pages. etc.
I'll be glad to share what I'm working on at any time, just beware, I haven't touched web design and CSS is quite a long while so it's not going to be the cleanest code out there.
Quote from Stupid3494 »
Is there anyway to make this work friendly. I can access this site with no problems, but Cures sites come up as gaming sites.
I doubt it's possible. The Curse network of sites is probably blacklisted as "Gaming" in work proxies/firewalls, if so there's not much Curse can do about it.
How boring (not to mention a rip off) is it to have every set have a "He's a big dumb green creature that will never see play outside of this draft, you might as well drop it in the 5 for a $1 bin on your way out, thanks for the $4 for the pack though!"
Creatures printed at rare, with stats and abilities that make them unplayable and end up right in the garbage can after your draft? That's crazy talk!
Maybe you like spending money on packs and opening trash rares like this. A lot of people don't. Stop defending bad cards. You sound like one of the people who was trying to defend Thorncaster Sliver or Tidebinder Mage in M14. Stop making excuses for bad cards! We will never get better cards designed if we hopelessly apologize for bad ones.
Junk like this is bad for the game. Getting excited for junk like this is bad for the game. Buying pack and boxes with junk like this is bad for the game. Nothing will get better in MTG unless you start voting with your wallets.
LOL. If you think that card has awful readability, then you must have a very hard time playing this game. An enchantment with flash that has an ETB effect. No need for a PhD to get that one. The card is far from clunky, has perfect readability, it's great design it that it ties in an effect with multiple themes in the set. Face it, if that card was spoiled tomorrow you and everyone else would be swooning over it like teenage girls at a Justin Beiber concert.
It just shows how terrible MaRo is as a designer, when it's trivially easy to make cards lightyears better than anything he comes up with. I'll start a series: Fixing bad cards, by Valarin.
and you know that cause you visited or something?
It's make believe. Theros could have legions of flaming spear throwers just by saying they did. And spears were a pretty big weapon in Greek Mythology.
All printing Lightning Strike did is just put more junk cards in MTG. If you are going to have junk cards, at least reprint them so they don't multiply.
It would have been amazingly simply to differentiate this card is some interesting way. This is just pure lazy design. And there's just no need for it. Lightning Bolt doesn't break Legacy, it doesn't break Modern, it doesn't break Standard, it doesn't break limited. Making bad cards for no reaosn just makes Magic a worse, more boring, bland game.
Not only are spears common in greek mythology, we have multiple Theros cards with spears in the art. A spear of fire fits in just fine.
i would say 60% at comp REL is probably closer to what he meant.
No it's not. Lightning Bolt was in M10 and M11 and didn't warp limited OR standard during the 2 years it was legal. It's in no way "too good" for standard
This is the laziest of lazy designs, especially in a set with devotion being an obvious way to make a new burn spell, AND a way to tie into enchantments.
You could easily have somehting like
Bolt Enchantment 1R
Enchantment
Flash
When Bolt Enchantment enters the battlefield, it deals 3 damage to target creature or player
We still get instant speed 3 dmg for 2 mana, we have an enchantment that powers up "enchantment matters" cards, AND it give you another point of devotion to red. Just another missed opportunity for an interesting card design.
I was very unhappy with this, specifically because I was holding out for a Bolt reprint. If there was ever a set that had lightning bolt written all over it.
It was used, it was not popular. It's a terrible card, it's just the only option available.
Deckbuilding is a solved problem. The internet will find the best decks you can build. Card availability is not a problem, anyone can pop onto any major website and with a high enough CC balance buy any deck they want. All that leaves is experience. The more you play, the tighter you play, the better you play. That's what makes a pro a pro in just about any game/sport/activity. You get good at baseball by playing a LOT of baseball, you get good at chess by playing a LOT of chess, you get good at guitar by playing a LOT of guitar, you get good at Magic by playing a LOT of Magic
I don't remember the exact quote, I think it was Yo Yo Ma, but a fan ran up to him and said "I would give anything to play as good as you!" and he replied "Will you practice 8 hours a day, every single day, for the next 20 years? Then you can be as good as me"
There's no secret to getting great at something. You need to put in the time.
I disagree. I think you treat him as a 3/3 2 drop. You don't play him for his Monstrous. He's good as a Watchwolf/Centaur, it's all he needs to be.
If they can deal with him as a 3/3, they will, and he never goes Monstrous
If they can't deal with him as a 3/3, being a 4/4 Indestructible Hexproof doesn't make much of a difference, it's win more at that point.
OK, I agree Ratchet Bomb is a meta choice, but there seems to be a fair number of token producers in Theros, and I think they are going to be all over the place.
I don't like relying too heavily on any one finisher in a control deck. Slaughter Games kills you, for one. And there are plenty of control finishers out there, no need to double up. Haunted Plate Mail, Keyrunes, Mutavaults, Obzedat, they all fill the role nicely. 1 Aetherling probably makes sense, I wouldn't run more than 1.
If there are a lot of hasty dudes to go along with that new dragon and the Xenagos tokens, then blind Obedience needs to be mainboard. It's pretty much the sole card that makes the current R/G aggro match playabale.
(reposting from the aggro thread)
I see the core creatures for a RG Midrange deck being
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Burning Tree Emisarry
4 Zhur Ta Druid
And possible 4 Gatecreeper Vines, it's another 2 drop that can be cast off BTE and it lets you put a land in your hand.
Creatures on board are how you ramp into your win cones. BTE gets creatures on board, I see no reason not to play her. I wouldn't play any 3 drop creatures, I would play 1 and 2 drops, and then bombs. The fact we will have 3 mana dorks you can cast of BTE (Mystic, Carayatid, and Zhur Ta Druid) is pretty much why the deck works. You're basically recreating Cascade.
I envision an RG Midrange deck like this
4x Elvish Mystic
4x Sylvan Carayatid
4x Burning Tree Emmisary
4x Scaveging Ooze
4x Gatecreeper Vine
Bombs: 7
1x Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1x Kalonian Hydra
1x Utvara Hellkite
1x Worldspire Wurm
1x Molten Primordial
1x Skarrg Goliath
1x Gruul Ragebeast
1x Garruk, Caller of Beasts
2x Domri Rade
3x Xenagos, the Reveler
X spells: 4
4x Clan Defiance
Land: 23
4x Mutavault
4x Stomping Ground
8x Forest
7x Mountain
The bombs can easily be swapped out for any other bombs you like. Maybe fit a Mizzium Mortars in there or something. But I think that's the basic shell RG Midrange needs to start with. Spend a few turns spamming as many mana dorks as you can, drop Xenagos, and play a bomb of your choice.
It's a dude that you can cast off BTE so Xenagos ramps more. The fact he's a mana dork is a bonus.
Does the internet need yet another MTG card database? vBulletin is a pretty supported forum software paltform.
I mean, it seems like a lot of downside, and I'm not just talking visual, I understand that is mostly personal preference and some people may like the new sites look better, but moving the site to a server that is blocked by the majority of work firewalls? A move that will directly impact ad revenue? All for a local card database that isn't really adding anything and having multiple spoilers live which saves you, what, 2 clicks over what's there today?
I mean, I'm not Curse, obviously it's their call, but choosing to make a site less profitable by moving to a platform just to get what seem to be incredibly minor enhancements doesn't seem like a good idea. I guess I just don't see how cutting off access to a huge number of users for 8 hours a day makes the site more sustainable long term. But whatever, it's their site, their decision. Just stinks, I came to this site after WoTC ruined thier forums with thier "upgrade", now I might have to find a third option after MTGS goes through the same thing.
Nothing is impossible, but Curse would have to convince the web proxy companies out there not to consider them a gaming site, which I don't really see happening.
Really surprising that they are going full steam ahead with this when it's likely going to crush visits during US working hours, and they make their $$ by putting eyeballs on the site. Just seems like an all downside move to me, but then again, most website redesigns I've seen usually are, so they aren't breaking any new ground or anything.
Stylish seems to be doing a good job of taking my !important's and applying them, although I have found several cases where you need to declare things more than once (Setting the font to back to Verdana is taking a lot of duplicate entries). It's just a matter of using Firefox's Style Inspector to dig through the pages structures one element at a time and see what properties to change. It's slow going, but so far it's moving along. I have most of the fonts changed back and have slowly starting eliminating all the black from the site and reverting it back to white.
I have to say this is one reason I'm rarely a fan of website redesigns. Invariably the involve a whole lot of effort to undo the "improvement" and get the site back to something readable in nature. Nis's start saved a LOT of time, but I can tell I'll be hunting down little straggling CSS oddities for a long time. I can't say the benefit of having a card database or multiple spoilers is nearly worth the effort this is going to take to make the site pleasurable to my eyes again. And I'm only on the forum listing, then you have to do the post listings, the post and reply pages, the edit pages. etc.
I'll be glad to share what I'm working on at any time, just beware, I haven't touched web design and CSS is quite a long while so it's not going to be the cleanest code out there.
I doubt it's possible. The Curse network of sites is probably blacklisted as "Gaming" in work proxies/firewalls, if so there's not much Curse can do about it.