Well I'm already on five moon effects in the list above, and I have since updated it and swapped out one pillar for another blood moon so I have six copies of each hoser. Also the creature versions are better imo because they add a clock and the two decks I'm gaming against don't play removal. I did however take out the fireblast for a black vise, we'll see how it works out.
Also screw modern, simian spirit guides spiked at $20 after PT OGW and now they are at $10 and foils are $100.
I have Cockatrice already. It's what I use to build decks and do fishbowl testing, but the online matches aren't really that useful in testing especially in a format nobody plays. Black vise is an interesting choice that I had not considered, however I don't want to dilute my removal as killing lodestone and other blockers is critical to winning the shops match. I also want to keep my removal cheap to play through spheres, and able to point at the face so as to not be dead against storm so flame slash is a no go. I'm not sure how effective black vise would be at dealing damage, it's something I'll have to test out.
I really don't have any way of testing outside of fishbowling since I don't have MTGO and nobody plays around me. This deck idea was purely just theorycrafting against shops and storm after the recent weeks of Vintage Super League were heavily biased on those two decks.
As a side note, I'm not really liking the interaction of chain lightning and blood moon/magus of the moon as they can pay to copy it and kill my magus or eidolon. I don't really see any better options for efficient and versatile burn in that spot though, so it may just be a matter of waiting for them to tap out to play it. Also the fireblast can be difficult to cast so I'd like to replace that as well with another burn spell.
That's an interesting suggestion, however there are a few problems I have with rabblemaster: 1. It doesn't fly so pretty much all of shops' creatures can block and kill it 2. It can't block and trade with lodestone golem or triskellion 3. It can't block favorably against triskellion, phyrexian revoker, hangarback walkers, arcbound ravager, young pyromancer, snapcaster mage, etc. 4. The only advantage it provides is going wide with damage and if they have blockers it's basically useless as it's going to die 5. It dies to lightning bolt and sword of fire and ice.
Yeah, I was already considering playing the ruby. I took out one spirit guide for the ruby. The pit dragon is an interesting card, but I'm not a fan as it is very mana intensive, doesn't naturally fly, dies to bolt, and all it does is beat. I agree that the Elvish spirit guides could definitely be cut, but I'm not sure what else would be worth it. They are really there mostly for being able to pay the tax against shops on the draw, or playing a turn one pillar or null rod. I don't really want to play red/pyroblasts mainboard as I don't want dead cards against shops, and I'm not sure what other eternal combos would be any good here. Vault key is a no go with null rods, and everything else cost too much mana.
So after watching the vintage super league series this week I decided to try to build a deck that's good against storm and shops. I thought about what might be good against both of these decks and realized that they are both using artifact mana which I can exploit by playing Null Rod. Next they are both playing almost entirely non basic lands which I can exploit by playing Magus of the Moon and Blood Moon (I favored the magus because neither is really playing any removal and I need ways to close out games). Finally and most importantly I noticed that the majority of the spells in both decks cost three or less mana, meaning that I can play Eidolon of the Great Revel and Pyrostatic Pillar to deal lots of damage to them. In order for these to be effective however, I need to be able to play them on the first or second turn. Since I'm playing Null Rod I wanted to minimize the amount of artifact mana I'm playing, and I wanted the majority of my acceleration to dodge the sphere effects of the shop deck. So I ended up going with Ancient Tomb, Simian Spirit Guide, Elvish Spirit Guide, and Rite of Flame. I also wanted to be able to answer shops creatures, namely Lodestone Golem, so I added four Lightning Bolt, four Chain Lightning and one Fireblast as I can still direct them to the face against storm. I also wanted to strengthen my mana denial package and decided to go with the four Wasteland and one Strip Mine as they again dodge the sphere effects, then added one Crucible of Worlds to supplement them. Lastly I needed some way to refill my hand as I expended quite a few cards to play my hosers fast, and I also needed a way to close out games. Enter Avaricious Dragon. This card is awesome, it beats for four, flies, and draws me cards. I rarely care about the downside because I'm either dumping my hand fast or I have redundant copies of my hosers in my hand. I haven't had a chance to actually test this deck yet, so it could just be terrible though.
Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar is awesome and underplayed. Yeah he costs six mana but you don't really need to build around him so you can just throw him at the head of whatever you want to play and have some great card quality. Plus you can't lose from drawing with no cards in your library if you have him in play.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Chainer, Dementia Master yet. No love for the mono black control? Also OP is this multiplayer or duel? The MBC route isn't great in duel, but works pretty well in multiplayer.
I like the enlightened tutor idea. I think I'll swap the deathrites for them. I'm sure there are a number of creature combos I could use, and I'll continue to look for better options. I'm currently in favor of this one because it invalidates most opponents boardstates (aside from Torpor Orb, Humility, and permanent based kill spells) which leaves them with instant speed answers and I have all my mana open to counter. Right now I'm more concerned with the shell, I can slot in anything for a wincon. In fact I think I'll add emrakul and xenagos to the sideboard to side into if my opponent is playing abrupt decays and swords to plowshares.
The show and tell route is an interesting idea, but at that point why wouldn't you just play sneak and show? I'm not a fan of having emrakul's and show and tells gunking up your hand when you don't have the other piece. The reason I decided to go with my list is that there is really only the leveler that can get stuck in your hand, and even then you can cast it if you've already got the maniac too. The rest of the deck is just control and dig for your one card combo, I only need to draw defense, compared to having to draw emrakul and show and tell. Plus I win during my draw step, so there is less opportunity for my opponent to disrupt me compared to combat phase.
I think I might need some Misdirection somewhere in the 75 for abrupt decay targeting maniac, and/or more spellskites.
I played a game on cockatrice the other day, my opponent casts show and tell and puts in some eldrazi, I put in Defense, he passes turn, eot I tap my two orchards giving him two 1/1's, then I untap upkeep fetch drawstep win. He was so confused, he had no idea how he just lost after casting show and tell into eldrazi.
Hello everyone, I've got new decklist that I've been working on for a while. I haven't played much legacy and haven't playtested this list as I don't currently have the cards for it, so I thought I would come share it here and see if I could get any advice from the community. Anyhow, the point of the deck is to play a Defense of the Heart and search up Laboratory Maniac + Leveler and win. I've got Forbidden Orchard, Beast Within, and Swansong to ensure my opponent has three critters to trigger the Defense of the Heart. Fetch into Deathrite Shaman turn one allows for turn two Ancient Tomb into Defense or Jace. The backup plan is either Jace ult or Leveler + Stifle to have a 10/10 beater. I don't have a sideboard yet as I don't know what matchups are good and which are bad. Anyhow I'm sure it's probably not a tier one deck, I just thought it was a neat combo that I haven't seen anybody play before.
I can see an argument for playing 60+ cards in the mainboard. If you have a list with 60 cards and you can't afford to cut any cards, but you have a card that is a four of that you want to increase your chances of drawing. You can add the extra one or two cards that have a very similar effect to that four of, in this way you decrease your chances of drawing the other cards in your deck very slightly, but not as much as if you reduced the number of one of those cards, and you increase the chance of drawing that four of or the similar effect in your deck. Basically it is a trade off of a slight loss in overall consistency of your deck for an increase in redundancy of the particular effect.
Hating on my signature? Seriously? How is that even remotely constructive criticism.
Because it's big, distracting, sort of childish looking, and you need to understand that when they are done that way they distract from the rest of what's going on. On top of that, because you made it about the same height as the P/T and Name/Mana box it creates visual continuity with those that makes is really hard to break away from the geometric linear movement between those three elements - leaving us not really focusing on the center of the card. A signature done it red or blue would have prevented some of that rigidity since it wouldn't have matched the other elements too.
So, you might think that Alisa38's comment wasn't constructive, but it hits on the biggest issue of the design. But I suspect that you aren't really looking for criticism of the design.
You hit this right on the head. I find the signature to be rather distracting to the flow of they eye across the piece. You will notice that most artists here have small or no signatures on their cards. One of the best pieces of advice that got from one of my professors in college was this: "Don't work on your signature. Your art is your signature. Putting your name on the corner of your work does not make it better, it only distracts from the beauty held within." Otherwise, I like the stark contrast of the white and black composition. I always like these types of pieces as they say so much with very little. Did you happen to paint the white on top of the black? Normally, you want to paint from light to dark (well that is how I "paint") as it is easier to cover lights up with darker colors. Lots of thin layers of color can make for interesting layering. Also, fun choice for your first alter, both artwise and card.
Please let me know what you think! I plan on doing a play set of black and white full art batman characters (bane, batman, joker and one other maybe penguin).
Critiques are welcome!
Hi Chaam. It looks nice, but I can see your colours aren't smooth. I think white is the most difficult colour to paint, try on other cards before perhaps.
And sorry, but your signature is a bit pretencious... You need more precision too, or smaller brushes. Good luck
(Sure, it's really good for a first alter. And you can sign as you want, just saying : smaller signature is often better because it doesn't disturb the drawing which is most important. Then if you are really famous and your signature has as much value as the illustration or even more - go on.)
It wouldn't be difficult to improve the original first alter, do it. Just don't put too much water, it can remove first layers of painting, that's all.
I think that the signature is fine. I didn't even notice it until others mentioned it, and now that I do notice I really like it (although I can't read it). The thing that I don't like about it is that it looks a lot cleaner than the art itself. It looks like you painted the white on top of the black which means you needed more paint to cover. I'm not sure if it was intentional but I don't like that some parts are transparent and some have too much paint. I find it easiest to put down a gray base coat (white and black don't cover the art very well without a lot of layers) then white on top of that then your darker colors over it. On second thought I kind of like the semi-transparent white, it makes him look shadowy and mysterious, but it would have to be done more consistently throughout the art. Also it would help a lot if you would take it out of the sleeve to take the picture. I'm sure the color warping around the edges is due to the sleeve, but it would help to see it without the sleeve. Lastly I have one suggestion on the design, I would have done the eyes in a different color (probably red) to distinguish them from the rest of the face and make him look more evil. Overall though a great job on your first alter, especially considering the expensive card choice.
Does anyone have any tips as to prevent paint on the palette from drying too fast? Maybe I'm just working too slow, but when I mix up a color and get it how I want it I get a few strokes before its dry and I have to mix more. How do you guys do color mixing? I'm currently just using my brush to mix, which means I end up with too much paint on the brush and have to clean it before proceeding, and I'm wasting way too much paint.
Also screw modern, simian spirit guides spiked at $20 after PT OGW and now they are at $10 and foils are $100.
As a side note, I'm not really liking the interaction of chain lightning and blood moon/magus of the moon as they can pay to copy it and kill my magus or eidolon. I don't really see any better options for efficient and versatile burn in that spot though, so it may just be a matter of waiting for them to tap out to play it. Also the fireblast can be difficult to cast so I'd like to replace that as well with another burn spell.
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Avaricious Dragon
3 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Null Rod
1 Blood Moon
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Chain Lightning
1 Fireblast
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Rite of Flame
1 Black Lotus
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
9 Mountain
Here's the sideboard, it's mainly stuff to help with dredge and mentor decks.
I think I might need some Misdirection somewhere in the 75 for abrupt decay targeting maniac, and/or more spellskites.
I played a game on cockatrice the other day, my opponent casts show and tell and puts in some eldrazi, I put in Defense, he passes turn, eot I tap my two orchards giving him two 1/1's, then I untap upkeep fetch drawstep win. He was so confused, he had no idea how he just lost after casting show and tell into eldrazi.
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Leveler
1 Spellskite
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Stifle
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
4 Beast Within
4 Swan Song
4 Brainstorm
4 Misty Rainforest
6 Island
1 Forest
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
I think that the signature is fine. I didn't even notice it until others mentioned it, and now that I do notice I really like it (although I can't read it). The thing that I don't like about it is that it looks a lot cleaner than the art itself. It looks like you painted the white on top of the black which means you needed more paint to cover. I'm not sure if it was intentional but I don't like that some parts are transparent and some have too much paint. I find it easiest to put down a gray base coat (white and black don't cover the art very well without a lot of layers) then white on top of that then your darker colors over it. On second thought I kind of like the semi-transparent white, it makes him look shadowy and mysterious, but it would have to be done more consistently throughout the art. Also it would help a lot if you would take it out of the sleeve to take the picture. I'm sure the color warping around the edges is due to the sleeve, but it would help to see it without the sleeve. Lastly I have one suggestion on the design, I would have done the eyes in a different color (probably red) to distinguish them from the rest of the face and make him look more evil. Overall though a great job on your first alter, especially considering the expensive card choice.
Does anyone have any tips as to prevent paint on the palette from drying too fast? Maybe I'm just working too slow, but when I mix up a color and get it how I want it I get a few strokes before its dry and I have to mix more. How do you guys do color mixing? I'm currently just using my brush to mix, which means I end up with too much paint on the brush and have to clean it before proceeding, and I'm wasting way too much paint.
P.S. This thread is pretty 1337.