I generally play with the same play group and I have the most decks so I usually wait for them to pick their decks first. I don't do this to counterpick, but I try to fill the missing archetype at the table (Control, combo, aggro) as I find balanced games are more fun. I tend to avoid picking something that will shut down an opponent completely unless they've earned it by steamrolling multiple games already.
I've found the best do-nothing card generated so far:
shield of dragons W
sorcery (uncommon)
each player skips his or her next turn.
This card isn't a do-nothing card. You can use it when your match goes to time and you're on turn three of extra turns facing a lethal boardstate to force a tie instead. Or if someone mindslavers you, then you can quicken this to counter it.
This one I have thought of little use for outside of landfall and urborg making it tap for mana. It may have the most useless yet valid text though.
Did you also lose faith in Wizards for catering to people when they removed damage from the stack, mana burn, the legend rule, etc.?
Yes. Damage on the stack was a big one for me, it made combat more interesting especially since they are promoting this as the main strategy by printing ever more powerful creatures with spells attached. I understand that it's a business decision to make the game easier to learn, but less complexity = less fun. All these minor changes aren't enough to make me want to quit playing, but they are starting to add up. EDH was pretty much the only format I was playing, and these last few changes make me want to play it less than the already infrequent amount I was playing. I guess the idea of resource management is too complicated for people to grasp, much less the stack. So I'll just stick to cube where I can ignore all the terrible things Wotc and the RC are doing to this game. Oh yeah, and every card frame update looks worse than the last, especially with the stupid foil stamp that looks like it's only purpose is so they can intentionally misprint cards without it.
Hey, I've been working on a zoo warriors tribal list for a couple weeks and it has been fun. Do you guys have any suggestions? I'm not really sure on the sideboard yet, I've played against: twin(favorable matchup, less if they have Anger of the gods sideboard), affinity(About even, slightly in my favor), storm(About even, turn two Blood Moon crushed me), infect(favorable, although I'm not sure his list was optimal), BUG control(unfavorable, though I think I can adjust my strategy to improve this matchup), Mono blue Tron(misplayed a few times and he Slavered me so I lost, I think I needed to race more than try to play around his counters). Other decks I've seen at FNMs: Amulet Bloom, Grixis Delver, GR Tron, Burn, Mono green Belcher. Overall the deck is pretty fast and my game plan most matchups is clog up the board with efficient dudes, pump them, disrupt my opponent, and aggro them to death. I want to add abrupt decays back at least in the sideboard, but I don't have any, same goes for the cavern of souls. I want to try Aether Vial, but I think it's too slow. I'm still not sure on the lands yet either, right now I'm at 20 and I've kept one land hands and not drawn a second land, and also had games that I drew 6-7 lands and was not thrilled with that either, there also have been times where I have been color screwed. I'm not sure I like the Gavony Township yet, as I'm currently playing Vault of the Archangel in place of it until I get one, but the colorless land hurts regardless.
If you guys can't win without Wanderer in the command zone, then you built your deck wrong. Most of the time he just sits in the command zone until I have nothing in hand to play, or nobody has blockers and I have time warps in hand. And if he gets tucked I am most likely not wasting my tutor searching for him when I can just find a card that wins me the game. The best part about tuck was that it punished people who built linear inflexible decks that depend way too much on the commander. If we are going to make rulings/bannings because people are bad/lazy deckbuilders then the banlist is going to be a mile long. This is the same reason people complain about mass land destruction, because their deck is poorly addressed to handle that strategy and instead of METAGAMING they just complain and refuse to play like children. I'm sorry if there is something I play that is unfun to you, but this game is all about metagaming and balance, one strategy may beat out another, but that one has weaknesses as well. If you constantly lose to something in your meta, then METAGAME against them, find their decks weaknesses and exploit them, find your decks weaknesses to that strategy and try to add resiliency. It seem like people don't want to interact in this format, either in game or in deckbuilding, everyone just wants to play solitaire which is evident by all the hyper competitive linear combo decks. Yes my Maelstrom Wanderer deck is absurdly broken and fast, but there are cards that just stop me from going off but nobody plays them so I only have to play like two answers in my deck. If MW is a problem for you try playing Rule of Law.
All of the colors have the same amount of skill intensity because you're playing against an opponent and must anticipate their plays and try to play around them. In modern there are certain decks that try to play past the opponent and interact as little as possible, these decks cover all five colors between them (Bogles, Infect, Ad nauseam, Affinity, Amulet Bloom, etc.). People who say that blue is the most skill intensive color are wrong, it's not. The thing with playing blue is that it is the least forgiving color to play. Since you are usually playing reactively it is very easy for a poor decision to put you far behind in the game. Whereas when actively trying to advance your boardstate and you make the decision to play a threat that gets answered, you are not behind but even on the trade because they had to spend resources to stop you. I wouldn't say that playing blue requires more skill, but usually requires more experience because you need to have knowledge of what your opponents might play so that you can react accordingly. Additionally blue's threats are generally weaker than the other colors which makes their decisions more important because it is more difficult for them to close out games, which is why blue is generally used as a support color.
TL;DR It's not the color that determines the skill intensity but the choice of deck and the current meta.
Has anybody tried this with CMC four or less and 60 card decks? It would open up a lot more generals and add more variety to a format that is quickly being solved and thus boring due to the increase in popularity.
I have a Bartel Runeaxe deck that is sliver tribal. I built it because my last name is Bartel and it's hilarious to see peoples reactions when they discover that it's a sliver deck.
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This card isn't a do-nothing card. You can use it when your match goes to time and you're on turn three of extra turns facing a lethal boardstate to force a tie instead. Or if someone mindslavers you, then you can quicken this to counter it.
This one I have thought of little use for outside of landfall and urborg making it tap for mana. It may have the most useless yet valid text though.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CRYRiFNU8AIyIyn.jpg
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Yes. Damage on the stack was a big one for me, it made combat more interesting especially since they are promoting this as the main strategy by printing ever more powerful creatures with spells attached. I understand that it's a business decision to make the game easier to learn, but less complexity = less fun. All these minor changes aren't enough to make me want to quit playing, but they are starting to add up. EDH was pretty much the only format I was playing, and these last few changes make me want to play it less than the already infrequent amount I was playing. I guess the idea of resource management is too complicated for people to grasp, much less the stack. So I'll just stick to cube where I can ignore all the terrible things Wotc and the RC are doing to this game. Oh yeah, and every card frame update looks worse than the last, especially with the stupid foil stamp that looks like it's only purpose is so they can intentionally misprint cards without it.
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4 Wild Nacatl
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Bramblewood Paragon
1 Champion of Lambholt
1 Mardu Strike Leader
4 Chief of the Edge
4 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
4 Sunblade Elf
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Plains
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Marsh Flats
4 Windswept Heath
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
1 Mountain
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Gavony Township
Sideboard:
P.S. Warriors, come out to play. Warriors, come out to plaaay. Warriors, come out to Plaaaayay!
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TL;DR It's not the color that determines the skill intensity but the choice of deck and the current meta.
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