- Morphling
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Member for 19 years, 2 months, and 20 days
Last active Fri, Apr, 19 2024 20:24:16
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Feb 19, 2018Morphling posted a message on The Role of Ecosystems in Fantasy WorldbuildingVery nicely done.Posted in: Articles
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Dec 2, 2017Morphling posted a message on Word of Command: Un-believableExactly right. Number Crunch is actually the ONLY card in the entire game our casual group ever talked about banning. Luckily, the offending player(s) got the message and voluntarily stopped running it. Let me be very clear: Gotcha cards are TERRIBLE FOR MULTIPLAYER. Don't do it, you will regret it.Posted in: Articles
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Jul 19, 2017Morphling posted a message on Theros: Elspeth's TragedyNicely done.Posted in: Articles
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Apr 19, 2017Morphling posted a message on The Magic Market Index for April 14, 2017Just wanted to check in with you guys. These articles are light-years better than...they used to be. Please keep it up.Posted in: Articles
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Dec 21, 2016Morphling posted a message on The Magic Market Index for December 16, 2016I have no personal beef against Rai, but I would like to voice (as strongly as possible) the opposing viewpoint. These are now actually useful once again, unlike how they used to be. We get targeted comments instead of an recurring obsession on providing bland, neutral, and ultimately-meaningless commentary on *every single card*, no matter its significance or relative insignificance. (And most weeks, at least 50% of them were just lazy cut/pastes of the same repeating statuses over and over.)Posted in: Articles
And a lot of the opinions ("Format BOMB, it's got room to grow." or "This card is garbage, it's going down.") were apparently personal opinions anyway, as we would never get any actual analysis or support to back up claims. That seems a bit pointless too.
I found Rai's updates to be a nearly complete waste of time to read. The current, more focused format is much better in my mind. We get the quick hits and not a lot of fluff about cards that don't even matter.
Sorry but that's how I feel. I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings so I kept it under wraps and then the authorship changed, so I dropped it. (Sorry if any of this hurts your feelings, Rai. Really not my intent. I imagine these are hard to do, and no, I probably couldn't do any better myself.) -
Feb 10, 2016Morphling posted a message on Off Topic: Making a Magic MovieAs for storyline, I think this might be a cool thing: Do a full-on fantasy movie set in a Magic plane. Characters are introduced, crisis erupts, huge battle ensues, ups and downs, all that..Posted in: Articles
Fade to black..
Fade back in to one final, real-world scene in someone's basement. All the heroes (and the villain) are there, talking epic smack, picking up their stuff and shuffling up for the next game. Or packing up for the night and saying something like "See you next time, guys." "Hell yeah, awesome game!!"
Fade to black.. Credits roll.
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Feb 10, 2016Morphling posted a message on Off Topic: Making a Magic MovieAny movie about Magic should spend as little time as possible talking about handsize, milling, any of that stuff. Did the D&D movies spend time talking about dice rolls, THAC0, or encumbrance? (Communicate the flavor of a some rule via a quirky funny one-liner aside to the audience? "You wanna do WHAT now?" Sure--that's reasonable, but absolutely nothing beyond something like that.)Posted in: Articles
The movie doesn't need to be a game tutorial. It's supposed to entertain and get people interested in learning more about the game AFTER the movie.
It shouldn't be an opportunity to stroke Magic players egos with endless in-jokes about Magic and R&D and....a bunch of fanservice, more or less. I mean--Magic players are gonna show up in droves no matter what they put in it. This being the case, they should worry about the NON players and make the movie for them (and less for us). I mean--what's a better payoff? A movie that makes us all feel awesome about ourselves for a few days on the forums or a movie that helps inject a BUNCH of new players to help the game go on for (at least) another decade.
Whatever, my 2¢. -
Aug 31, 2014Morphling posted a message on Why there is a VERY good chance that the eldrazi will get reprinted during Khans of Tarkir blockCool theory..you might get some more looks if you repost this in speculation.Posted in: fire10798
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Example:
:symw::symu::symr::symg:
Creature - Avatar
Pro-Black
5/5
etc..
or
:symw::symu::symr::symg:
Creatre - Avatar
All black spells cost more to play
5/5
Black Dragon...flames coming off wings. M:tG's first Demon Dragon maybe?
Ravnica, City of Guilds should probably have a '~ deals 1 dmg to you' clause in there somewhere...just because I say so. (It reminds me of City of Brass, I guess)
Guildpact seems a bit too strong to me, but comparing it's effect/cmc/deck limitations vs. something like Gifts Ungiven, which does exist, I guess it's ok.
Dissension is just plain wrong!
Guildmaster would be fun to pull off, but I imagine it being quite hard. Coalition Victory is deceptively easy-looking to accomplish; this would be a lot harder. I like the Sliver Queen stats too.
Really fun stuff.
I also run 4x Twisted Abomination strictly for land acceleration. This can really make a difference somtimes...
I would also _strongly_ recommend you get some creature removal in there. As soon as one of your regular playmates sees the first piece of your combo, you've got a bullseye on your forehead. No one likes to lose to a deck like this, so put some stalling tactics in there, if you can fit it.
Ensnaring Bridge, anyone?
Every Year I Unload Sexually Transmitted Diseases
NHLIOPST
My favorite mid/late-game trick is Vengeful Dead + Tombstone Stairwell in play.
NO Lands. (This actually pleased me...I don't really need/want them)
1x BoP (woot)
1x Circu (woot)
1x Glimpse the Unthinkable (woot)
1x Szadek
1x Sisters of Stone
1x Savra
2x Followed Footsteps
2x Copy Enchantment
1x Bloodletter Quill
1x Bloodbond March
1x Char
1x Chord of Calling
1x Concerted Effort
1x Empty the Catacombs
1x Ghost of the Innocent
1x Grozoth
1x Helldozer
1x Hex
1x Hunted Dragon
1x Hunted Demon
1x Master Warcraft
1x Molten Sentry
1x Scion of the Wild
1x Twilight Drover
1x Tunnel Vision
1x Vulturous Zombie
1x Sunforger
1x <FOIL> Cloudstone Curio
That's all I can remember. I'm pretty happy overall...many are already in decks, either new or existing.
I definitely MUST have 1 more BoP & 1 more Glimpse the Unthinkable.
Mox Jet = to drop, artifact, produces
Vault of Whispers = to drop, artifact, produces
Of course the moxen are better but I'm just pointing out what a lot of folks (I think) haven't considered.
Also, regarding mechanic insularity. Please see this..they do a much better job than I: http://www.casualplayers.org/article/get.php?action=getarticle&articleid=986
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Now, back on target...
The Future of Magic
I definitely agree with (and appreciate) your very well-thought out analysis.
I was primarily listing those mechanics as ones that could (and ought to) be explored further. They happen to work much better with cards from other sets outside of theirs. Once I had this thought, it got me on to my next point...the insularity of so many recent mechanics. I wish things were more open-ended sometimes. (I should probably learn to make a single point and leave a post, instead of a rant.) :dance2:
You're absolutely correct, on all points.
I hadn't really thought about Storm being quite as insular as you do rightly point out. You actually got me pretty good. The only decks I currently run my Storm cards in are my Ravager Affinity & my Milling decks. In the first case, the Affinity and spells drive things, a sometimes lucky Tendrils of Agony. The Milling deck works with Mesmeric Orbs & Mana Shorts....then toss in some of the game's other 'free' spells and... BOOM. I guess I didn't think that one through.
Agreed...Storm is quite insular. Without the free stuff, it's just not workable. It is still very unexplored, and warrants revisiting in the future. (God I hope so!)
Good show.
I ended up deciding to go mono :symb:, mostly b/c of smooth mana & simplicity of the deck.
It now has 3 main components:
1) RATS and lots of 'em.
2) Ways to speed them out.
3) Ways to punish all creatures (read: not my creatures, who benefit from ridiculous +X/+X abilities) w/opposing -X/-X abilities. (I simply had a lot of these sitting around and this was a good attempt to get them in play.)
So, here's the deck: (Remember, it's the Casual forum folks)
20 Relentless Rats
4 Coat of Arms
4 Aether Vial
2 Hideous Laughter
2 Death Match
2 Night of Soul's Betrayal
2 Death Pulse
2 Last Gasp
4 Afflict
Overall...this thing is a real kick in the nuts. I've gone 4-1 so far with it in casual duels. Folks just aren't ready for 1) the 'sticky' removal...completely shuts down regeneration, and 2) the insane amount of 'free' pumpage. Once it gets past turn 3-4, it's really difficult to overcome.
Thanks again to all who submitted ideas. (I should probably do this more often)
M
Correct.
I would almost settle for a lessening of the attempt to come up with so many new kewords for a development of previous, actually good ones.
These are, in no particular order:
Kicker
Buyback
Scry
Flashback
Storm
Madness
Gating (Planeshift "Bounce-a-creature when this CIPT" mechanic)
None of these are block-specific at all, are fairly open-ended, and did I mention, they're FREAKIN' amazing!!
My other criticism of recent mechanics is that they are so insular in design. They completely force you to build a deck around them to maximize the mechanic and be -at all- competitive. Perhaps the best example of this is Affinity.
Can you build a really good Dredge deck with just 1 or 2 Dredge cards? I think you know the answer to that. Bad design, WotC. It used to not be this way. (And I should point out, the mechanics listed above are also good because they break from this somewhat.)
My .02¢
You're not thinking outside the box... Why not have colorless spells that simply aren't artifacts? Something completely new? I agree, it's not a 'sixth color' per se, but it would be something completely new, and not one of the existing colors. I could see them doing something like that...
These are basically the same thing.
This would be really nice, but I see them picking up where the original Chronicles left off....post-legends, not just a rehash of old-old sets. But hey, they did just release black bordered BoP... I get a serious vibe that they're really starting sympathize with people who simply _cannot_ afford oldie goldies...either that or they're getting sick of seeing people who _can_ lord over everyone else b/c of it.
I've got to say though....I'm starting to worry MtG is truly getting a bit out of ideas. This is not a 'jump the shark' feeling, just that the mechanics are getting a bit stale, and seem to all have the same kind of feel lately. I truly hope MaRo finds some truly interesting and truly 'never-been-tried' stuff because frankly, the game needs it.
Overall...I liked it. Much better than I anticipated.
Some complaints with plot-line and character development, but they packed SO much into this thing, it's kind of hard to avoid.
I thought the Operative's change-of-heart to be a little unbelievable, but he was supposed to be motivated by mission only, nothing personal, so I guess that's the justification.
I enjoyed the Reavers, especially 'Reaver Territory'. The 'surprise' for the Operative and his fleet was _stunning_. Nothing in the Star Wars trilogy compares visually, to this shot, imho.
Overall...nicely done. I'm looking forward to the next installment. And hopefully, Sci Fi will pick up the series...if the rights get worked out.
That is all.
When I was in Kindergarten, my teacher called my parents in for a conference because I wasn't completely filling in my coloring exercises, just drawing a line through the picture (like a check mark) and finishing, instead of coloring in the entire picture. My teacher suggested I might have a learning disability, which my older brother did have (mild dyslexia).
So...my parents had some tests done. I turned out to be wayyy on the other end of the spectrum, and the neurologist concluded I just wanted to get through the stupid worksheet and move on to something more challenging.
Later, there was a follow-up meeting w/the teacher. When this was explained to her, and then she asked "Well, why should he want to spend more time on this obviously unchallenging exercise?", i.e. fill in the pictures more completely, her response was: "To please me". o_O
My parents pulled me out of that school, and got me into the 'Gifted' program asap.
Maybe...the RED/BLACK guild? Seems to me this would be a lovely guild mechanic for replenishing your hand once you've burned your opponent. (and continue doing so...repeatedly.) Kind of a conditional Flashback mechanic, but more evil.
Maybe my spider sense is just tingling..whatever. :grin2: