MTG Salvation

I think, if anything, the dragon art looks more :symb::symr: to me than anything else.

Black Dragon...flames coming off wings. M:tG's first Demon Dragon maybe?

Very cool.

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.

I run 4x Words of Waste & 4x Geth's Grimoire

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?

EYIUSTD

Every Year I Unload Sexually Transmitted Diseases

NHLIOPST

I think Zombies are probably where it's at...but I agree Goblins are quite nasty.

My favorite mid/late-game trick is Vengeful Dead + Tombstone Stairwell in play.

One box of Tourney Packs...

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.

Quote from scorpius »

Please explain. Since you can play just 1 land per turn these are moxes only for affinity cards...?

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

Ulwithian,

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.

WOW! There's much more here than I expected to see...many thanks to everyone involved! All inputs were really appreciated. If I didn't already have 2 or 3 :symb::symg: decks built (already using all my :symb::symg: lands), I'd definitely go that route...some very compelling arguments were put forth. Perhaps another day.

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)



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

Quote from Aggro_zombies »

so you see, there have been unique things in the past, but these days it's just a rehash of old abilities.

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¢

Quote from salomar »

They will definitely NOT make a 6th color in magic. The back of the cards has the 5 colors so they will NEVER change that.
Of course they will reprint old mechanics one day, although certain stuff won't be back (like licids and shadow).

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...

Quote from salomar »

They will definitely not reprint moxes

These are basically the same thing.

Quote from salomar »

Another option is a release of something like Chronicles 2.

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.

Went to see it opening night. My wife is a bona-fide JW junkie. She got me into BtVS & Angel... I actually got her hooked on Firefly, after borrowing the DVD set from some friends. She then turned around and got all of our friends hooked.

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.

The thing about IQ tests is, the older you get, the less reliable they become. The younger you are, supposedly, the more accurate a measurement they are (according to its design). As you age, you 'learn' stuff that skews the results by giving you more ways to solve a given problem. When you're younger, you're more of a cognitive 'clean slate' and your innate intelligence level is more accurately measured (and compared with others at the same age level....which is how they actually come up with the number at the end).

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.

My guess is, there is something coming that is akin to the restriction on Krovikan Horror and/or Ashen Ghoul ...or even Death Spark.

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:

Sigh...

People. How many times do you have to hear from R&D that BoP is just too good for various reasons.

They've said it many, many times. It's because of the recent uber-focus on Flavor/Color Pie issues.

As much as I personally love the card...I actually agree with them that it's pretty ridiculous that green's best creature is an 0/1 flyer. Think about that for a second. It just doesn't make any sense.

It's going away and probably <read: definitely> won't be back.....ever.

You should just be happy they decided to go out with a bang! <black-border>

The next best thing, Llanowar Elves, is all we're likely to see in the future.

My .02¢

<<dons flame-retardent suit>>