Indeed. Your help in making these, to say nothing of what you've done for the forum have really been a solid support for us all. We'll miss seeing you in the mod cave.
I'm glad your last mod piece made it to publication though, and that you got to talk about Ephara.
- bobthefunny
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Jan 11, 2015bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #4 - Engines of CommandPosted in: Articles
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Dec 3, 2014bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #3 - Welcoming New CommandersYour method of letting players tumble out into their own camps can be a good one when you have enough room to do it. People will naturally gravitate into the games that fit their decks' schedules.Posted in: Articles
In smaller environments where you may only have one or two pods going though, it can be a bit more difficult. Also, you then get problematic players like me who like to play across the entire spectrum.
I also believe that casual environments can provide excellent learning areas, but you have to be careful of it as well. One trap that my own group has been running into now is being too lenient on take-backs. Originally implemented to allow the newer players some freedom of thought and to help them work through what courses of actions to take. It can start to be abused into not fully thinking through a situation. An example being that one player cast Council's Judgment to remove my Commander. The second player voted for another permanent in order to set up a double exile option for player C, and player C then mistakenly selected a third permanent for more exily goodness, at which point I selected one of the other targets for my vote in order to save my Commander. Player C hadn't really thought things through (and I'd also quickly jumped the gun on my own vote, I'll admit), but we ended up rewinding that play so he could properly select his vote.
I find it helps best to properly (and as honestly as possible) represent the board state for newer players. For example, with cards with the Will of The Council, such as Council's Judgment, I find that it helps to explain to newer players what the consequence of their vote will do to the options the next player in line will be able to make. After a while, you can scale back the aid you give to after the play or game is over, that way they can learn from their own choices, but still have the benefit of a different viewpoint.
In one game, my brother should have had lethal on me since he had a pro-black creature, and he was paranoid about a Duplicant in my Chainer deck's graveyard... except that he misplayed having forgotten that Chainer would reanimate it as a black creature and opted to spread his equipments out instead. Since my brother should have known better, that was an observation I made at the end of the game (a few turns later). He has never forgotten it again.
These kinds of interactions though can really help all players improve their own levels of play. -
Nov 8, 2014bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #3 - Welcoming New CommandersAbsolutely! The greatest way to truly learn anything is to teach it. It really makes you get an in-depth understanding of the subject.Posted in: Articles
I'm glad you enjoyed the article. -
Sep 28, 2014bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #2 - KHAAAAANS!Should have been Corpsejack Menace, I guess.Posted in: Articles
Indeed, much thanks to the entire editorial staff, this wouldn't be possible without them. -
Mar 29, 2012bobthefunny posted a message on Tibor & LumiaSol Grail, while getting points for being oldschool, has never impressed me in EDH. Here are a few alternatives (some less budget than others):Posted in: Deck Compilation
Coalition Relic - the most expensive of them, but far more useful.
Phyrexian Lens - a bit painful, but may be worth the added color utility
Star Compass - the best budget alternate. Taps for either color we have; CiPT, but costs 1 less, so same net mana gain when played.
Also, do not overlook Fire diamond and Sky diamond
Also, for storm count, do you have a Frantic Search? -
Aug 22, 2011bobthefunny posted a message on Being a substitute teacher is no substitute to teachingTeachers have been cut, this means there are less teachers that are teaching to get sick; this also means there are more teachers now looking for work, and thereby more substitutes looking for work.Posted in: Stoogeslap Blog
A full time teacher's resume will look better when a school is looking for a sub, so they'll be called in first. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
+1 to this.
I read the oracle text and my first thought was: "This is now the most awesome card in magic."
If you really want to go the *********** route, mindslaver isn't needed.
Just use Mystifying Maze or similar effect on their commander. Usually people won't command zone for that, and then you can stifle the return to play trigger and leave them commanderless.
EDIT: language
Also, we're going to be discarding stuff from turn 5 on, so we won't need to flash it until we have 9 or so lands, we should be fine by then.
we can also use the hybrid filter land. graven cairns
Alright, here comes another massive update; now that I'm building the deck, I could use some experienced feedback on some cards.
I found 2 more one drop evasives, but they have a tax:
How do you experienced people feel about the tax? will it hurt too much?
Other one drops I am considering:
skargan pit-skulk - evasion in the early turns? cant be blocked by birds, hierarchs, gemstone slivers, utopia trees, etc.
Cosi's trickster - non evasive, but may be able to simply crash into things.
Magus of the vineyard - will his advantage help opponents too much, or will it help us ramp faster?
[c]
Now for the important parts: counterspells. I have found that there are enough cheap ones that anything over 3 has to be exceedingly impressive to make it.
lowercase are the known ones that are in decks. uppercase are some I see with potential?
1 envelop - hard, sorcery only
1 spellpierce - pay 2, non-creature.
1 flusterstorm - pay 1, instant/sorcery, storm (so at least 2)
1 ABJURE - hard counter, sac a blue permanent.
mana (1). seem to have been cut
1 force spike - pay 1
1 disrupt - pay 1, instant/sorcery, DRAW A CARD
mana(1U)
1 daze - pay 1, free
1 unified will - hard, must have more creatures than opponent
1 negate - hard non-creature
1 delay - hard, 3 turn pause
1 arcane denial - hard
1 mana leak - pay 3
1 RITES OF REFUSAL - pay 3 per card discarded
1 RUNESNAG - pay 2
1 EVASIVE ACTION - pay 2
1 SPELL SYPHON - pay 1 per blue permanent controlled*
1 SCENT OF BRINE - reveal cards, pay 1 per blue card revealed*
1 HESITATION - we can burn a small creature on it if wee need to.
mana(UU)
1 counterspell - hard
mana (3) - these must have GOOD secondary effects.
1 forbid
1 spell crumple
1 hinder
1 VOIDSLIME - someone mentioned problems with activated abilities, this adds versatility
mana (4) - must be AWESOME
1 cryptic command - ? the UUU worries me, but the capability to avert any disaster appeals to me
mana (xu) - 1u, pay 1 types, gaea's cradle = hard counter.
1 condescend - pay x, scry
1 syncopate - pay x, exile
1 broken ambitions - pay x, clash
1 force of will
1 daze
1 foil - ? this one i think still hurts
0 pact of negation - too high a cost
0 thwart - same
counter stick
1 voidmage apprentice - is a 2 manacost bear too expensive for a counter on the board? is the archmage better?
Also, would divert or stifle be one mana contenders, or are they too restrictive. Divert can counter opposing counterspells in a war. I think divert will make it for me at least. squelch and reality ripple can be examined for the 2 spot. I have never been displeased with reality ripple in other decks. never.
Also, we run the chrome and diamond mox for mana accel at a disadvantage early game. Also some lists have lotus petal.
Gemstone Caverns a bad mox if its in the openning hand, if its not, you already kept the mana you needed to start and you can just let it be discarded.
elvish spirit guide is an extra lotus petal. and an elf.
and finally, how do you feel about Knowledge exploitation? My meta doesn't run a lot of extra turns, so it won't be a time walk for me, but red can have extra attacks, green can have ramp, or praetor's councel, I just don't see how it can go bad. Wanderwine prophets can be an extra time walk, but we only run about 3 merfolk...
22 Placeholders
2 Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
Enchantments: 6
4 Pyromancy
2 Bottomless Pit
4 Slice and Dice (1 vote to remove 2)
4 Dark Withering
2 Volley of Boulders
4 Browbeat (-2)
4 AEther Membrane
4 Pitchstone Wall
4 Demigod of Revenge (-1)
2 jaya ballard, task mage (-1)
3 Ensnaring Bridge (-2, 1 vote to add 1)
Instants: 4
4 Fiery Temper
I think this is fixed now.
I'm still curious about the fiery tempers though. There were 2 votes to cut, and 2 saves, but never any reason for the saves. How is temper better in this deck than withering?
Fixing this:
22 Placeholders
2 Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
Enchantments: 6
4 Pyromancy
2 Bottomless Pit
4 Slice and Dice (1 vote to remove 2)
4 Dark Withering
2 Volley of Boulders
Creatures: 14
4 AEther Membrane
4 Pitchstone Wall
4 Demigod of Revenge (-1)
2 jaya ballard, task mage (-1)
3 Ensnaring Bridge (-2, 1 vote to add 1)
Instants: 4
4 Fiery Temper
@zeromd I'm not sure if your edit is voting to remove Jaya, but I voted to keep her first. If you did vote to remove her in your edit, I did not count it here, since I wasn't sure what you were actually implying there. Please vote to remove again if that was your intention.
Demigod vs. Bridge.
The way I see it, is that this deck is meant to be around the pyromancy. Demigod steals a deck by himself, as he is a 5 dmg swing alone, but he is never alone. If we wanted to swing with Demigod, there are much better discard outlets than pyromancy. I feel that with the high costs in the deck, a lock down favors pyromancy more. It only takes 3 hits of 7 to kill with it. From what I gather from the sentiments of the thread, Pit+Bridge has been done before, and there is some resentment to it. So my question is, is this a Pyromancy deck, or Demigod using pyromancy to dump in gy?
And suggesting to add Aether Flash, really?
People aren't accepting a good card as an answer to ALL forms of tuck, so you suggest a terrible EDH card that only answers ONE problem general?
I'd like to hear your reasoning on keeping the tempers over the witherings, if you please, I really think the witherings are a stronger card in this deck.
I also like Jaya, she's the only way we have right now of pitching extra land so the pyromancy doesn't hit it by accident. I'll vote to keep her.
EDIT:
Ryzorz, I dont see jaya on your list, did you vote her out? Because I don't see it.
Whoa dude, relax. There was clearly a lot of nathing going on, and I was clearly on a quote to an earlier post. Hence my immediate edit to the top saying "chill out, I'm fixing my post, don't use my decklist for a few min". Which I later changed to point out that rchrchs was taking control.
I think mine is now correct to his post preceeding mine.
Since we have black, and the limit is $20, Demonic Tutors make it in at $17.
For mana accel, signets tend to be a solid choice, in any situation, though since we have few things to do early game, wayfarer's baubles might be good. Another idea would be pentad prism: its a one shot accel by two mana the following turn, though we have no use for it after.
I like pyrokinesis and cave-in.
Reckless Wurm - I like the direction of the ensnaring bridge control. While dropping a 3 mana wurm with the pit is sexy, it doesn't do any good if we can't attack. Nath'ing my vote here, due to conflict of interest, rather see how this plays out for a sec and reevaluate. The Demigod is better aggro tech?
vote to remove: Demigod - Same reason. We're running into a conflict of interests here.
vote to remove: Lightning surge. The average damage from playing this is the same as pyromancy discarding it, at lower cost. The flashback cost is rather prohibitve, and I'd rather flashback the volley of boulders. Overall, it doesn't really impress me in any way. gone
vote to add: 1 ensnaring bridge. I like the direction of the ensnaring bridge control, with the high cost spells, I can see just using the pyromancy as a kill outlet. Doesn't take may hits at 7 damage a pop to kill someone.
I would rather lose the fiery tempers than the witherings and a 1 madness. 6 damage and a kill for 4 seems better than 3 and 3 for the same cost.
Vote to keep the witherings, vote to remove the tempers.
22 Placeholders
2 Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
Enchantments: 8
4 Pyromancy
4 Bottomless Pit (2 vote to remove 2)
4 Slice and Dice (-1, 1 vote to remove 2)
4 Dark Withering (2 vote to remove 2, 1 vote to keep)
2 Volley of Boulders
Creatures: 18
2 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage (-2)
4 Reckless Wurm (-2)
4 AEther Membrane
4 Pitchstone Wall
4 Demigod of Revenge (-1)
3 Ensnaring Bridge (-2, 1 vote to add 1)
Instants: 4
4 Fiery Temper (-1)
24 Lands
45 Non Lands
67 Total Cards[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the support. These were the two cards I thought of after I had already added Rix Maadi yesterday; I think if I had suggested Squee then, more could have come from it and he'd have been a strong addition as people could incorporate him more solidly in, but with the current build, Pit is by far the better choice. Also, its just awesome in general.
Another card that fits for that flavor would be pain magnification which would be great, as you can hit them with the pyromancy on their draw step.
Decking is simply not an issue in EDH. I have a deck in which just about every other card says "draw a card" with the sole intention of burning through my deck, and I still cannot do it.
Adding 4 Bottomless Pit. I was torn between it and Squee, Goblin Nabob, depending on whether we wanted more sculpting of the opponents hand, or more card advantage. Unfortunately I don't think Squee will do much more us, he's good fodder for Jaya, but he'll only dilute our discard for pyromancy.
The pit gives us an easier time with the opponent, as well as a free discard outlet early for our wurms, so we can actually play them for 3. Right now we need to pitch them to either Jaya for 5 (4 if theirs a blue player), pyromany for 6, or rix maadi for 7, none of which are terribly great for early game defense. Ripping an opponents hand, and dropping some early fatties or flashback seems like a baller.
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I think this will give us plenty of discard, and with all of the flashback we have, we'll have some stuff to do for a while even without a hand, that I think we can cut a Rix Maadi; By the rime we get around to using it most people will be on top deck mode anyways. I'll vote to remove 1.
I like browbeat in general as a card, but as with any of the 'choice' cards, I find it always ends up being the choice you don't want, more so with more players. I agree we need card advantage, but I don't think this is the one we want. One vote to remove.
I like the pitchstone wall. The ability to play some combat tricks, a sizable blocker, and late game card filtering... I'll round out the +1 vote.
21 Placeholders
3 Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace (2 vote to reduce 1)
Enchantments: 8
4 Pyromancy
4 Bottomless Pit
Sorceries: 13
4 Slice and Dice
4 Dark Withering
2 Volley of Boulders
3 Lightning Surge
4 Browbeat (-1)
2 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage (-1)
4 Reckless Wurm
4 AEther Membrane
4 Pitchstone Wall
4 Demigod of Revenge
3 Ensnaring Bridge
Instants: 4
4 Fiery Temper
I also vote to change the deck name, Burninators wasn't quite doing it for me, so I added a play on 'Pitch.'