MTG Salvation

Quote from Devil"s Advocate

For the record, I despise the reserve list and everything it stands for, but just to be true to my username for a second... Alpha BoP may be worth $500, but do you honestly think it wouldn't be worth even more if that had been its only printing? Because it would be, by a considerable amount. Supply is not the only driving factor in price, demand is also important. And while reprints don't affect the supply of the original printing, they do decrease the demand, and therefore the price. By giving people who want a card for its playability and not its collectors value an alternative, you decrease the number of people willing to purchase the rarer version.

Of course it would have been worth more if it were the only printing. It is just a good example of how massive amounts of a card do not make original printings worthless. In my opinion 500$ is a fair amount for an original limited print of a card. Magic was never designed, originally, with the intent of being a card game that people hoard cards in hopes of funding a nest egg someday. It was designed to be a trading card game with the actually playing aspect at its core.

There was to be cards that are harder to come by and thus cost more, but thanks to the die hard collectors complaining about their investments not being a guarenteed cash cow, prints have been too limited since. No one should ever invest in a card game with not hopes, but actual expectations of making money.

I have heard the argument that the reserved list needs to stay in place because it ensures collectors have a certain financial guarantee on their cards. However magic in it's 20 years does not support this theory. Look at Birds of Paradise. This card was reprinted numerous times and even had a promo version of it available and yet the original Alpha version sells for 500$. Reprinting old cards will not suddenly make those older versions be any less old. And old / limited prints is what the collectors value where as the player base that actually wants to play the game can pick up newer versions that are functionally the same just more affordable.

If ABU duals were reprinted, people who want to play the game can pick up newer versions and people who want to collect and profit off the game can stick with the original black borders. Sure there will be a slight influx of the original lands available, but that will be the people who want to play the game rather then carry 2000$ decks with them everywhere.

Wither is the better mechanic to me. From a pure competitve stand point Infect is much better, but the best magic games are the ones that both players are equally engaged. Infect ranks up there along the lines of Invisible Stalker in how little it actually engages with the opposing player and just creates a miserable game state.

Wither works in that it adds more detail to how combat damage is going to be appiled however you wont instantly die once you have received 10 wither damage no matter what.

Ever since the red god was revealed I have been trying to build a solid deck around never having to attack the opponent to win. This past Friday me and some friends were testing out deck ideas for post Theros since our standard crowed has disappeared currently. This build managed to win very consistantly and I am looking forward to building this as my first Theros standard.



The odd ball card currently is the 2 shocks, I am waiting to see if something better gets spoiled burn spell wise and see what sort of decks get played as it may stay shock for more agro builds or become Mizzium Mortars if midrange is more the style.

All and all I was satisfied with how the deck performs. Against agro you can block with the many elemental tokens and burn away the creatures while pinging for damage each strike, or with a good board position a Boros Charm can easily deal 8 damage directly.

Sideboard will be a work in progress pending more spoilers and more information about how the meta might be swining.

Tymaret, the Murder King
:symb::symr:
Legendary Creature - Zombie Warrior (R)
1:symr:, Sacrifice another creature: Tymaret, the Murder King deals 2 damage to target player.
1:symb:, Sacrifice a creature: Return Tymaret from your graveyard to your hand.
2/2

This card seems very standard playable, however the second ability makes me scratch my head. Can it be activated from the graveyard? If not you can't sacrifice himself to target himself as the target must be declared upon activation. Perhaps a way to get multiples of him back into your hand?

It is nice to have a 1 drop exile spell again however why is this card rare? As it is designed now, it's power level does not seem to deem it rare as it is even more restrictive then dispatch was and that was only an uncommon. It requires the caster to be playing W/R and have a mountain currently in play, it only targets creatures, and it is not a permanent exile as the enchantment can be removed. Good uncommon, jank rare.

Here is my fingers cross for Erebos.

Erebos, God of the Underworld
1:symb::symb:

Indestructible
Devotion must be 5 or greater

Creatures you control have intimidate

2:symb::symb:: Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the end of turn.

Unearth can't be used as it isn't an evergreen ability however Wizard has spelled out abilities before rather then use their associated keyword.

I ran a G/W deck this past FNM since my local meta was so heavily populated with R/G agro and mono red agro. The list was designed to survive these matches up and it performed admerably. The only problem I came across was Blood Baron and was my only loss for the night.



Most decks don't presently have an answer for Predator Ooze and Unflinching Courage makes it one of the best creatures around. The only issue I had through out the night was a sideboard designed for specific scenarios only little knowledge as to what should be brought out in those specific situations.

I am working on a deck for Game Day coming up this weekend and my local meta is very jund heavy. This lead me to two conclusions, I either join them or beat them. I played a lot of jund in the early days of RTR and I don't wish to again so two cards that came to mind were Brave the Elements to protect against Bonfire of the Damned and as a simple win condition to swing with effectivaly unblockable creatures.

The other card is Fiendslayer Paladin who I noticed happened to be a human. This brought be back to a deck I ran pre RTR that was rather effective and am trying to add some flavor from RTR and M14 for added effect. So first off my currently list.



The oddball card is obviously Elite Inqusitor. My reasoning behind him is Jund again. He has protection from Huntmaster of the Fells and Olivia Voldaren. Then if he is Rancored he can block and kill Thragtusk quite well. The alternative would be running Voice of Resurgence in his place which seems well positioned with all the control type decks floating around at the moment. I am only worried due to Pillar of Flame being so heavily ran main and sideboard at the moment. Also Voice is not a human so no Mayor buff and no help toward Champion.

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

Scavenging Ooze Vs. Deathrite Shaman

I have seem a couple threads debating the usefulness of these two cards from a legacy/modern stand point but what about in standard as it currently is.

More specifically I am looking at building a B/G Predator Ooze fight bear deck and have 4 slots that I am unsure if I should use 4 shaman, 4 ooze, or a combination of the two. Shaman offers direct damage and better life gain where as ooze can get big and nasty for a good fight bear target but can only deal damage if it successfuly swings through.

So from a standard point of view, which one takes the cake?

You always take the 4. Life is a resource and less important then the number of cards in your hand resource. Vexing devil implys an aggro deck of sorts. You get a free Dismember without having to extinguish any cards from your hand in the procress. It instantly gives you card advantage and board advantage.

With the new trigger rules that say as long as knowledge of the trigger is shown when important to the game state, when is it too late to declare a trigger off Voice of Resurgence after a player plays a spell during your turn? After the spell completely resolves, after a new spell is cast or turns change?

The situation I found myself in was I had a Voice in play and during my turn, my opponant cast a Angel of Restoration targeting his Thragtusk. After the spell had completely resolved and he had a beast token on the field I pointed out the Voice trigger. He claimed that the trigger needs to go on the stack the moment the angel is cast and at the lastest after she resolves. Since her enter the battlefield ability triggered then resolved the game state had moved past a spell being cast and voice could no longer trigger.

Have people forgotten that Liliana of the Veil is a card that sees play in both modern and legacy. Her interaction with Revenge of Necromancy is amazing. If Revenge can get printed with a mana cost of or :symb::symb: then it will be very useful. Also in Legacy we have hymn to tourach which on its own is a good card but combined with Revenge is even better.

Quote from Delusional Sanity

I take it I'm the only guy cheesed at the fact that we're going to get another Jace? I get blue's a popular colour right now and he's kind of their main protagonist but we just had him in the last block, do we really need a fifth version, when theres still several colour combinations unaccounted for?

This is a needed evil to keep the game in balance. Wizards does not want planeswalkers to run the game. If there was multiple blue walkers with different names then a player could effectivily run many different walkers and just control the board. If there is simply multiple Jaces with different abilities then a player is limited to the number of walkers they can run in a deck as they will clash with 2 Jaces out at once.

Varolz, the Scar-Striped and Vexing Devil seem to have pretty good synergy together as well as any other low CMC vs power. Think this type of syerngy deck with rancor would be worth exploring?

Also in modern Death's Shadow seems insane comboed with Varolz.