MTG Salvation

Either Firstblade, Wind Drake, or Deputy. Hidden Strings is good, but without something with evasion of some sort to put it onto, it's just going to durdle.

I'd buy him two Intro packs, preferably ones that use the same colors. Gruul is good, and if the mother has no religious objections, Rakdos isn't bad either. It'll allow him to play against himself if he wants to, or he can take them apart and mesh them together into a deck if he prefers.

Waiting 4 turns for a 3/3 flier seems excessive. I'd replace them with Basilica Screecher myself. Get in your Extorts quicker.

Quote from chaos_redefined

Flying is a form of evasion, and there is plenty of that in blue/black.

I don't know how else to put it. If I wanted to play aggro, there are much better colors out there to do it with, Gruul or Rakdos especially, that can win in five turns with sheer aggression instead of paying 4CMC for a 2/2 flyer.

What's the point in playing Blue/Black if you're not going to play with control? And what control would you use with fliers? Probably tap effects, because mill and discard would mean more spells and less creatures. But all the mill and discard for Dimir requires creatures. And if you're tapping out to pay 5CMC for Shadow Slice just so you can put it on Daggerdrome Imp or whatever, well, it's just disappointing to say the least. It feels wrong. It feels weak and desperate.

Anyway, I need to shut up and stop derailing the threat. Returning mechanics that might fit the theme of Theros...can't do any of the Innistrad or RTR ones. Artifacts might be in high supply this block, so maybe a Metalcraft variant? Not really well read on other mechanics. Convoke might make sense on some of the bigger creatures, like small humans prostrating themselves and praying to bring a God down to earth.

Jace isn't the type to cheat, if only because he's stupid enough to fall in love with a woman who played games involving him with Tezzeret, and who probably doesn't care a damn about him anyway.

For a Blue mage, he's such a romantic.

Quote from Skaterbruski

Well that's not very nice. I tend to agree though, partially because I love Dimir, and partially because I know it can race. There are more ways to win a race then rushing to finish line. There is also stalling them, and taking your time.

If you're going to stall, stall. If you're going to mill, mill. The thing about Blue is that you kind of have to build around one of its facets - there's no point in running tap effects and bounce if all you're going to do is enable a dinky 1/1 to poke your opponent.

It would be better if you just went straight control and never mind milling and never mind Ciphering either.

Can you only sacrifice permanents as a result of a spell or ability, or can you literally pick up a card you have in play at any time and just put it into your graveyard for no reason beyond "I wanted to."?

Also, are you allowed to discard cards from your hand at any time?

Quote from krishnath

One can come with the same argument against cards with splice and other repeatable "effects" as well.

Yeah, you may only get to use the ability three or four times, but that is still more times than a lower costed spell. There is a reason why the Dimir is filled with evasive creatures.

Dimir has one evasive creature. One. Which is Deathcult Rogue. Oh, and Keymaster Rogue, although I find him overcosted. Right now, we also have access to Tormented Soul and Invisible Stalker. And Harbor Bandit too, I suppose.

So, 5 cards that can't be blocked. There are ways to make other Blue/Black creatures unblockable, but if you need to cast spells just to cast overcosted spells just so you can put them on your creatures, well, seems a bit of a waste to me. An important aspect of any deck is how mana-efficient things are, how much bang you get for your buck. If I'm gonna spend an extra mana for a Cipher effect, I want to make sure I'm going to get it. But to do this, I have to go out of my way, spend mana on things like Crippling Blight and Tricks of the Trade, just so I can get some use out of choosing Last Thoughts over Divination or Think Twice.

You see what I'm getting at? It's such a convoluted way to play. Blue/Black was never meant to be an aggressive color, but in this block Blue/Black decks win mostly to half-assed hand destruction/millling and pinging for damage. It's so dispiriting.

I thought Wizards said, once upon a time, that they wanted to scale back on Lord effects and anthem effects in future because it wasn't where they wanted the game to go? That every deck runs 4 non-legendary lords for 3 mana each, with stacking +1/+1 effects, which means that 1/1 you put out for 1 mana on turn 7 or 8 is now a 5/5.

I guess with all the focus on aggro decks, though, that quickly got changed.

Sounds like there might be some use for Shrieking Affliction.

He'd be your finisher - you go from Black discard effects and random burn control to suicide Red/Black hand destruction for the win.

The worth of signed objects depends entirely on who signed them, and the popularity/importance of said person, in addition to how much respect others have for them.

Just because it's in DOTP doesn't mean it's going to be in the Core Set. Core cards are ones which have the Core set mark on them, and DOTP is not Core. Sorry to be pedantic, but, well, it's true.

Quote from hyalapterouslemur

We will probably see a hexproof sliver, though. I'd hope to see it at CMC>=6 at rare, but you never know.

If they make it, and make it at a low cost, control players will just throw their cards in the air and go "That's it, I'm out, GG." and go play Xbox Live instead.

Heck, anyone would do that, really - a card that grants all Slivers you control Hexproof? That's seriously broken. All you would need is some token generating Sliver + Poplulate effects and you've pretty much won.

I wonder how you create an angel? Do you just take a human and pump it full of mana until wings shoot out of its back?

Despite being a semi-religious guild, the Orzhov have very little to do with angels at all. They prefer spirits and thrulls for some reason, and use humans for their dirty work, and lots of them. I know we have things like Deathpact Angel and Angel of Despair for the Orzhov, but they're exceptions.

I thought that Domri ended up on the Green part of Dominaria, but Naya makes more sense.

I wonder why so few of the Planeswalkers ever went to Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, despite Jace being part of the set?

I'd also forgotten that Chandra had been on Zendikar, and I remember that Nissa visited Ravnica and basically had a panic attack from the lack of nature.