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Straight outta Johto18973 Posts
On January 26 2013 06:56 JingleHell wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2013 06:53 MoonBear wrote:On January 26 2013 06:48 JingleHell wrote:On January 26 2013 06:38 Sn0_Man wrote: You have a pretty good grasp on the power of extort, and what cards it works well with. However, having to pay additional mana is a very real cost. A 2/2 for 2 mana is an OK creature, playable in some formats, not so much in others. However, a 2/2 for 3 mana that drains them for 1 really isn't good. Basically, adding 1 to the cost of a card in exchange for draining the opponent for one isn't inherently a good deal. However, the ability to do it every time you play a spell, without costing cards in and of itself, is quite powerful. How powerful? well, we need to get a chance to play with it before we can really say.
Some of the other mechanics are equally hard to evaluate. Radiance, for example, relies on you attacking with at least 3 creatures. Often, this will end up being a sacrificial attack where at least one of your creatures is suiciding in order to trigger the Radiance, since otherwise you would need 3 creatures bigger than their largest (and Red/White usually has smallish creatures). Obviously the Radiance triggers need to be powerful to counteract this, but it is hard to judge what is powerful but not broken without playing with the cards ourselves. A lot of people seem to think boros is the best, judging by the surveys etc I've read. Battalion you mean? Pretty obvious you just throw out Captain's Call, Attended Knight, Crusader of Odric, Captain of the Watch, and Odric, Master Tactician. Put a pisston of creature tokens on the field, buff them all, add in a guy who directly derives his power from the number of creatures, and then, just for shits and grins, decide how it all gets blocked. Radiance was the Boros mechanics from original Ravnica. If you overextend so hard, you get hurt hard by board wipe, like Terminus or Supreme Judgement. Fair enough. So you'd also want some sort of counterspell-ability for that? And you'd still be kind of a one trick pony, but it'd be kind of funny. I figure it'll still be a couple of weeks before I'm starting to see all the angles reliably. Right now I'm trying to get enough of a feel for the basics to not feel like a tart trying to go ground-up with a deck. Supreme Verdict is uncounterable though. So you can't do that.
What you could do is if they draw Terminus and trigger the Miracle, Miracle goes onto the stack before they cast it. You could then use Aurelia's Fury and lock them out of playing spells. But if they're playing Terminus, they probably have counters of their own. Splashing Blue for your own counters just seems like it weakens your manabase and gives less consistency.
If you're going aggro, you probably want to overwhelm them fast. Things like Hellrider are much better for this. Odric and Captain of the Watch just seem a bit slow and not enough upside for the cost. With Sphinx Revelation control decks and stuff around, until people shift to more creature-orientated stuff playing a deck that needs to overextend seems risky.
Ofc, anything goes if you're not playing complete ultra-competitive so don't let me put you off playing what's fun!
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On January 26 2013 07:09 MoonBear wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2013 06:56 JingleHell wrote:On January 26 2013 06:53 MoonBear wrote:On January 26 2013 06:48 JingleHell wrote:On January 26 2013 06:38 Sn0_Man wrote: You have a pretty good grasp on the power of extort, and what cards it works well with. However, having to pay additional mana is a very real cost. A 2/2 for 2 mana is an OK creature, playable in some formats, not so much in others. However, a 2/2 for 3 mana that drains them for 1 really isn't good. Basically, adding 1 to the cost of a card in exchange for draining the opponent for one isn't inherently a good deal. However, the ability to do it every time you play a spell, without costing cards in and of itself, is quite powerful. How powerful? well, we need to get a chance to play with it before we can really say.
Some of the other mechanics are equally hard to evaluate. Radiance, for example, relies on you attacking with at least 3 creatures. Often, this will end up being a sacrificial attack where at least one of your creatures is suiciding in order to trigger the Radiance, since otherwise you would need 3 creatures bigger than their largest (and Red/White usually has smallish creatures). Obviously the Radiance triggers need to be powerful to counteract this, but it is hard to judge what is powerful but not broken without playing with the cards ourselves. A lot of people seem to think boros is the best, judging by the surveys etc I've read. Battalion you mean? Pretty obvious you just throw out Captain's Call, Attended Knight, Crusader of Odric, Captain of the Watch, and Odric, Master Tactician. Put a pisston of creature tokens on the field, buff them all, add in a guy who directly derives his power from the number of creatures, and then, just for shits and grins, decide how it all gets blocked. Radiance was the Boros mechanics from original Ravnica. If you overextend so hard, you get hurt hard by board wipe, like Terminus or Supreme Judgement. Fair enough. So you'd also want some sort of counterspell-ability for that? And you'd still be kind of a one trick pony, but it'd be kind of funny. I figure it'll still be a couple of weeks before I'm starting to see all the angles reliably. Right now I'm trying to get enough of a feel for the basics to not feel like a tart trying to go ground-up with a deck. Supreme Verdict is uncounterable though. So you can't do that. What you could do is if they draw Terminus and trigger the Miracle, Miracle goes onto the stack before they cast it. You could then use Aurelia's Fury and lock them out of playing spells. But if they're playing Terminus, they probably have counters of their own. Splashing Blue for your own counters just seems like it weakens your manabase and gives less consistency. If you're going aggro, you probably want to overwhelm them fast. Things like Hellrider are much better for this. Odric and Captain of the Watch just seem a bit slow and not enough upside for the cost. With Sphinx Revelation control decks and stuff around, until people shift to more creature-orientated stuff playing a deck that needs to overextend seems risky. Ofc, anything goes if you're not playing complete ultra-competitive so don't let me put you off playing what's fun!
Heh, I can't imagine myself going for easily counterable cheese even in friendly, although exalted is fun just because when the cards align it can wreck everything with a Vampire Nighthawk, and the Sole Domination deck is fairly learner friendly.
And to answer the other question, I'm not properly signed up for the pre-release happening after FNM tonight, because of a weird chain of events.
+ Show Spoiler +Basically, the reason I finally got off my ass about starting Magic was because I got a promo email about the Gatecrasher event. I was signed up for the local shop's mailing list after I went to a Barcraft they sponsored sometime early last year, they hadn't quite opened yet.
So anyways, I saw that thing, I needed a new hobby that didn't involve sitting on my ass, and said screw it. So I went and did a little L2P deck match, did some homework, and got a deck on Wednesday, played a few games that evening, and then, when I was looking at the event thing, they had already filled all their slots.
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In more competitive play, there are generally 3 kinds of decks:
Aggro Control Combo
Aggro tries to kill the opponent before they can do whatever it is they are trying to do. Usually this is by attacking. Your current B/W exalted deck is a pretty good example of this. Newer players are often recommended the most basic of aggro decks: Mono-red. Aggro wants to win ASAP and make the game as simple as possible.
Control tries to take control of the game. They usually do this with Removal, Counterspells, Mass removal and Card draw. They want the game to go quite long (10, 15, even 20 turns) so that they can abuse their opportunities for card advantage with card draw etc. Experienced and especially highly skilled players often opt for control decks based on the idea that a 15-turn game gives them more chances to out-play their opponent when compared to a 5-turn game. And drawing cards is fun 
Combo tries to invalidate their opponents by playing what is essentially a different game. Combo wishes to interact with their opponent as little as possible an abuse the interaction between a few cards to just win. A good example of a strong combo is: Dark Depths and Vampire Hexmage. Those 2 cards combine to make a 20/20 flying creature by themselves, for a relatively low mana cost.
There are many overlaps here, such as combo-control decks that try to disrupt their opponents while at the same time abusing a combo, but those are the 3 main types.
Playing with and against some of each will give you a better idea of what kind of decks you enjoy.
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On January 26 2013 07:09 MoonBear wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2013 06:56 JingleHell wrote:On January 26 2013 06:53 MoonBear wrote:On January 26 2013 06:48 JingleHell wrote:On January 26 2013 06:38 Sn0_Man wrote: You have a pretty good grasp on the power of extort, and what cards it works well with. However, having to pay additional mana is a very real cost. A 2/2 for 2 mana is an OK creature, playable in some formats, not so much in others. However, a 2/2 for 3 mana that drains them for 1 really isn't good. Basically, adding 1 to the cost of a card in exchange for draining the opponent for one isn't inherently a good deal. However, the ability to do it every time you play a spell, without costing cards in and of itself, is quite powerful. How powerful? well, we need to get a chance to play with it before we can really say.
Some of the other mechanics are equally hard to evaluate. Radiance, for example, relies on you attacking with at least 3 creatures. Often, this will end up being a sacrificial attack where at least one of your creatures is suiciding in order to trigger the Radiance, since otherwise you would need 3 creatures bigger than their largest (and Red/White usually has smallish creatures). Obviously the Radiance triggers need to be powerful to counteract this, but it is hard to judge what is powerful but not broken without playing with the cards ourselves. A lot of people seem to think boros is the best, judging by the surveys etc I've read. Battalion you mean? Pretty obvious you just throw out Captain's Call, Attended Knight, Crusader of Odric, Captain of the Watch, and Odric, Master Tactician. Put a pisston of creature tokens on the field, buff them all, add in a guy who directly derives his power from the number of creatures, and then, just for shits and grins, decide how it all gets blocked. Radiance was the Boros mechanics from original Ravnica. If you overextend so hard, you get hurt hard by board wipe, like Terminus or Supreme Judgement. Fair enough. So you'd also want some sort of counterspell-ability for that? And you'd still be kind of a one trick pony, but it'd be kind of funny. I figure it'll still be a couple of weeks before I'm starting to see all the angles reliably. Right now I'm trying to get enough of a feel for the basics to not feel like a tart trying to go ground-up with a deck. Supreme Verdict is uncounterable though. So you can't do that. What you could do is if they draw Terminus and trigger the Miracle, Miracle goes onto the stack before they cast it. You could then use Aurelia's Fury and lock them out of playing spells. But if they're playing Terminus, they probably have counters of their own. Splashing Blue for your own counters just seems like it weakens your manabase and gives less consistency. If you're going aggro, you probably want to overwhelm them fast. Things like Hellrider are much better for this. Odric and Captain of the Watch just seem a bit slow and not enough upside for the cost. With Sphinx Revelation control decks and stuff around, until people shift to more creature-orientated stuff playing a deck that needs to overextend seems risky. Ofc, anything goes if you're not playing complete ultra-competitive so don't let me put you off playing what's fun!
Are you forgetting what Boros Charm actually does? Both it and Rootborne defenses are in the format to counter uncounterable wraths. Who needs counterspells? Aurelia's Fury probably won't even see play, it seems insane but it's really, really not. I'd only run maybe 1-2 in the sideboard of a Boros/Naya deck and even then only board them in in aggro mirrors and use it as a "Tap all creatures" spell to alpha them for the win.
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I am attempting to start up a werewolf deck, (mostly innistrad, can't get Dark Ascension in my LGS) what noncreature cards would you recommend? I managed to pull a Kessig Wolf Run.
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On January 26 2013 08:28 Leonite7 wrote: I am attempting to start up a werewolf deck, (mostly innistrad, can't get Dark Ascension in my LGS) what noncreature cards would you recommend? I managed to pull a Kessig Wolf Run.
Moonmist is a beating in Werewolf decks and instant speed burn spells help control flipping so Skullcrack, Brimstone Volley, and Searing Spear are all good.
You really, REALLY need Immerwulf though, and preferably Huntmaster of the Fells, both from DKA, try to trade for them.
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On January 26 2013 08:25 deth2munkies wrote: Are you forgetting what Boros Charm actually does? Both it and Rootborne defenses are in the format to counter uncounterable wraths. Who needs counterspells? Aurelia's Fury probably won't even see play, it seems insane but it's really, really not. I'd only run maybe 1-2 in the sideboard of a Boros/Naya deck and even then only board them in in aggro mirrors and use it as a "Tap all creatures" spell to alpha them for the win.
The problem is that Terminus doesn't care if your stuff is indestructible
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So I have a pretty simple question...when you create a new account and are given all these new cards.... are they all usable with current block? Or is it a mix of modern cards and ones from the current block?
+ Show Spoiler +
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All those cards are from Magic 2013, which came out Summer 2012 and is the most recent core set, (not the ones in the Planeswalker pack though, those are special) and as such you can use them in Standard!
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On January 26 2013 10:22 huameng wrote: All those cards are from Magic 2013, which came out Summer 2012 and is the most recent core set, (not the ones in the Planeswalker pack though, those are special) and as such you can use them in Standard! I heard it's better to just sell the pack for around 3 tickets to a bot? Is that good value?
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Yeah, no one ever opens packs on Magic Online unless they are in a draft.
And I dunno how much the pack is worth right now, it should be 3 point something tickets. You can check the value of just about anything by going into the classifieds (menu --> community --> marketplace --> classifieds) and type in the name of whatever you wanna sell. In this case, just put in "M13" and you'll see hundreds of bots, each posting the price they'll give you for your pack. Find the highest bid and voila
if you (or anyone) have any more questions btw, feel free to message me on magic online, username "FinchleyCentral", it's just a lot easier
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Sorry for a long post.
The Gist
Went to the prerelease at midnight (Australia). I chose simic and won all 4 games, using just 2 rare (fathom mage and stolen identity) since I opened like 2 biovisionaries. Simic>Dimir >>rest imo.
Unfiltered thoughts:
2 were Gruul, one Dimir, one Orzhov. Of the three I felt Dimir was the strongest. This is contrary to a lot of things I heard from by googling/youtubing but here's my thoughts on each guild mechanic and I might post what cards I thought were effective later.
Gruul: Easy. They have access to very good one drops but the biggest problem playing as Gruul is that opponents will block you. I blocked every time with superior creature strength with my evolved creatures knowing that a) If they chose to use bloodrush, it's a 1-1 trade and I'd be losing a 1 drop/2-drop and my creature will be blocking a lot of damage b) I had a few 2cmc green revival spells which my dead creatures back into my hand anyway
Gruul is better off not using the bloodrush mechanic unless it's to save their key creature. Pit Fight is also quite a decent removal spell which I used in my simic deck for this.
Orzhov: Easy. They are more effective than Gruul given that they removal and defensive cards but they're not aggressively costed. The biggest problem is the mythic rare creatures but I suppose you can count yourself unlucky if you face an orzhov armed with bombs and you have none yourself. Quite common to see Orzhov players splash Red or Blue, one 3-1 orzhov player who lost to me splashed blue for some good effects.
Dimir: Really hard. The mill mechanic is strong. I feel that people won't draft dimir because of the internet's opinion and if you get given a pack of dimir then go for it. I was milled my whole deck twice and I would have died on the 3rd game had I not put in 41 cards (!!) and I killed him exactly 5 damage when he had 5 life when I had 0 cards in my library.
There is a number of cards that make it work and I apologise for not remembering the names but anyway: The blue 2/3 card that mills 2 everytime you play a blue creature (they stack). He had 2 that milled for 4 per turn. The blue 3/2 card that is unblockable and bounces creatures. Enables milling for 8 per turn with above (!!) Wight of the Precinct Six (ended up being a 9/9 drop for 2 cmc) Dimir promo card (ended up being a 26/26 when it was cast turn 7) The UB cipher card that mills of 3 The black creature that enters play and mills till you draw land.
Simic: Awesome guild even if you don't get the mythics, I feel the uncommon/commons are bomby enough. You aim to get your small 1 drop evolves, the cloudfin raptor and experiment one to get to 3/4 and 3/3 with the following: crocanura, miming slime, shambleshark, drakewing krasis, ivy lane denizen. I wouldn't draft more than 1-2 cloudfin raptor and 1-2 experiment one because they're chump cards on turn 7 draw.
Some other key cards were pit fight and aetherize for soft removal, remember you can use pitfight for removal as you are blocking/attacking. Wildwood rebirth also made for safe trading. And finally adaptive snapjaw, leyling phantom and stolen identity for finishers, the former guaranteeing to evolve and be evolved, the other for beefy damage for trading and evolving. Fathom mage was meh, simic charm and wild rebirth for protection but I would have drawn 2-3 cards when I did get it, I would have loved to have mixed fathom mage with bioshift to draw 5-6 cards for 1 mana but I did not get bioshift.
Boros: I duno lol. Played against one for funsies and I crushed him and my friend who went boros ended up 1 W 3 L. Don't like battalion for the 3-some, it's a useless ability for the first few turns and you just have vanilla cards and when you finally get it rolling, what will you do against superior simic evolved creatures? You'll be drafting stupid cards like armored transport and the token generators for battalion really limits you. Field medic and daring skyjek were my favourite cards of red/white that were uncommon/common. I disliked Boros in Gatecrash even though I love Red/White as my favourite color combo.
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Gj Brocket, I was just having second thoughts about my pick as simic since it's very curve dependent.
Would you mind posting the list you used?
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Ok. Give me an hour. Man has to eat.
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I unsleeved the deck for some reason at 5am after the flight so I don't know what the missing 2 slots are, it was 41 total. MVP cards: Frilled Oculus (real badass), Drakewing Krasis (the backbone of simic), Crocanura (evolved), Metropolis Sprite did the most damage, finisher leyline phantom. I relied on pit fight and aetherize for board control and tempo/free turn.
Warnings: I regret using scatter arc, I used it once for countering key runes, that's the main application, simic charm is better for countering removal. Any card that relies on gates are stupid, try not to laugh at people who try to use them, they don't know any better. Deathcult Rogue seems 'unblockable', but not very good versus a blue decks (dimir/simic) or black decks (orzhov/dimir) since they just use metropolis sprite to block and kill it, so quite good versus gruul/boros but otherwise consider sideboarding it out for other creatures.
Creatures (12) Adaptive Snapjaw Cloudfin Raptor Crocanura Deathcult Rogue Drakewing Krasis Drakewing Krasis Experiment One Fathom Mage Frilled Oculus Ivylane Denizen Leyline Phantom Metropolise Sprite Shambleshark
Non Creatures (10) Aetherize Miming Slime Pit Fight Scatter Arc (bad card) Simic Charm Spell Rupture Stolen Identity Totally Lost (Cute card) Wildwood Rebirth Wildwood Rebirth
Lands (16) 7 Forest 7 Island 2 Simic Guildgate
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No issues on land with only 16?
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That might have been the missing card, like an island or forest so I guess I had 17 land. I was only happy when I had 1 drop or 2 drops in my hand, or 3 lands and a 3 drop, which happened most times, and I did mulligan two separate games to do that. Basically I relied on drakewing krasis for my wincon, I often finished a game within 5 minutes or before turn 5 or 6.
Also if you are thinking of going simic, better bring some dice like d6's, i only needed 3 at any time. It makes it more transparent for combat decisions for yourself and your opponent.
And as a personal side note,I like using two d20's to track my life and track their life. It gets off putting when opponents forget what their previous life totals are.
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Think I got pretty ba draw no fliers outside of metropolis sprite almost tempted to play 2 millennial gargoyles just to have fliers
2 metropolis sprite Key master rogue Leyline phantom 2 frilled oculus Shambleshark Fathom Mage Crocanura Wasteland viper Lay land denizen Rust scarab Scab-clan charger
Spell rupture Aetherize Bio shift Simic charm Wildwood rebirth 2 burst of strength 2 forced adaptation
Simic keyrune 2 simic guildgate 8 islands 7 forest
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