Magic: The Gathering - Page 559

On September 16 2014 07:35 MoonBear wrote:
Blue/Green seems to be somewhat lacking in removal from first glance? For one you don't have sweepers like Bile Blight, Anger of the Gods, End Hostilities. If you want protect a Planeswalkers to generate constant card advantage turn after turn one of the most powerful ones right now is Elspeth and I guess Keranos counts as a virtual Planeswalker. If you need spot removal to kill other Planeswalkers you're going to need to play another colour like Hero's Downfall or Fated Retribution or you could use direct damage like Shock or Volcanic Geyser (are these red cards even Standard playable?). And don't forget the tri-colour charms!

The point is a lot of other cards do nice things. So longer answer "yes, probably".

On September 16 2014 09:08 deth2munkies wrote:


Neither of those red cards is standard legal. Fated Conflagration would be the red "kill target thing" spell, but is just plain worse than the 4 mana vindicate in Khans in B/W. I honestly think Esper maybe splash green will be the "control colors"

On September 16 2014 09:08 deth2munkies wrote:


Neither of those red cards is standard legal. Fated Conflagration would be the red "kill target thing" spell, but is just plain worse than the 4 mana vindicate in Khans in B/W. I honestly think Esper maybe splash green will be the "control colors"

On September 16 2014 13:04 RoieTRS wrote:


Just drop the white from that "esper splash green"
Utter End and End Hostilities are expensive replacements for what RTRblock had.
What you want are thoughtseize, Murdurous cut, coarser/caryatid, and blue shenanigans. Add in any of the good walkers in those colors and you've got a 75 that trades 1for1 with a shell that survives aggro and builds incremental advantages until you win.

On September 16 2014 15:55 Thieving Magpie wrote:


But I thought control decks were decks that won through card advantage, only using 1-1 to break even until card advantage "thing" resolves be it rev, FoF, ancestral visions, standstill, etc... The card engine would allow them to then 1-1 again until the next draw engine. And it continues to do it until the opponent runs out of cards.

Is that an archaic description now? (Honestly curious, I only play legacy now where everything is tempo, even the control decks)

On September 16 2014 18:10 Whole wrote:

In a world without rev, I think the card advantage will come through mainly planewalkers, although blue decks will probably run a few Dig Through Time.

On September 16 2014 15:55 Thieving Magpie wrote:


But I thought control decks were decks that won through card advantage, only using 1-1 to break even until card advantage "thing" resolves be it rev, FoF, ancestral visions, standstill, etc... The card engine would allow them to then 1-1 again until the next draw engine. And it continues to do it until the opponent runs out of cards.

Is that an archaic description now? (Honestly curious, I only play legacy now where everything is tempo, even the control decks)

On September 16 2014 23:36 Hagen0 wrote:


Jace provides some card advantage for Miracles. Carsten Kotter's definition of archetypes can be found here: http://www.starcitygames.com/article/29240_The-Guide-To-Macro-Archetypes.html. His definition of Control doesn't mention card draw.

On September 16 2014 16:01 GoSuNamhciR wrote:
I think the big control break out card of this format is going to be mindswipe. I fully expect to see RUG be the control/midrangey deck of choice with Mindswipe and Temur Charm. I don't think we will see another pure control deck a la Sphinx's Rev.. but we will likely see a control deck built around efficient creatures, likely trying to start pressuring you around turn 6 or so. I also fully expect Dig through time to be a gigantic card as well in control decks.

Mindswipe, Temur Charm, Dig Through Time, Aetherspouts, Sylvan Caryatid are all a good beginning for a shell of a control deck..

I personally think that Aggro is going to have a power level so out of control that only midrange and aggro decks will exist, at least until the next set gives colors room for more reach. I fully expect to see aggro shells, and a ton of Junk midrange shells as they have a lot of lifegain. Also Mardu Tokens looks to be powerful if control is not able to get off the ground, which I expect to be the case for a while.

I am currently brewing a deck that is not sure if it wants 4x Rabblemaster (and is running red... we are playtesting right now).. which is pretty insane lol. The deck has 24 one drops I believe currently.

On September 17 2014 16:23 RoieTRS wrote:


Sorry gotta disagree on every front here.
Mindswipe is awful.The cheapest price to counter a spell is 1UR which may or may not be sufficent to counter something and deal 1 damage. If you change the R to U you get dissolve and ALWAYS get to counter the spell. If you're behind, you having an overpriced soft counter which isn't how you catch up, and if you're ahead it doesn't affect the board at all - it simply does damage to the opponent (which doesn't mean anything until that life total reaches zero)

Control will play differently but it won't be out of the format. Wrath effects are pretty overrated so moving to the new standard with the 5mana for wrath makes it seem pretty unplayable and that's not too far off the truth. There are a few ways to make sure your opponent can't do anything until you win: Thoughtsieze, a variety of instant-speed removal, coarser/caryatid, ruthless ripper as a blocker, nyx fleece ram. Even the new red planeswalker has a removal mode. Elspeth still exists. Don't forget all the powerful cards for aggro either cost 5 mana or have ridiculous 3-color costs.

Of course, it all depends on what the metagame shapes out to be, which is critical to how control decks build their 75

On September 17 2014 16:42 RoieTRS wrote:
In a world where the best card draws are Divination, and Jace's Ingenuity (I've seen Font of Fortunes too), you aren't exactly building a deck around it.

On September 17 2014 16:42 RoieTRS wrote:
In a world where the best card draws are Divination, and Jace's Ingenuity (I've seen Font of Fortunes too), you aren't exactly building a deck around it.