The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

[Garth]

If your doing infect ya need Plague Stingers, Vatmothers are also really nice. Also consider adventuring gear and fetch lands(teramorphic expanse/evolving wilds works if you're on a budget) Games can go real fast when you hit them for 5 poison turn 3 with a adventuring plague stinger.

EDIT
Heres a quick poison list I threw together, it gets to work pretty fast. The whole point is adventuring gear+any creature and then popping fetch lands. This is the budget version, with cash the teramorphic expanses/evolving wilds would be marsh flats/verdant catacombs.

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Mono Black Infect

17 creatures
4 Plague Stinger
4 Phyrexian Crusader
4 Necropede
3 plague myr
2 Septic rats

8 Artifacts
4 Adventuring gear
2 Tumble magnets
2 Contagion clasp

11 spells
2 Go For the throat
3 Doom blade
3 Vulrent Swipe
3 Grim discovery

24 lands
4 evolving wilds
4 t-spanse
2 Inkmoth nexus
14 Swamp

[IJJazek]

The main standard deck I run is a Mono white tempered steel infect
sounds complicated? it's really not

4X Ichorclaw Myr
4X Necropede
4X corpse Cur
4X Core Prowler
3X plague myr
4X Oust
4X Journey To Nowhere
4X Condemn
4X tempered steel
2X armored ascension
23 land
all plains plus
4X Inkmoth Nexus

the general feel is to get everything out of the way and use tempered steel to hit with 3/3 and 4/4 artifacts nonstop and the ascension ALWAYS makes everyone just stare because they think it's a second rate card but no one sees a 6/6 or 7/7 artifact infect flyer coming
I also run super generic red/black vamps and play a fair amount of commander with ascendant evincar as my commander

[Lyinginbedmon]

Armoured Ascension is definitely a card folks around here despise, mostly for the all-Whites that play it liberally.

[Robert Merlow]

Ah, Armored Ascension. Turning little weenies into gigantic beaters since 2008.

@Garth: The Adventuring Gear mechanic is awesome, but I don't think that quite justifies having a deck tailored for land-drop when I can buff them with Hand of the Praetors and improve mana-acceleration by removing the land-fetch.

Would Inexorable Tide make a better choice for Proliferate or stick with Contagion Clasp?

[theDreamer]

There are advantages to both: you'll be dropping contagion clasp earlier, but you'll be forced to choose: proliferate or cast a spell.

Inexorable shows up much later, but you getta start proliferating often, assuming you cast spells a bunch.

Though, that + another spell with proliferate means twice the fun.

The question is which do you think is more likely?

Plus, if I had a "destroy artifact or enchantment" card in my hand, I'd use it on the inexorable first.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Hmm...in a deck with means of putting infinite charge counters on an artifact, and with 4 2-mana bounce-1 lands, is Clearwater Goblet superior to Eternity Vessel?

Clearwater is 1 mana cheaper and transpires every turn...but Eternity Vessel is useful straight out of the box...hmm...

[theDreamer]

Is this for your myr deck?

If so, I'd say go with the clearwater: Eternity might spend a few turns doing nothing for you, or if you drop it at a desperate time, it might not net helping you.

[Garth]

@robert I found that adventuring gear is SO powerful with fetch lands and infect that it does in fact warrant having a deck tailored around it. I was considering Hand of Praetors, but like Vatmother I found it just too slow for what I was trying to do.

I updated my list to reflect my current list, added some more control-ish elements. Memorcides let me deal with Jace and Vengevines, Inquisition takes out anything that would give me trouble in the crucial early game.

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4 Phyrexian Crusader
4 Plague Stinger
3 Necropede
3 Plague Myr
2 Septic Rats

4 Adventuring Gear

3 Memoricide
3 Doom Blade
3 Grim Discovery
4 Virulent Swipe
2 Contagion Clasp
3 Inquisition of Kozelik

4 Terramorphic Expanse(wishes it was Marsh Flats)
4 Evolving Wilds(Aspires to be Verdant Catacombs One Day)
2 Inkmoth Nexus
12 Swamp

Board:

1 Memoricide
4 Go for the Throat
2 Ratchet bomb
1 Doom Blade
4 Deathmark
3 Duress


[Kag]

Would Inexorable Tide make a better choice for Proliferate or stick with Contagion Clasp?

Think about your midgame. I feel like there are two important questions you need to answer:
1. Are you casting spells enough to really get a big benefit out of Inexorable Tide? If you're spending all your mana on creature abilities or something, obviously it's no good.

2. How much proliferating do you need to do? Ideally, the card you pick should let you proliferate exactly enough times (and at the right times) 'to do whatever it is you need to do. If it's less, you fail and die. If it's more, you wasted mana or time you could have spent on getting better board control, stronger players outpace you, and you die.

Obviously, if you have more ways of getting poison counters on someone with creatures or spells, you don't need to proliferate as much. On the other hand, proliferating is awesome.

It's also great if it fits your timings. If the best thing you can do with Contagion Clasp is drop it on turn 2, but you always prefer to play, like, Ichorclaw Myr at that time, then it's probably not the right fit for your deck.

That said, I feel like Contagion Clasp fits infect better in general. If you're at a loss, try both, take notes.

[SilentBobCDN]

Question for you all:

With cards like Grindclock, when you activate it and opponent puts top X cards from the library into the graveyard, Its not a true discard (ie Megrim wouldn't trigger, right?)

[Alex Steacy]

It's time for some Pauper decklists!
Wooooo! Hope everyone finds these interesting and/or enjoyable.

Goblins, Everywhere!
Its a goblin deck. It plays lots of cheap, efficient dudes and then domes for massive damage using goblin grenade and fireblast.
Creatures (24)
4 Goblin Cohort
4 Mogg Raider
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Mogg Warmarshal
4 Mogg Flunkies
4 Goblin Lookout
Spells (16)
4 Goblin Grenade
4 Dragon Fodder
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Fireblast
Land (20)
2 Teetering Peaks
18 Mountain
Sideboard (15)
3 Pyroblast
3 Raze
3 Arc Lightning
3 Stingscourger
3 Sparksmith
Tokens (5)
5 Custom Goblin Tokens

Mono Black Recursion
Uses the madness mechanic and creatures that enable discard to create a very resilient board position. Creatures return to play again and again, especially with tortured existence in play. I may change the list to run 4 Exhume and 4 Ulamog's crusher as an alternative win condition.
Creatures (22)
4 Putrid Imp
4 Brain Gorgers
4 Viscera Dragger
4 Grave Scrabbler
4 Vampire Hounds
2 Twisted Abomination
Spells (16)
4 Dark Ritual
4 Sign In Blood
4 Evincar's Justice
4 Tortured Existence
Land (22)
2 Barren Moor
20 Swamp
Sideboard (15)
3 Darkness
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Grasp of Darkness
4 Unmake
4 Faceless Butcher

Vive Italia!
Naya Aggro with a strong emphasis on landfall. Efficient pump creatures backed up by protective spells and more pump.
Creatures (20)
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Plated Geopede
4 Steppe Lynx
3 Scab-Clan Mauler
3 Qasali Pridemage
2 Goblin Legionnaire
Spells (18)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Giant Growth
4 Hyena Umbra
3 Evolution Charm
3 Dawn Charm
Artifacts (4)
4 Adventuring Gear
Land (23)
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Evolving Wilds
5 Mountain
5 Forest
5 Plains
Sideboard (15)
In progress

Gatling Crab
Mono blue tempo/combo. Stalls opponent with walls, tapdown and bounce effects while it assembles its horeshoe crab + hermetic study combo that pings for as much damage as you have blue mana free. Transmute cards and filtering aid in finding the combo.
Creatures (22)
4 Horseshoe Crab
4 Drift of Phantasms
4 Spiketail Hatchling
4 Man-o'-War
4 Augury Owl
2 Mulldrifter
Spells (16)
4 Muddle the Mixture
4 Hermetic Study
4 Banishing Knack
4 Gigadrowse
Land (22)
22 Island

[Alex Steacy]

Question for you all:

With cards like Grindclock, when you activate it and opponent puts top X cards from the library into the graveyard, Its not a true discard (ie Megrim wouldn't trigger, right?)

Correct. Milling doesn't trigger discard effects like Megrim or Liliana's Caress, but it does trigger a live Bloodchief Ascension.

[Kag]

I feel like it is crazy to play a combo deck without Ponder or Preordain (or Foresee). They're just about the most efficient card advantage around.

[SPACExJUMPxJOSH]

hey guys, how do you tell which magic cards are rare? i think it has something to do with that box nder the pic, but i have alot of different coloured and shaped ones

[Lyinginbedmon]

The expansion logo at the far right of the type/subtype line changes colour based on the rarity of the card.

For example:

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Common = Black
Uncommon = Silver
Rare = Gold
Mythic Rare = Orange

[Ottoman]

As far as shapes go, here's a handy guide to expansion symbols. They're arranged loosely in chronological order, except for the core sets, for some reason.

[Lyinginbedmon]

So some recent multiplayer games (which, predominantly, involved me being beaten to a pulp by everyone else involved regardless of circumstance) have revealed a flaw or two in Myr Engine.

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Sorceries/Instants
Banefire x3
Cancel x4
Dispel x4
Splinter Twin x3

Artifacts
Darksteel Reactor x2
Everflowing Chalice x3
Genesis Chamber x2
Grindclock x2
Myr Reservoir x2
Myr Turbine x3

Creatures
Coretapper x3
Iron Myr x4
Myr Galvanizer x4
Myr Servitor x4
Palladium Myr x3

Land
Island x11
Izzet Boilerworks x4
Mountain x8

Firstly is the lack of defense. Properly orchestrated Myr Engine can kill an opponent outright in 4 turns, but it doesn't have much of a defense before that. Ideally, it can combine Myr Servitors and Genesis Chamber to create a dummy defense full of 1/1 Myr Tokens, but that doesn't speak much against unblockables or fliers.

Secondly is, touched upon by the unblockables mentioned above, the lack of life gain. Without a defence, lifegain is the only real solution to a lack of vitality, and Myr Engine has no way of gaining life to sustain itself whatsoever. Hence my investigation into artifact lifegain cards earlier, such as Clearwater Goblet, which would mix fairly well I think.

Third is the lack of tutor. Myr Engine relies on Galvanizers and mana myr, but it's entirely possible that it might not acquire them (either by way of draw or by the delay inherent in Myr Turbine) until fairly late in the game, by which point the opponent may well have accrued a sizeable advantage. Cards like Fabricate would be useful here, and ideally I'd like a very quick way of initiating Archmage Ascension.

Problem: Whilst there are solutions to (most of) these issues, I can't really fix them without eliminating avenues of victory from the engine.

Currently, if someone, for example, casts Counterbore on my Galvanizers, I can still eke out a victory with, say, Darksteel Reactor/Grindclock/Banefire via Everflowing Chalice, Coretapper, and possibly Splinter Twin for acceleration (tap Coretapper, sacrifice the copy for 2 charge counters on target artifact, repeat next turn), or I can combine multiple Genesis Chambers with Myr Servitors for an ever-growing chance of overrunning.

Removing the Galvanizers cripples me but removing other avenues cripples me even more, so I'm not sure what cards to remove in order to remedy these issues.

[theDreamer]

Maybe drop either the banefire or the grindclock?

Limit yourself to one alternate.

[SPACExJUMPxJOSH]

found an ubber rare card on my travels, its a light, really want it. anyone got one to trade?


http://www.hitimewine.net/istarimages/p ... 8!1254.jpg

[Lyinginbedmon]

found an ubber rare card on my travels, its a light, really want it. anyone got one to trade?


http://www.hitimewine.net/istarimages/p ... 8!1254.jpg

"hitimewine.net"?

Somehow I think the largest wine retailer in the west isn't a Magic: The Gathering supplier.

Maybe drop either the banefire or the grindclock?

Limit yourself to one alternate.

Banefire fails against Redirect and immediate counters, Grindclock fails against Emrakul, Darksteel Colossus, etc. They're both important because they cover two different possibilities.

[Alex Steacy]

found an ubber rare card on my travels, its a light, really want it. anyone got one to trade?
http://www.hitimewine.net/istarimages/p ... 8!1254.jpg

I will destroy you.

Well played.

[theDreamer]

Who has an emrakul and a redirect in the same deck?

We have this thing called a sideboard for a reason.

[SPACExJUMPxJOSH]

you have been clubbed good sir

[Cybren]

As I said much earlier, my infinite mana myr combo used golem artisans as a finisher (infinite damage flying tramplers), and when besieged came out I added blue sun's zenith. Lol draw infinite cards gg

[Kag]

Myr Engine has no way of gaining life to sustain itself whatsoever.

Third is the lack of tutor.

These aren't flaws, per se, they're super duper Johnny solutions that you don't have implemented. If I'm reading this right, your problem is that you're getting killed before your combo comes together. You have correctly identified that the two ways to solve this are to live longer and put your combo together faster, but don't think so complicated.

ways to live longer: get creatures faster, Lightning Bolt, Sleep, Platinum Angel, Clearwater Goblet (a lot better if you have more ways of putting out charge counters)
ways to put your combo together faster:

I feel like it is crazy to play a combo deck without Ponder or Preordain (or Foresee).

Or, if you're literally made of money, Jace, the Mind Sculptor is great at both.

Banefire fails against Redirect and immediate counters, Grindclock fails against Emrakul, Darksteel Colossus, etc. They're both important because they cover two different possibilities.

No, that's why neither is important. Assuming these alternate win conditions actually work, already a dubious claim, you will only ever need one, which means in EVERY matchup, you have useless cards in your deck. This is so bad it's not even worth discussing. Don't do it.

Use a strategy that's hard to counter consistently, and design your sideboard so that you can change to something that has wildly different counters.

Also, I'm still not sure what you're doing with Myr Servitors. They're pretty bad unless you have Genesis Chamber out, and even then you don't have a good way of getting them killed to trigger it.