The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

[Shinneh]

Thanks guys think I will wait for the updated toolkit and get that then, then if I coax my miser freinds into purchasing commander decks latter, s'all good ^_^

[Robert Merlow]

I am liking the cycle of Illusions that came out in M12 and I built me an Illusion deck:

Land:
24 Island

Creatures:
4 Phantasmal Bear
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Lord of the Unreal
3 Adaptive Automaton
4 Phantasmal Dragon
2 Frost Titan

Other Spells:
3 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Mana Leak
4 Into the Roil
1 Levitation

Sideboard (so far):
4 Flashfreeze
2 Mind Control
3 Volition Reins

I need help with the sideboard, mostly. Anyone have any suggestions?

[kodra]

So, phantasmal image targeting Lord of the Unreal is probably one of my favorite tricks in Magic 2012.

Frost Titan in your opening hand is a really solid tempo mechanic, I'm just not sure how well he fits in this deck as a playable.

This isn't really a control deck. This is Aggro/Tempo. I love Preordain in this deck. I dislike ponder though, and I dislike levitation. Your have 8 solid turn 1 drops, I don't think you really need Ponder.

I'm iffy on mana leak. It's not going to stop the enemy from popping your dudes, so it's mostly there to counter creatures / untargetted board wipes. Getting Lord of the Unreal out is critical. Digging for him with Preordain seems pretty solid for the most part.

The key to this deck is to each turn build your army of illusions / tempo him. It's blue aggro, which blue has rarely gotten to do, which is what I like about this deck.

[Brinson]

So I'm new to the whole magic thing, playing only briefly during the 4th Ed./Ice Age era.

I prized at some pre-release we went to, but only because I pulled a Gideon and Frost Titan so I rode those two till the cows came home. I have yet to run into anyone I know at these pre-releases (James/Jer/Matt/Graham/Kathleen) but I'm PRAYING for the time I play James. If I didn't pull either, I didn't win.

I did buy 4 boosters of M12 a little while ago, and pulled a Jace, Grave Titan and an Inferno Titan. I think Jace should be able to fetch me a Gideon? I'm trying to build my first deck which is just U/W control. I can't remember everything that's in my deck, but my main way of winning is just surviving until serra angels come out or Gideon/Frost Titan. Should I be swapping my two Frost Titans for Sun Titans?

[the_lone_bard]

No, by the sounds of it sun titans aren't the way to go if they do what i think they do. That said the only titans who's abillities i can remember properly are the frost and grave titans.

As for gideon and jace. First off "Luck of the golden gods." Don't begin to cut it. Second, Gideon is an average planeswalker. Great in a top tier "I spent $400 on 1 card" deck, not so great in most casual decks. That said i've seen gideon just turn into a god due to puresteel paladin, 2 of each sword and a batterskull and kite shield (Wait... why was there a kiteshield) all just going "I turn into a 6/6 soldier. And i equip myself with every peice of equipment in magic, ever." That said it was done by a powergaming ass, who likely pulled that deck off the net somewhere.

Jace on the other hand works well in any deck he is in. He is prime target #1 and the second the new one hits the field he goes "You, mill the top 10 cards." Or you can draw if you get him in a time when there are less things to hit him. All in all, he is much more versatile than gideon is. As for frost titans, throw 4 in there, they are the second best titan, and i only say that because i figured out how to abuse a grave titan and produce a 1turn combo of infinite zombies. (No don't ask, it's staying a secret from everyone, there's enough infinite combo's in magic already.)

[kodra]

I'm terrible at reading. I mixed up the titan and the chancellor. I really don't like frost titan in that deck. Way too slow.

[Trymantha]

I'm terrible at reading. I mixed up the titan and the chancellor. I really don't like frost titan in that deck. Way too slow.

its mono blue control its meant to be slow

[kodra]

2/2 for 1
doppleganger for 2
All creatures get +1/+1/Hexproof for 2
5/5 flyer for 4

Illusions don't really seem to make sense in a control deck. This seems like aggro/beats/tempo. This deck curves out at turn 4. The countermagic/bounce seems much more useful as a tempo elements than it does as a legitimate form of control.

If you can swing them, I would run this with the Zendikar Fetchlands just to keep your decks manabase thinner. Or consider running 40 spells / 20 lands

[Trymantha]

yes but in this deck you have to depend on the Lord and no player is going to lay down most of there illusions un till he is down and peopel arnt gonna lay him down with out mana for counters thus you need the game to go longer

[Rikadyn]

I beat someone last night with a Black/Blue control deck with only 10 creatures in it.

I denied him everything till he played a 5/5 creature with trample, then I stole it from him which has been my favorite tactic since my Tempest block mono blue decks >.>

[Robert Merlow]

@ Kodra: Ponder has proven to be a solid digger and even though it can't scry, it helps me see ahead. What do you recommend in its place? I've tried to give this deck options, to make sure that it doesn't run out of steam come an extended slogfest.

In the sideboard, what should I have there against the current metagame? Flashfreezes help lock down the Valakut player, but what about other matchups? Should the board go more control?

[vazhkatsi]

you don't really need to buy a commander deck, you can make one from what you have most of the time. i mean, I made a couple pretty nice ones, an elf g/b and one around sliver legion with shapeshifters thrown in.

i guess i can see the appeal of buying the precon decks, but it seems a bit unnecessary for a fairly loose game type.

[Ottoman]

Uh, maybe you can build a good EDH deck 'from what you have' if your collection spans, like, a decade or so. Otherwise, you're fucked. It's surprisingly hard to get together 100 different cards to work as a deck.

I looked into actually buying a couple of decks that I dreamed up once, but then gave up because I don't have a grove full of money trees.

It seems that EDH is a format for oldsters and the rich.

[vazhkatsi]

yeah i guess you're right, i've got random stuff lying around from everything since ice age. not much recent stuff since shadowmoor tho.

[Trymantha]

Uh, maybe you can build a good EDH deck 'from what you have' if your collection spans, like, a decade or so. Otherwise, you're fucked. It's surprisingly hard to get together 100 different cards to work as a deck.

I looked into actually buying a couple of decks that I dreamed up once, but then gave up because I don't have a grove full of money trees.

It seems that EDH is a format for oldsters and the rich.

no really the rich i have edh decks under $30

though one is just 2 cards and 98 basic lands

[Cybren]

don't play phantasmal dragon. It sux

[Stinkychops]

So guys, I recently bought a bunch of old, worn out cards from some kid at a swap meet for 20 bucks. Bet my cards could trounce yours.

I'll read off a few.

I have:
Tombfire
Fatal Mutation
Rapid Fire
Nameless Race
and Chimney Imp.

To name a few. Jealous?

[Lacerta]

What, no Storm Crows?

[Ottoman]

no really the rich i have edh decks under $30

though one is just 2 cards and 98 basic lands

I. . . ahh. . . wha. . . eh? Care to elaborate?

[Trymantha]

no really the rich i have edh decks under $30

though one is just 2 cards and 98 basic lands

I. . . ahh. . . wha. . . eh? Care to elaborate?

Ashling the pilgrim
Valakut the molten pinnacle
98 * mountain

[Ottoman]

Besides that, an EDH for less than 30$? Let's see, the absolute cheapest land option is 30 basics, which is 3$. That leaves 27$ for the other 70 cards in the deck, which means that each card has to cost, on average, about 39 cents.

Now, granted, I don't know how unusual my potential deck is, but even cutting out some of the more expensive cards, it comes to about 170$ without the basic lands, at an average cost of 2$ per card. That's the worse of the two I made, as well.

Actually. . . now that I've done all the math and broken it down like that, it doesn't seem so bad. Perhaps I'll get around to putting this together before school starts.

EDIT: I accidentally D'd all over the place.

[Yaxley]

Besides that, and EDH for less than 30$?

Or one of those precons that just came out, though I admit they weren't super easy to find.

I will say that, for the Commander deck I built for myself, I spent about $30 on it. Though that was just to get Rafiq and all of the creatures with Exalted. Everything else was cards I already had. Whether that makes me rich or an oldster, I don't know.

[Trymantha]

well i never said it was any good. i also dont price basic land its easy enough to get a hold of

[Ollie, don'tcha know!]

My friend pull 3 Mythics in 4 packs, and I had got none all day, so I got angry and bought my 4th pack of the day to try and beat him. My rare was a Magnetic Mine, and the most useful card in the pack was a Myr token

[gcninja]

Whats your average size for your deck? I think mine is about 60 with lands but some people say thats too big. My lands are about 1/3 of my deck so I can have a good chance to draw
How do you work everything out?