The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

[Utilitarian]

Evidently the Lord of Riots took special interest in your draft *L*

(cuz seriously, wow)

[Del]

I want a "take this whole pack" option.

So what *did* you pick?

There's 3 options I'd consider really:
1) p1 Stabwound/Dreadbore, p2 keyrune, p3 annihilating (stick it out uin Rakdos)
2) p1 splatter p2 splatter p3 annihilating fire (move to izzet) or
3) p1 Stabwound p2 (smth off Rakdos) p3 imp (for golgari or splash black)

I would honestly probably go with 2 or 3 just have more options on p2. By the time those packs are two+ spots down they are still signalling that Rakdos is (relatively) open , and very little, if any of that Rakdos will wheel except for maybe an electrickery or launch party:

Pack 1 probably has either an auger spree or annihilating fire making it to drafters 4 & 5.

Pack 2 probably has a Blood Crypt or Reveller to drafters 3 & 4

Pack 3 isn't as strong but has no real reason to get _out_ of Rakdos

[Lord Hosk]

I went

I went Dread bore, crypt, fire.

and cut red as hard as I could hoping to put him into golgari, Pack two I opened a Utvara Hellkite, and got passed a Jarad with a uncommon gone so he clearly wasnt into golgari. I got a little red and no black and some OK blue, then going back I opened crap and got passed ok red black and a little blue early with a Mercurial Chemister coming p3p3... went 2/1 in a swiss but got enough to pay for the next draft so thats something.

I played R b u on the back transguild and a Izzet and raktos gate.

I faced a Blue white green, a 5 color crap, I lost to a strong sylesnia with a worm and plenty of centaurs to populate. I dont think the 5 color crap was the guy next to me.

[Utilitarian]

So, who's excited about which guilds for Gatecrash? Simic and Gruul for me.

I wanna see what Experiment Kraj ended up turning into -_^

[Trymantha]

I thought Kraaj was killed.

Im looking forward to some boros and dimir.

[Utilitarian]

I thought Kraaj was killed.

Im looking forward to some boros and dimir.

Oh come now... you don't really BELIEVE that do you? -_^

[Under_Score]

Dimir sounds fun. It's the guild I picked for my planeswalker points stuff. I don't know anything concrete about it, but blue/black with a possible focus on milling sounds like a ton of fun.

[Dubious_wolf]

So I got 3 M13 boosters and I pulled Battle of Wits.

When would anyone ever use that or even include it in a deck?

I read an article a while back about it. Basically you build a 250 cards deck and have enough tutor that you can pull it out of your deck and win.

[Duckay]

I kind of like the idea of Dimir or Orzhov at this point, but my preferred styles have shifted so radically in the last couple of months (since scars block dropped out of standard and my beautiful red burn deck was no longer viable).

[Lord Hosk]

I lost so much when M12 died my poor shocks and elves.

[Duckay]

I miss shrine of burning rage.

[Utilitarian]

I lost so much when M12 died my poor shocks and elves.

As someone who just hated Titans with a vengeance I was pretty happy to have m12 cycle out.

[Lemegeton]

maybe i am being a bit of a newb but can someone explain why the ravnica shocklands are worth about 10 bucks each when say other dual lands are valued so low. take golgari guildgate and overgrown tomb. both generate the same mana types and i get why overgrown tomb is better cos you can pay the 2 life and access the mana this turn. but am i missing something else that makes the shocklands so valuable.

[CompletelyUnsure]

maybe i am being a bit of a newb but can someone explain why the ravnica shocklands are worth about 10 bucks each when say other dual lands are valued so low. take golgari guildgate and overgrown tomb. both generate the same mana types and i get why overgrown tomb is better cos you can pay the 2 life and access the mana this turn. but am i missing something else that makes the shocklands so valuable.

Having them out a turn early actually speeds up your deck alot more than you think. Another thing that makes them a little better is there type. If you look at the type line of Golgari Guildgate it is a gate card; overgrown tomb is a "swamp forest," this means it is both a swamp and a forest, allowing it to be the target of ramp and certain card effects (like Liliana's Shade)

[Utilitarian]

They also count for effects that do X where X is the number of a certain basic land type.

[psychopez]

So I got 3 M13 boosters and I pulled Battle of Wits.

When would anyone ever use that or even include it in a deck?

I read an article a while back about it. Basically you build a 250 cards deck and have enough tutor that you can pull it out of your deck and win.

Put a few Crumbling Sanctuaries in the deck, and either win off of Wits, or win because you effectivly have 200+ life...

[Utilitarian]

I suppose you could also run Reliquary Tower and cards like Howling Mine and Font of Mythos and just draw massively. I suppose you'd need some way to get those cards back into your deck though, potentially. Plus then you've got an alternative win condition in milling out your opponent.

[Kapol]

Looking back at the cards that were 'leaked' a while ago for Gatecrash, there are a few things that bother me about them. The first is Dimri. The wording of his -2 seems really odd to me. "Target creature you control fights another target creature." Shouldn't it read more like "Target creature you control fights target creature you don't control?" I mean, in essence, it is trying to be prey upon really. So wouldn't they just use that wording? Or if it could include your own creatures, wouldn't it just leave out the 'another' statement? It just seems really weird to me.

Second, the Gruul guildleader's ability just seems out of character. I don't know much about Gruul, but aren't they more of an aggro and/or burn focus? His ability seems VERY Golgari to me. The last one, the burn one, seems right. But the fact that his ability sends all non-land cards to the graveyard does not. Why would the aggro guild have you throw creatures away? I can understand instants, sorceries, enchantments, and even planeswalkers to a degree. But throwing away your fighting force as well? Seems like something Golgari would do on purpose for Scavenge. Is it for mana-ramp? I'd hope not since he cost 8 mana himself, meaning you likely have more then enough at that point anyways. To feed his last ability maybe? But that still doesn't really seem right to me.

The Boros guildleader seems really weak to me. For the leader of the fighting guild she's only a 3/4? The same as a Resto? I know her ability kind of makes up for it, but I would think she'd have more power over toughness anyways.

Those are the main odd things that stood out to me. The 20 artifacts to win does too though, as does the idea behind Enter the Infinite. But I can see those making some sense. I dunno.

[Dubious_wolf]

Well enter the infinite is basically trying to be a one turn game ender it's really weird and there are lots of things that could blow it to pieces. But it could make zombies interesting.

Or laboratory maniac...
http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/ ... eid=230788

[Kapol]

I understand what Enter the Infinite is supposed to be about. But the fact that it basically boils down to 'if you don't win by the end of next turn, you lose' really seems odd for a card. But I'm guessing it's meant to be a combo piece with Omniscience, allowing the player to pretty much just win the game. Turn one Black Lotus, then show and tell into omniscience, then play enter the infinite, and finally I play my entire deck for free while keeping a healthy supply of counterspells ready for me to make it to the next turn.

I doubt it was made for Labratory Maniac specifically. Enter the Infinite is unlikely to be meant for Standard in any way, and in older formats there are better ways of winning with it out.

[phlip]

Looking back at the cards that were 'leaked' a while ago for Gatecrash, there are a few things that bother me about them. The first is Dimri. The wording of his -2 seems really odd to me. "Target creature you control fights another target creature." Shouldn't it read more like "Target creature you control fights target creature you don't control?" I mean, in essence, it is trying to be prey upon really. So wouldn't they just use that wording? Or if it could include your own creatures, wouldn't it just leave out the 'another' statement? It just seems really weird to me.

Being able to just target two of your own guys... probably will rarely come up, but sure, it's some extra options. 99% of the time you'll be playing it like Prey Upon. The "another" word is to prevent you from making a creature fight itself, as the rules when that happens are counter-intuitive (the creature deals its own power to itself, twice), so easier to just forbid it... cf Blood Feud. Prey Upon doesn't need the "another" word since the targeting restrictions mean it can't target the same creature twice.

The rest of your points, though, I don't have any particular disagreement with... and I really wouldn't be surprised if the 5 "leaked" cards all turn out to be hoaxes...

[Del]

allowing it to be the target of ramp and certain card effects (like Liliana's Shade)

Farseeks are the biggie.

[Lord Hosk]

Ulvenwald Tracker

1G and Tap: Target creature you control fights another target creature

I think there are others as well, I just happen to have one of those right here on my desk.

That phrasing is legit.

[Kapol]

As I said, the phrasing just seems odd to me. That's not to say I didn't understand the maning behind it (the point of another is to not allow a creature to battle itself, but I kinda think allowing it to kill/hurt itself would make sense in it's own weird way). It's just one of the things that bothered me about it, and the one I could go into beyond just 'it seems off.'

Either way we'll find out eventually.

[phlip]

(the point of another is to not allow a creature to battle itself, but I kinda think allowing it to kill/hurt itself would make sense in it's own weird way)

Yeah, it would make sense, but like I said, the rules work weirdly in that case. Wrack with Madness, for instance, is essentially what "target creature fights itself" sounds like, except they couldn't use "fights" on that card because that's not how it works.