The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

[Utilitarian]

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.

I'm going to wager that the Gruul guild mechanic involves doing things when you discard land, which ends up making his ability make a lot of sense. It goes well with red (discarding cards to gain things ala faithless looting) and green (getting more land in your hand)

[Kapol]

I wouldn't say green is about getting lands into your hand. Green's more about getting land onto the field. Rampant Growth, Farseek, Avacyn's Pilgrim, most mana-producing elves, Birds, and so on. The only green spell I can think of off hand that brings it to your hand is Seek the Horizen, and that's searching your deck for land, not potentially throwing away three cards on the off chance you hit one. Hell, even Primevil Titan brought two lands directly onto the field and it costed less then him.

As for red discarding cards to get thing, that isn't quite the case from what I've seen. It's more like red has to discard cards as a cause of something, not do something because they discard cards. Faithless looting has you draw before discarding, similar to most red effects I can think of that involve discarding. Sort of like they do something without thinking it through and you pay the cost.

I could be wrong of course. I have rather limited knowledge on color behavior. But it feels like those reasons are a bit of a reach in my opinion. I notice the Gruul guildmage had a somewhat similar ability, but forced you to sac a land to do it. Which would make more sense to me. And I'm not sure that a land-discarding ability would make much sense for a guild that seems like they would be more about aggro.

[Utilitarian]

I dunno while it's easy to remember all the green cards that put land on the battlefield (cuz they're better) there's plenty plenty that put them into your hand. When I think of the red discard I'm thinking Rummaging Goblin, Faithless, Wild Guess, Izzet Keyrune... it seems like a direction Red is going these days...

[Kapol]

Only half of what you mentioned for red really doesn't apply to what I said about being a result, not a cause. As for green cards that put into your hand, there are some. But they're rarely meant to be used in G/R I think. The card that the Gruul leader reminds me most of is Mulch. And we really only see Mulch being used in reanimator decks right now. Hence why I said why it's more Golgari then Gruul.

If it's real, it also has a really weird breaking to it. First off I would think it would have haste as well as trample. Secondly the mulch ability is green, but the second ability is red. Notice how the other guildleaders out now really tie together the colors more. Nivvy gets card draw (blue) from damaging people (red). Trostani gains life and populates with the gain being helped from the secondary, and both being in both colors to a degree (lifegain is primarily white I'll grant you, but cards like Heroes' Reunion hit both). Rakdos makes your stuff cost less (black) for the damage you do (red). Isperia's ability, while not directly controling, disincentives attacking (more white) by allowing you card draw (blue). Jarad allows you to take advantage of a lot of creatures as well as big creatures (green) by sacrificing them to deal damage (black). Basically making it so the more creatures you play the better he is.

There's also something else I noticed while working on this post. The current naming conventions all include <name>, <rank/title>. That's something that's somewhat off about both the Boros and Gruul leaders. The Gruul doesn't really have the title (at least in the current format). The Boros has an extra unnessecary descriptor involved that you don't see on the current guildleaders. For example they might have been better as 'Aurelia, Warleader' and 'BorBorygmos, Enraged.'

Now keep in mind this is all speculation at this point for me. I'm just stating details that seem off, and much of the stuff I've mentioned here is more working on assumptions (such as continuing the naming convention).

[Kapol]

Does anyone know off hand how much Card Kingdom normally charges for set pre-orders? I'm thinking of ordering a box of Gatecrash from them is why I ask.

[Lord Hosk]

I thought it was the same as a regular box about $90

[Utilitarian]

Draft Pack 1: Foil Thragtusk.

The gods were with me today. Ended up going 2/1 in the Swiss as well, in no small part thanks to that guy.

[Lord Hosk]

Thragtusk is good but hard to really abuse in a draft.

[Kapol]

Might be hard to abuse, but it's still really good. Plus, a foil one? Do want.

[Utilitarian]

Might be hard to abuse, but it's still really good. Plus, a foil one? Do want.

This pretty much. It's not like I was bouncing it in and out with a Primadox or anything but it was still a really solid creature and usually got me a card from my Packleader too.

but yea I was just happy for the 15 or so tickets it's going to fetch me

[Del]

Yay for 2 drafts of absolute mediocrity tonight. 2-1 in each draft getting me 3rd each time thanks to tiebreakers.

Anyone else getting bored of Ravnica yet?

[Jenelmo]

I got bored of drafting Ravnica weeks ago that is why when i draft it is cube as i find it to be more fun and entertaining

[Utilitarian]

Yay for 2 drafts of absolute mediocrity tonight. 2-1 in each draft getting me 3rd each time thanks to tiebreakers.

Anyone else getting bored of Ravnica yet?

Yea. I mostly draft M13 instead. It just doesn't seem like there's enough variability in the useful decks in RTR. It's like, you can either go Selesnisperia or Golgarakdos and that's all I seem to see.

I'm hoping there's some more variability in Gatecrash

[Kapol]

Pre-warning; This is a bit of a rant and somewhat belongs in the venting thread, but since it's Magic related I'm going to put it here.

So I went to FNM today. I did pretty good. Lost one match that I only lost because it was control (and I honestly hate control with every fiber of my being, so the loss made me quite annoyed. But that's another rant). I ended up going 3-1. The person who beat me went to the finals and lost. So it ended and nothing seemed special.

Then I found out I had gotten second. The guy who had beaten me got third. Why? Because of tiebreakers. Now I'll be the first to say that tiebreakers are annoying, and getting below someone you beat is one of the most infuriating experiences I've ever run into. But this guy was a freaking drama queen about it. He bitched on and on in front of everyone for a solid ten minutes. It was beginning to make me feel bad because I do understand how that feels.

And then he said something that really ticked me off.

He said, without any sarcasm, "Oh, we turned in our slip wrong." He turned to the person he'd just lost to. "You beat me and then we tied twice, right?" The other person agreed to it. And I was there getting ticked off about this. I can understand being upset, but trying to cheat to fix it? It'd be one thing if they'd knowingly split it from the beginning. But they hadn't. He was trying to go back and get above me by changing the outcome of his match.

Thankfully they didn't let him do it, which I think pissed him off even more. But it still really bothered me that this guy was that upset about it to try and pull that kind of thing. It wasn't like he wasn't in prizes either. The difference between 2ed and 3ed was $10 which, while not nothing, isn't enough to excuse that kind of behavior in my eyes.

So they handed out the prize cards and eventually the guy I played left. And here's where the twist comes in. Turns out he did get second. The person running it hadn't entered the score before deciding tie-breakers. Now, the guy was gone, but I didn't really mind much when I was dropped down to tird. What did annoy me was that they made me give back the promo card. I understand why they did. But it still bothered me. Especially given how he'd acted.

Still, overall a good night. But I honestly thought about quitting just because I hate control so much due to the match I lost. My deck also decided it hated me and I had multiple games where I was mana-screwed. But meh. It happens. *shrug*

[Utilitarian]

That sucks, my friend. Sounds like you hit the perfect storm of Irritating Control Deck + Obnoxious Player + Screwed by Bookkeeping Mistakes

my condolences.

[tanatoes]

I mis-played repeatedly tonight. Still had fun though - coming to grips with a new deck I built last night. Totally messed up using the Kessig Cage Breakers - I could have won at least one close game if I'd been putting out all the wolves I should have. (Would have pumped the hell out of my Champion of Lamholt) I need to edit this deck a little, but I'm looking forward to playing it again soon.

Need to ponder what kind of crazy deck I'll build for next week.

[Volafortis]

Yay for 2 drafts of absolute mediocrity tonight. 2-1 in each draft getting me 3rd each time thanks to tiebreakers.

Anyone else getting bored of Ravnica yet?

Yea. I mostly draft M13 instead. It just doesn't seem like there's enough variability in the useful decks in RTR. It's like, you can either go Selesnisperia or Golgarakdos and that's all I seem to see.

I'm hoping there's some more variability in Gatecrash

Innistrad/Dark Ascension draft is the way to go!

[Utilitarian]

Innistrad/Dark Ascension draft is the way to go!

They take FOREVER to fire... and I really like Swiss, because I am not good.

[Lord Hosk]

Innistrad/Dark Ascention/Avacyn restored drafts were the best I have played.

[Del]

Innistrad/Dark Ascention/Avacyn restored drafts were the best I have played.

One person goes out and buys the box of product we draft/buy from each week, so unfortunately it's a pain to not go all the same.

[Utilitarian]

Hmmm you know actually that Archeomancer ikea gun I was fiddling with before is actually part of an infinite damage ikea gun.

Guttersnipe
Goblin Electromancer x2
Archaeomancer

Cast Ghostly Flicker for B, flicker the Archeomancer and the island you just tapped. Guttersnipe does 2 damage to opponent. Use Archeomancer's ability to return Ghostly Flicker to hand. Wash rinse repeat infinite damage.

[headband]

So I'm thinking of turning my White/Green angel/human lifegain deck into a White/Green/Red angel/human deck in anticipation of Gatecrash. This a good idea?

[Kapol]

So I'm thinking of turning my White/Green angel/human lifegain deck into a White/Green/Red angel/human deck in anticipation of Gatecrash. This a good idea?

I'd say wait until Gatecrash actually comes out. No use in changing your deck for cards that aren't going to be available for another two months.

[Del]

No use in changing your deck for cards that aren't going to be available for another two months.

As Gatecrash gets closer I expect Hinterland Harbors, Clifftop Retreats, and Isolated Chapels too all explode accordingly, and M13's Drowned Catacombs/Rootbound Crags to a lesser extent. That's what I am mostly planning accordingly for and acquiring now.

[Kapol]

No use in changing your deck for cards that aren't going to be available for another two months.

As Gatecrash gets closer I expect Hinterland Harbors, Clifftop Retreats, and Isolated Chapels too all explode accordingly, and M13's Drowned Catacombs/Rootbound Crags to a lesser extent. That's what I am mostly planning accordingly for and acquiring now.

Eh, maybe they're already about $10 a piece because most people realize that they might become better when Gatecrash comes out. I doubt they'll see the same $10 jump that the first set did. I wager that the most likely thing to go up is Clifftop. Why? Because it's the least used of them all from what I've seen, and therefore has the highest potential to surprise in usefulness with Gatecrash.