The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

[Lemegeton]

ok so since i started testing my modern deck i have run into a LOT of infinites. whats your take on them. Legitimate strategy or total dick move?
dick move gets my vote.
magic is supposed to be , IMO, about outplaying/outthinking the other guy. Infinites are for people who dont have the chops to win in a normal match

[tamaness]

My okay Dimir deck from the draft I just lost. I think the issue is with the pilot; not the deck (though I know there are issues in the construction).

[Drecon]

I'm pretty sure Contamintaed Ground is unplayable. I dislike Coerced COnfession too, although I've never played it, so it might be OK in a deck like this.
And the most important thing: Where are the two-drops? A deck like this needs any number of Metropolis Sprites and 2/2 rats. With this deck you will usually just get overrun by any fast deck.

[Lemegeton]

i also don't like contaminated ground here. it might slow your opponent down a little bit in the early turns but other than that its not great. it really only makes sense in a deck with some swampwalk creatures.r

[aeric90]

There is exactely one swampwalk creature in the block and its in RtR - Sewer Shambler

Not a bad add to a constructed Dimir deck but there are better options.

[Kapol]

I don't think it belongs in a constructed deck, but Ground isn't awful for limited. Think about it like this, it serves the purpose of either putting your opponent back some turns, keeping them off-color, or making them think twice about casting something. It's not the best, but it's not by any means bad in limited.

[Utilitarian]

I actually considered the use of Contaminated Ground in a hypothetical Dimir control deck in order to turn off utility lands like Wolfrun, Drownyard, and Cavern of Souls.

[Drecon]

Last time I had an opponent play Ground against me I just kept on playing creatures and, surprise, my opponent didn't have any blockers. It was really one of the most one-sided matches I've played in this format.
If you want to play it know yourself out, but I'm claiming it's a big part of why this deck was performing badly.

[Jenelmo]

ok so since i started testing my modern deck i have run into a LOT of infinites.

What infinity comboes exist in Modern besides Melira + Persist +Sac outlet

[Utilitarian]

ok so since i started testing my modern deck i have run into a LOT of infinites.

What infinity comboes exist in Modern besides Melira + Persist +Sac outlet

The answer to this question would be very very long

[JackSlack]

That's one way to get rid of your cards, for sure!

[Jenelmo]

ok so since i started testing my modern deck i have run into a LOT of infinites. whats your take on them. Legitimate strategy or total dick move?
dick move gets my vote.
magic is supposed to be , IMO, about outplaying/outthinking the other guy. Infinites are for people who dont have the chops to win in a normal match

Now I don't know what decks you are talking about here.
But if you are talking about decks like; twin, eggs or the like then I think that is a legitimate strategy as it is just how combo decks work.
You win if you can kill them before they can combo off by being fast, by disrupting them or by locking their deck down with hate.
But then I am used to playing legacy against decks like ANT, Belcher and High Tide so I think the combo decks in modern have been neutered alot

[Del]

Starting to build a (relatively casual) peasant commander deck up with Imperious Perfect, elves and some elf warrior token goodness. Man I forgot how different a format it is when you only have 10 uncommons...

[Lord Hosk]

ok so since i started testing my modern deck i have run into a LOT of infinites. whats your take on them. Legitimate strategy or total dick move?
dick move gets my vote.
magic is supposed to be , IMO, about outplaying/outthinking the other guy. Infinites are for people who dont have the chops to win in a normal match

Any time that someone craps on a play style in magic I always cringe, in the case of infinates it takes work to outplay your opponent. In most cases they can be broken by one spell being countered or one thing being destroyed and they are fairly obvious a turn or two before they go off.

This is the same as people who hate control decks, or agro decks or mill decks.

Whenever I see this my response is always "Come on Wizards why do you keep printing cards that support diverse play styles, My style is clearly the only valid form and anyone who beats me with a different style is a dumb looser who doesnt understand this game."

There are dozens of ways to play magic and each style of play, even land destruction, is a valid way to play that takes skill in its own way. It may be skill in deck building, skill in play or skill in knowing when to hold them and when to mull them.

If someone beats you (with the exception of people who buy $700 standard decks) its because they outplayed you in one of the stages of the game. The stages of the game arent all in the attack and first main phase.

[tamaness]

I'm pretty sure Contamintaed Ground is unplayable. I dislike Coerced COnfession too, although I've never played it, so it might be OK in a deck like this.

Contaminated ground kind of helps to alleviate the issue of having no two-drops. It keeps my opponent off mana for just long enough to get things moving. There are things that would have been better picks, though.

And the most important thing: Where are the two-drops? A deck like this needs any number of Metropolis Sprites and 2/2 rats. With this deck you will usually just get overrun by any fast deck.

It was a pretty glaring oversight. I did go 0-3.

If someone beats you (with the exception of people who buy $700 standard decks) its because they outplayed you in one of the stages of the game. The stages of the game arent all in the attack and first main phase.

"I outplayed you before you even got up this morning."

[Kapol]

Last time I had an opponent play Ground against me I just kept on playing creatures and, surprise, my opponent didn't have any blockers. It was really one of the most one-sided matches I've played in this format.
If you want to play it know yourself out, but I'm claiming it's a big part of why this deck was performing badly.

Yes, but I'm guessing you weren't off your land. It's not uncommon in limited to be off your land. Let's say you had only had one plains in a boros deck. Your opponent uses ground on it, and now you can't play any other white item until you draw another plains.

It's not great mind you, and it's important to keep in mind that you have to keep a good number of creatures in the deck too. But Ground isn't the worst card. I'd take out the confessions and the Way of the thief before I'd worry about Ground.

[JQuill]

I think I like Contaminated Ground a bit more than most, but even then it's only really ever a sideboard card. The problems with it are that it's almost completely useless in the late-game and that even on turn 2 there are games where it simply does nothing or very little. While I have seen it work to great effect, most of the time either I play it or have it played against me, all it achieves is 2-4 damage or setting things back a turn. And neither of those are worth it.

It's certainly not unplayabale, and if you're short on playables and you have to run one as your 22nd or 23rd card that's far from awful. But I'd certainly rather play nearly any creature over it (especially a 2 or 3 drop one) and most spells too. To me it's value is definitely as a sideboard card to be brought in in certain match-ups where the odds it does "work" are increased.

[Utilitarian]

Also I think as a comedy draft the Contaminated Ground deck would be hilarious. It'd be awesome to go, on the play, t2 contaminated ground, t3 contaminated ground, t 4 contaminated ground on a non-black opponent....

[Lemegeton]

Also I think as a comedy draft the Contaminated Ground deck would be hilarious. It'd be awesome to go, on the play, t2 contaminated ground, t3 contaminated ground, t 4 contaminated ground on a non-black opponent....

haha he would likely punch you in the face.

[Utilitarian]

I shit you not I had someone pull that on me in MTGO. I was playing Boros. It was hilarious. Sadly that was the day of the huge MTGO crash that killed all the tournaments that were in progress so I never got to see it play out

[Kapol]

Has anyone else seen the 'spoiled' Golgari champion? He looks incredibly powerful in my opinion. Regenerating every time he would be killed, including getting another +1/+1 counter, AND he starts out as a 4/4 for 4 mana... that seems pretty powerful.

[ZePancakes]

Care to link us up on it please?

[Kapol]

Also, I kind of don't think it's real. But the last time we had spoiled cards like this, they turned out to be spot on (Aurelia, Enter The Infinite, etc).

[Lord Hosk]

So he is indestructible only better, and has almost perpetual death touch?

Thats ummm powerful.

[Kapol]

Yea. Though it was 'leaked' on April 1st, and there's a lot of argument over it being real. I'm leaning towards not. Or at least hoping. I mean those abilities, plus only costing 2BG, seems pretty strong.