The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

[AzureDragoon]

So I went to my LGS all ready to follow the path of Might into the unknown only to have my path ripped from under me and used to beat me in the head repeatedly going 2-4. But that being said had tons of fun with my friends as we dressed in togas representing the 5 colors. We were even able to keep our locations in the store correct enough that we were always in WUBRG order. My pulls were all over the place and even my color favorable pack didn't really help with any one color. Although this was the case had an awesome time yelling flavor inspired threats to my friends and having some thrown back at me in retort.

From the sounds of it a lot LGS favor the prizes for the top players, and most stores around my area are the same. But, luckily the LGS i frequent most is a bit more friendly about the prizes and how they are divvied up. First off every player who makes it to the end of the Pre-release is given to two packs just for competing and coming out to the store. Then if anyone drops out before the end of the Pre-release those prizes go back in the pool and then one pack is added to each place for each pack that was left by those who dropped. With the team (color choice) of the event getting embroidered bags and the top place usually getting a specials prize (playmat, sleeves, deck boxes, sometimes cards (during DGM the top winners were given a Maze of Ith with custom art work one created for 5 of the guilds) Luckily I was able to win two of them)

[tamaness]

I went Wisdom for my PR, built a blue-black deck that was pretty okay, but I should have made some better sideboard decisions for the last two rounds. I ended up going 3-3-0 and ninth (out of 35) in the standings.

I was a bit sore about getting ninth because the store did prizes for top-8, and the top 8 decided to split prizes and do a draft, splitting the rest of prize packs among the top 4. #8 got his three packs for the draft and left. >.>

My LGS hasn't run a prerelease before (they're /that/ new), so it could have been run better, but there are a few judges who play there who tried to help things move smoothly.

[Dix]

Holy hell Prophet of Kruphix is INSANE in limited.

I went Path of... Um.. Blue and since I hadn't done any kind of draft/sealed/anything really in the last 15 years MTG wise (Urza's Legacy was my last active set), I actually ran overtime in my deck building(that lead to my first round only ending in a 1-1 draw). I went UW and pulled a ton of counter/bounce and even got the white 4> power removal and a Daxos(oh man he's awesome when he lands hits). Did okay in first round and my deck cooked off in game 1 of round 2 but my UG opponent wiped the floor with me in the other two games. He had two Prophets running and I just couldn't deal with them.

I had actually pulled a Prophet of Kruphix and I didn't have the time to splash. Thankfully I got blown out so I had time to mod my deck into Bant and put the green mana fixer (Nylea's Presence) in and some of the dryads and 3/3 centaurs. I stomped my way to 2-0 in the next two games.

Yes. Shipbreaker Kraken's Monstrosity should INDEED be 6UU: Win The Game. I had the scry chimera out, played Prophet. Opponent's turn he was swinging in with a 5/5 trample. I flashed out Kraken and ate it. My turn I put out Daxos. Opponent's turn I flashed out the 4/5 blue hexproof giant. My turn I monstrosity the Kraken (Yes I said "UNLEASH THE KRAKEN"), tap his 4 guys and swing in for 21.

Round 4 guy just got completely mana starved.

So all in all, I ended up placing 6th in my first ever event going 2-1-1 (I think changed to/weighted as 3-1) and won two packs. They also had some extra Path boxes left and it came down to me picking between green and red and I let my friend get red. MISTAKE. He pulled a Purphoros and a Stormbreath Dragon (two mythics) and I didn't get jack in my green box.

That said, I really liked what I saw from Theros so far and I'm looking forward to getting my booster box later this weekend/next week.

[Lord Hosk]

Did they just give you the box or did you buy it

[Dix]

Part of them revamping prize tables to include extra boxes they had left over.

[Kapol]

You know what I just remembered? Frontline Medic + Bow of Nylea seems pretty nuts. You get to swing in with a bunch of deathtouch indestructible creatures every turn, with a way to make them bigger or keep your life total up.

[Lemegeton]

You know what I just remembered? Frontline Medic + Bow of Nylea seems pretty nuts. You get to swing in with a bunch of deathtouch indestructible creatures every turn, with a way to make them bigger or keep your life total up.

the first thing i thought of when the bow was spoiled was. bow + bomber corps + frontline medic.
also like the bow with the dangerous part of armed//dangerous to force them to block your big deathtouch fattie and kill all their stuff.

been toying around with the bow + polukranos. swing , with hydra make him monstrous for 3 mana and kill their best blocker. first guy i got with it never spotted the interaction and was not happy

not sure how the bow will hold up in serious play but its been fun playing around with it.

[Kapol]

The problem with that is that you then have to be in three colors. And with the lack of good fixing for aggro in Theros, that's likely not the best option. Especially since you'd have to have a 1-drop of a color you have, red for the bomber turn two, white for the medic turn three, and then double green turn four for the bow.

[Lemegeton]

yeah the bow was spoiled before the scry lands and i expected the duals to be much better. fixing needs to be better , as you say, to make it a viable deck.

[Dix]

The problem with that is that you then have to be in three colors. And with the lack of good fixing for aggro in Theros, that's likely not the best option. Especially since you'd have to have a 1-drop of a color you have, red for the bomber turn two, white for the medic turn three, and then double green turn four for the bow.

The 'comes into play tapped' is definitely a slowdown on the scry lands but there is a RG and RW land so that could help a little?

Hell, I ran the UB scry land in a Bant deck during pre-release just for the scry effect on the land. Was it efficient/optimal? Hell no. I was having fun with the mechanic.

[Can't Wear Hats]

The problem with that is that you then have to be in three colors. And with the lack of good fixing for aggro in Theros, that's likely not the best option. Especially since you'd have to have a 1-drop of a color you have, red for the bomber turn two, white for the medic turn three, and then double green turn four for the bow.

The 'comes into play tapped' is definitely a slowdown on the scry lands but there is a RG and RW land so that could help a little?

Hell, I ran the UB scry land in a Bant deck during pre-release just for the scry effect on the land. Was it efficient/optimal? Hell no. I was having fun with the mechanic.

The real problem with the scry lands is their rarity. From a purely mechanical point of view they're effectively a Guildgate with scry, which is strictly better (probably), but since they're rare you're never going to have as many of them. Wizards seems to be trying to push monocolour in Theros with devotion, so it's somewhat understandable that they would make fixing have a higher rarity than previously. The problem with that is that in sealed and limited you're much more likely to go two or three colour than mono so they're worse overall, plus it takes up a rare slot that could otherwise have a more useful spell or creature card in it.

Having said that, I did run the R/W scry land in my prerelease deck and it came in very handy as a free scry early on.

Things change! It's the nature of Magic.

[Dix]

You make an EXCELLENT point with the whole 'taking up a rare slot'... but thats still not gonna stop me from going two/three color in drafts or sealed like you also said.

COME AT ME WOTC. WATCH ME WORK AGAINST YOUR ARCHETYPES.

[Lord Hosk]

I dont think the fixing is even that rare its bad but there is plenty of it in standard in fact with the untap land guys, the bad fixing land, the unicorn, and the amulet. I had enough fixing to run three colors and always be on three.

[Can't Wear Hats]

COME AT ME WOTC.

]

[Kapol]

So I got my FtV:20 back from WoTC today. They threw in 4 packs of M14. Which makes me sad they weren't Theros packs. But I got some decent pulls. Goblin Diplomats (which I actually like as it is a red control card), the flying sliver (which is likely the best sliver in my opinion), Devout Invocation (going in EDH), and a Burning Earth. Also picked up a Young Pyromancer and Elvish Mystic.

As for the product... this one doesn't seem to be damaged. But they way they packed it is weird. The tops are still on top of the package, and even bend over them on one card. It's odd, but not enough to complain about.

Now I just need to decide if I want to open/keep it or not...

[tamaness]

I bought some rigid toploader sleeves to put my FTV:20 cards into. I think I want to display them, but now the question is "how?"

It's nice that Wizards threw in some extra value for your inconvenience.

[Kapol]

Hmm... if you just want to display them, maybe try getting a small poster frame, attaching the toploaders to the back (through tape or glue), and hanging it up that way? Basically trying to make a not nearly as awesome 'uncut sheet' look. I'm not sure how well it'd work though...

And yea, it was pretty nice of them to include what they did. They mentioned they'd throw in something to handle shipping it to them. I figured it'd just be a pack, so I'm glad it was a few. The Theros comment was more due to the fact I like Theros a lot.

[tamaness]

I'm thinking of cutting out some stands using the stack of ad promo cards I've got from boosters (I use them for separators in my collection).

Added: I've made a workable stand out of an ad insert.

[Lurkon]

That's AWESOME.

[tamaness]

I'll put together a tutorial once I figure out how to do them consistently. That's one card.

[tamaness]

Here's a template. I've tried a couple different methods of cutting the card; I tried to get two stands out of one card, but it wasn't stable at all.



Fold your ad insert in half along the length of the card, apply the template, cut the card along all black lines (the outer black line is the edge of the card), and assemble by putting the vertical slits together.

[Dix]

I'm still pissed I was the first guy to NOT get a FtV:20 at my LGS. The ONE day that week it was release that I didn't get out for lunch at 11 (got out at our usual 11:30) is the one day it would have paid off.

UGHHHHH.

[Kapol]

I still need to decide if I want to open it, or hold onto it for added value... or sell it to pay for my trip to the Escapist Expo.

[phlip]

Here's a template. I've tried a couple different methods of cutting the card; I tried to get two stands out of one card, but it wasn't stable at all.



Fold your ad insert in half along the length of the card, apply the template, cut the card along all black lines (the outer black line is the edge of the card), and assemble by putting the vertical slits together.

That's pretty cool. I think you could make the stand part slightly taller and more stable if you make more efficient use of the card:

Bonus: there's no scraps to throw away, this way.

[phlip]

So, I'm thinking I'll do things a little different this set, and actually get a Standard deck ready at the start of the format, rather than several months in... Trying to build a green splash-white aggroish facepunchy deck... mainly because I want to build around a God, and I think Nylea will be the easiest to encreature, what with Kalonian Tusker, and green's general happiness with putting a billion creatures on the board.

So... this is what I have so far. I've got to make some cuts, though, and I've probably forgotten some obvious invaluable card... I'm no good at constructed deckbuilding...

Does anyone have any suggestions?