The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

[ElFuzzy]

So anyone else planning to make a sea monsters deck with Koira and that oddly specific bounce card? Or is it just me?

[VectorZero]

So anyone else planning to make a sea monsters deck with Koira and that oddly specific bounce card? Or is it just me?

Oh, absolutely. There's some flavour fantastic casual decks in BNG-THS for sure.

Also, got to use 'between Scylla and Charybdis' legitimately in conversation yesterday. Thanks Magic, you edumacated me!

Also also, on the subject of Koira, played around with a prophet bant deck lately. HOOLLLLY crap that was fun. +1 Jace, Monstrous Polukranos for X=4 taking out 3 dudes, into Prime Speaker? Yes please! Will be very interested to see how Koira changes bant/simic standard.

[Kapol]

I just realized just how good some of the combos of gods and weapons are recently.

Bow of Nylea + Nylea = Damage basically becomes 'Your opponent takes damage equal to the attack of all attacking creatures -1 for each blocker.' Throw in Polukranos for added fun, as his monstrosity when he attacks basically wipes your opponent's board.

Bident of Thassa + Thassa = Pay 2 mana to draw a card and hit your opponent for damage.

Whip of Erebos + Erebos = Keeping draining and hitting with creatures and keep drawing cards

Spear of Heliod + Heliod = Pay 4 mana to make a 2/3 vigilance.

Hammer of Purphoros + Purphoros = Create a 3/3 for three mana, causing two damage, and get to swing in the same turn with it.

[Phosphatide]

Erabos also has the added bonus of "bring back a creature for a turn to swing in for a quick lifelink bonus" if you've got nothing else to do. That has saved my butt in so many sealed games with a stalled board.

It's unfortunate how Heliod's combo is not as exciting as the rest. A 2/3 vigilance is great, but man you really wish it could be flashier.

[Kapol]

It's not flashy, but being able to make 2/3 vigilances every turn is a solid ability. Especially with something like Ajani's Chosen. If you have AC on the field, you get 5/6 over two bodies with vigilances.

And I see that more as a 'you're able to swing in without worrying about losing creatures' more than anything, which is in-flavor for black.

[Utilitarian]

It's not flashy, but being able to make 2/3 vigilances every turn is a solid ability. Especially with something like Ajani's Chosen. If you have AC on the field, you get 5/6 over two bodies with vigilances.

And I see that more as a 'you're able to swing in without worrying about losing creatures' more than anything, which is in-flavor for black.

actually 3/2 with Vigilance. Even better.

[AzureAngel17]

Bummed out. Finally can afford to play, but my playgroup never wants to get together anymore. I can't even get anyone to commit to a pre-release.

[Phosphatide]

I've started to make some new buds at a small LGS by showing up for an FNM draft every now and then. Arriving early with a commander deck also helped.

Finding new people shouldn't be hard, I'm very sure you'll discover some new playmates soon.

[Dix]

For those of us stateside who haven't yet gone to a prerelease or aren't hitting up the midnight release, try seeing how you do with some prerelease potential pool builds with this random pool generator. Has some odd 'glitches' but overall seems pretty cool for seeing what you may get from your "Destined to [insert title]" boxes.

http://copper-dog.com/mtg-generator/201 ... -the-gods/

[Prospero101]

Dayum, I hope I pull a Kiora in the legit prerelease.

[phlip]

Been ripping shows down at the prerelease so far... partly thanks to a couple of really nice pools, but mostly due to my intense skill and excellence.

At midnight I picked green, pulled Karametra and the uncommon GW spell in the seeded booster, plus Fleecemane Lion, and also green and white were my deepest colours by far, so that was fun. The Thoughtseize and new Phoenix were neat pulls to. I went 3-1, and the loss was mostly because I was kinda tired (it being 2AM at the time) and getting greedy... trying to monstrous my Fleecemane Lion immediately while my opponent had heaps of mana available, instead of waiting for my opponent to try to deal with it (since he had to somehow) and monstrous in response. Got blown out by Griptide and then Nullify when I tried to re-play it. I did however manage to get this sight in both games of round 1, which was neat.

Today I picked blue, and went blue-white heroic, I had 5 creatures with heroic and 7 things to target them with, which seemed to be enough. Multiple games I played a 2-drop on turn 2 (either the 1/1 flier or Battlewise Hoplite) and then turn 2 played Chosen of Heliod and Aqueous Form (of which I had 2 of each). Those games tended to end quickly. Went 4-0 with that one, which was great.

And now have a nice big stack of prize boosters to hold on to, pretending I'll ever have the opportunity to draft with them, and then give up and crack them all in a couple of weeks. As is the standard. And there's still a couple of prereleases tomorrow to look forward to.

[VectorZero]

Oh god I crashed and burned at the prerelease last night. Pulled 2 mindreavers from my BNG packs (my neighbour helpfully phrased it as 'the foundation of a really terrible mill deck'.) Tried a rakdos deck initially, then izzet, then azorius for a consolation win at the bottom table.

Nyxborn triton did a fair bit of heavy lifting. Very nice card.

[phlip]

Ripping shows down update: 4-0, 3-1, 4-0, 2-2, 4-0. Total for the weekend: 17-3.

I remember when I thought a positive record was enough to satisfy me at these things. Good memories.

I think I caught a cold off a guy there, but it was worth it.

[Kapol]

So... Deathrite Shaman is banned in Modern. I assume this means it's price is gonna take a beating?

[Phosphatide]

I wouldn't be surprised, but it still does fine in Eternal formats I think so it could be still fine.

Or maybe the Playing the Unplayable series on MTGO Academy is warping my knowledge of Deathrite Shaman's playability in Eternal formats.

[Volafortis]

re: Price of Deathrite Shaman: (see Stoneforge Mystic)

[Prospero101]

I am thoroughly surprised they didn't ban True-Name Nemesis in Legacy.

[Del]

we pretty much had to expect that the only changes would be modern for the upcoming modern season...

[Jenelmo]

It was to early to ban True-name for a few reasons mostly the fact that the format had not had enough time to react and shift, but i also think that the fact that the second or third wave of commander is being sold also was a factor

[korvys]

Bought 4 DRS a few weeks ago, so not terribly pleased, but then I bought them to play Standard, and their Modern (and Legacy) value was just a nice upside if I wanted to get rid of them in the future, so no big deal.

[tamaness]

Hmm, I'm more annoyed by SyPrime getting banned in Commander. I just traded pretty heavily for one, and now I've got to pull it from that deck. At least I don't have to figure out what to cut for Master Biomancer.

[Volafortis]

I feel like True-Name is reasonable to stay in Legacy. Zealous Persecution and Golgari Charm just became mush better tech is all that happened there. A 3/1 beater (that, granted, is difficult to interact with and can be equipped) is still much fairer than other things that have been allowed to exist in Legacy.

[Jenelmo]

Most of the people i have seen/read that have a problem with True-Name does not have a problem because of power level (yes it is good but that is not the point) they have a problem because it is one of the least interactive cards in years as a lot of decks have no way to interact with it

[Volafortis]

But Legacy has plenty of "uninteractive" cards. TNN is just the most recent example, and people are up in arms basically only because of that. Kill it or race it, both can be done.

I feel like banning TNN is entirely against the spirit of Legacy. It's not broken, and Legacy shouldn't be about banning fair cards (stares intently at Modern).

[tamaness]

So I broke the news about DRS's Modern ban, and SyPrime's Commander ban to my LGS. Both of them were met with bewilderment.