The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

[RedNightmare]

Welp, Duckay, you were right. Waiting for the full spoiler was a good idea. Because I now need to think about how likely it is people will have Tormod's Crypt in their sideboards

EDIT: Wait, Phyrexian Revoker might be able to block the Crypt. The revoker is becoming a more appealing sideboard choice.

[korvys]

Meh, they could have used Rest in Peace or Rakdos Charm before now. The question is, are there enough copies of the deck floating around your area for people to dedicate sideboard slots to killing it? In my case, no. I'm the only one playing the deck. If they weren't going to waste a sideboard slot on those, they aren't going to waste one on Tormod's Crypt.

[Duckay]

Tormod's Crypt is a bit different because rakdos charm and rest in peace require your opponent to be in specific colours. The two decks I've had experience with (mono-black, and mono-red) are not going to run rakdos charm and rest in peace no matter how popular dredge is, but may run Tormod's crypt.

[korvys]

While that's true, the point I was making was that even the decks that could play hate, didn't. If that's still true, then even changing the number of decks that can run hate (to all of them) won't change the number that *will* run hate. The only think that will change that is the popularity of the deck.

Incidentally, while I love the deck, and think it has great match ups against a lot of stuff, it just rolls over to hate. If it gets popular enough to warrant Tormod's Crypt being played in significant numbers, I'm abandoning ship.

[Duckay]

Okay, look, maybe I'm off-base here. You do have more experience with the deck than I do, so if you think it's not something that bears consideration, you're more likely correct. I just thought it was something worth being aware of in this context.

[korvys]

It's not that it's not worth considering, but rather the consideration is not on what tool people have available to stop you, but would they even bother.

My FNM has about 25-40 people, and I'm the only dredge player. Even if I were 100% to win against someone without hate (I'm not), and 0% to win against someone with hate (I'm also not), the chances of anyone playing me in particular is low.

On the other hand, maybe there were some Mono-Black players who dreaded playing against me, who will be cheering for this. I've not been on that side of the table. Plus, on a larger scale, it might be that WotC doesn't want this to become too much of a thing. Just the existence of the Crypt might stop too many people playing it, even after the hate (RiP, Rakdos Charm, and Ooze) leave Standard.

Sorry if I came off a bit abrupt in my previous posts. I don't get to be an expert on this sort of stuff often. I think I got a bit excited.

[RedNightmare]

Yeah, I don't find it likely that I'll see the Crypt often, but I'm gonna build in some responses to it in my deck/sideboard that work against other decks as well (Phyrexian Revoker, Reclamation Sage).

Thanks for the advice on waiting a bit with collecting the deck, Duckay

[Phosphatide]

The Southwest Judges community has taught me about the infinite loop between Nissa, Worldwaker's second ability, Ral Zarek's first ability, and The Chain Veil to put however many loyalty counters you want on whatever planeswalkers you control during the shenanigans.

Time to enjoy this Standard-legal funtime while it lasts.

[AdmiralMemo]

RUG Deck, here I come!

[Volafortis]

The Southwest Judges community has taught me about the infinite loop between Nissa, Worldwaker's second ability, Ral Zarek's first ability, and The Chain Veil to put however many loyalty counters you want on whatever planeswalkers you control during the shenanigans.

Time to enjoy this Standard-legal funtime while it lasts.

And It's also infinite activations on any other planeswalkers you have, so any other planeswalker damage (say, Chandra) makes it instawin.

[korvys]

That's 3 infinite combos in those colours in standard.
The others being Axebane Guardian + Mnemonic Wall + Twinflame and Elite Arcanist + Triton Tactics + Zhur-Taa Druid.

[Garwulf]

So, I just completed my very first Magic set. I now have a complete set of Chronicles.

It only took me TWENTY YEARS...

Best regards to all,

Robert Marks

[chetoos]

Another infinite combo in standard is Ajani, Mentor of Heroes + Chain Veil + Sage of Hours for infinite turns.

[Volafortis]

So, I just completed my very first Magic set. I now have a complete set of Chronicles.

It only took me TWENTY YEARS...

Best regards to all,

Robert Marks

Congrats! My first full set collection was Innistrad, but those cards are a bit easier to get (Especially back then, managed to pick up 6 Liliana of the Veils at 15 a piece.)

[tamaness]

Ugh, the collections I'm working on are going to be so much harder than that.

1: Phil & Kaja Foglio art -- 1+ of each printing (incl. Claymore J. Flapdoodle)
2: The reserved list excluding power nine -- 1+ of each card

Shahrazad is my chase card for both collections right now. My last Reserved List card was Didgeridoo.

[Volafortis]

I actually almost bought a playset of Shahrazad once, for a casual deck that used it + Panoptic Mirror for the longest game ever. But then I realized I'd only ever get to play it once, and then never again, and decided not to, lol.

My primary "collection" is getting 4 of every planeswalker, and I've stayed quite current on it, have 4 of all of them up to Conspiracy (only have 2 Dacks, though).

M15'll be rough, though.

[Garwulf]

Ugh, the collections I'm working on are going to be so much harder than that.

1: Phil & Kaja Foglio art -- 1+ of each printing (incl. Claymore J. Flapdoodle)
2: The reserved list excluding power nine -- 1+ of each card

Shahrazad is my chase card for both collections right now. My last Reserved List card was Didgeridoo.

I can honestly say that Shahrazad is a card I've never seen played. I think I've seen all of the Power Nine hit the table, but not that one. Good luck finding it!

My collecting for the next few months is basically as follows:

- Alternating M15/Theros Block.

- Once M15 is done, alternating Revised (everything but dual lands - since just one blows my entire "mad money" budget for a month, I'll have to be content with my Taiga)/Theros block

- Once Revised is done, alternating Innistrad block/Theros block.

The funny thing is that Innistrad has a story behind it. My wife loves Japanese culture and mythology, but she got in about 10 years too late for Kamigawa. So, for her birthday present I decided to reconstruct as much of Kamigawa block as I could get my hands on. The problem: she's my WIFE. She lives with me. So, in order to not spoil the surprise, I had to find a way to make sure she didn't clue in that I was acquiring massive amounts of cards for no apparent reason.

So, partway through the Kamigawa card hunt, I started to collect commons and uncommons from Innistrad block, partly because reconstructing a set is actually pretty fun, and partly because it made a REALLY good screen for finding Kamigawa cards. It worked perfectly - she started to worry that I was getting a bit too enthusiastic about Innistrad, and never even thought that the large number of white boxes filling our home office could be something else. And, I even managed to get around 85% of the Kamigawa block for her.

You should have seen the look on her face when she got her present and it all sunk in...

Mind you, now I kind of like what Innistrad does, so I'm going to keep collecting it. But, Revised takes priority - that's the set I came in on, so in a very real way it's MY Magic set. I'd kind of like to get the rest of it (I've got around 2/3 of it now).

Best regards to all,

Robert Marks

[tamaness]

I can honestly say that Shahrazad is a card I've never seen played. I think I've seen all of the Power Nine hit the table, but not that one. Good luck finding it!

I've never seen it played, but I've personally held five separate copies. The owner of the newest LGS in town has a few that he's willing to trade, but we need to sit down and work out something that's equitable for both of us, as she's not a cheap card, but she's also not playable in anything ever (not if you want to keep friends, anyway), and I'm just starting to get into non-rotating Magic, so I don't have a lot that he'll need.

On a side note, the aforementioned LGS owner runs a red/blue Stasis deck in Legacy, and wants to do something similar in Modern. I think he'll have a great time playing Blue Moon, but I'm not sure what kind of list to point him at.

[WickedBoy6]

I've wanted to collect sets, but I can't even begin to think where to begin. I mean, I probably have the entire Theros block, minus some chase Mythics, since I've been buying Fat Packs all over the place. I do wanna build some full sets of sillier stuff, like Homelands, Fallen Empires, and the Un- series.

[Garwulf]

I've wanted to collect sets, but I can't even begin to think where to begin. I mean, I probably have the entire Theros block, minus some chase Mythics, since I've been buying Fat Packs all over the place. I do wanna build some full sets of sillier stuff, like Homelands, Fallen Empires, and the Un- series.

Well, speaking as the man who has completed a grand and awe-inspiring total of one set, I'd suggest putting your Theros cards in order, figuring out which cards you're missing, and then picking them up as singles. Then, that's three sets right there...

Best regards to all,

Robert Marks

[Kapol]

So I didn't notice this at first, and find it pretty interesting. So, you cast Genesis Hydra for the rest of your deck, going to get your Worldspin Wurm and crush this puny control player like a good green player. Your opponent says 'dissipate your hydra.' You say alright. Dissipate resolves. Then, Genesis Hydra's ability resolves and you get your Worldspine Wurm out anyways. Why, you may ask? Because Genesis Hydra's ability specifies 'when you cast,' meaning it doesn't actually hit the battlefield before it's ability triggers and resolves.

[tamaness]

hooray for cast triggers!

I got to Stifle a storm trigger today.

[Phosphatide]

So I ended up pulling Aggressive Mining from a prerelease victory pack. After staring at the card for a while, I feel very inclined to making a deck that can use it.

Am I looking towards red burn and the like? Maybe even storm might want something like this?

[Lurkon]

So I ended up pulling Aggressive Mining from a prerelease victory pack. After staring at the card for a while, I feel very inclined to making a deck that can use it.

Am I looking towards red burn and the like? Maybe even storm might want something like this?

How about a Zedruu, the Greathearted Commander deck? Not really USING it so much as weaponizing it.

[ElFuzzy]

So my friend was planning to run Aggressive Mining as secret sideboard tech against gods in combination with Daring Thief.