The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

[korvys]

Huh. I was just building a Gyre Sage deck with Burst of Strength in it... I might have to put another couple of cards in...

[AdmiralMemo]

Hmm

Elite Arcanist imprinted with Burst of Strength + Illusionist's Bracers +

-Basic Mana Dork = Infinite counters on Arcanist and Dork
-2+ Mana producing Dork = Infinite mana, infinite counters on any number of creatures, infinite untap of any number of creatures
-Zhur-Taa Druid = Infinite Damage to Opponent

Interesting... And able to do this on Turn 5, too. Earlier if you get enough ramp.

For other options, if the dork produces at least 1+G, imprint Savage Surge for infinite pump on both. If it generates 2+G at least, Spidery Grasp (before it rotates) for infinite pump and reach. (Burst of Strength is still the best option, but with only 4 per deck, these are other possible options.)

Also, while not infinite, a few cool things come to mind for doubling: double Savage Summoning, double Cloudshift for twice the ETB, double Rapid Hybridization for MOAR FROGS...

Heck, triplicate any instant or sorcery by imprinting Reverberate or Wild Ricochet. (The second one less useful for straight-up spell replication due to its higher mana cost, but better on the control side. Also, it's not rotating out like Reverberate is.)

Also, I just realized... Elite Arcanist imprinted with Reverberate + Illusionist's Bracers. Have BioVisionary on the table, wait until the opponent is tapped out, cast Cackling Counterpart, triplicate it, and win.

[Utilitarian]

Other interesting notes:

The Elite Arcanist actually casts its spells, meaning every time you cast a spell with it you trigger cards like Young Pyromancer and Guttersnipe

Elite Arcanist imprinted with Burst of Strength +

-Young Pyromancer = X: Put X 1/1 elemental tokens into play
-Guttersnipe = X: Deal 2*X damage to your opponent

Elite Arcanist imprinted with Burst of Strength + Illusionist's Bracers +

-Young Pyromancer = X: Put 2*X 1/1 elemental tokens into play
-Guttersnipe = X: Deal 4*X damage to your opponent

[korvys]

So as I mentioned, I already was making an Gyre Sage deck with Burst of Strength, but since it was blue anyway, I put in the Elite Arcanist:



It's pretty fun. Give//Take is actually pretty cool, as is Blessings of Nature. You either draw piles of cards from Give//Take or putting counters on Fathom Mage, or just make your Elvish Mystic big and hit them.

Board wipe effects suck, but you have enough mana to rebuild quickly.

[Utilitarian]

2/2 at FNM standard with my new Angelic Accord mono-white. Will definitely be adding black to it, especially given that I pulled a Liliana of the Dark Realms and a Sanguine Bond in the subsequent draft. Also got a line on some potential trades for the requisite Godless Shrines.

Speaking of the draft, 2/1 coming in third. Very nearly 3/0 but completely punted the last game in spectacular fashion. Absolutely threw it away. Prolly had something to do with it being like, midnight. Very happy with my deck though, blue/green huge stuff. Rumbling Baloth, two Woodborn Behemoths, Colossal Whale, etc.

[Kapol]

So my LGS is selling FTV:20 for $125 a piece before tax (So about $132.50 after). My question is should I buy one or not? I could likely get the money together to buy one box of it. I'm just not sure if it's worth it.

[Lord Hosk]

Yes

Yes

YES!

[Lord Hosk]

Even if you just turn around and sell it you can get at least 200. If you hold onto it a little while you can get more.

Or open it and get the good cards.

[Juliamon]

The only lgs around here that even still has any available is selling theirs at $185. Go for it.

[Jenelmo]

There is a site http://kavu.ru/ where you find your all time record divided by format ans such, it is pretty interesting

[magicpokey]

Hey everybody! I forgot to put this here! If this doesn't belong in this thread please let me know and I'll make a new topic. Some of you know me from around the LoadingReadyRun forum and the Escapist Expo last year, and I am going to shamelessly shill my new weekly M:TG webseries for a sec. The Bargain Basement Brewery, where I make and pilot budget minded constructed decks. I just put up episode 5 today.

I feel like a heel, jumping in here and whoring myself out like this, but if there's one group of people on the net I can trust to give me real constructive criticism it's you guys. So, if you have a bit of time could you check it out? I'd really appreciate some feedback, positive or negative.

You can find the show on my blog: www.magicpokey.blogspot.com

Thanks!

[guidance]

So I remember a podcast that the LRR crew did about playing magic at PAX. They did some wacky draft where they opened booster boxes and collected all the similar cards and then people choose their pile. Now I doubt they would do something like this again but does anyone know where these magic events might be held at PAX?

[Lord Hosk]

That was a special invite only event being held at Pax east by a Mike Gills a promotions manager on his last weekend on the job he brought 6 cases of M13 to give away at his discretion for his last hurrah, he had 27 booster boxes which were sorted for their game.

It will likely never be done again and if it is, it would be a invitation only thing by a promotions manager some time at the end of their run as promotions manager.

[Utilitarian]

So here's the deck I ended up designing to exploit that Elite Arcanist/Burst of Strength interaction.

http://www.mtgdeckbuilder.net/Decks/ViewDeck/587254

Deck is basically an Izzet Young Pyromancer control deck with a couple modifications

The nice thing about the Elite Arcanist is you never actually need the coloured mana of the spell you exile, since it just converts the card's CMC to a colourless X on the ability. To the Bursts clog up the deck less, I only put two of them in.

It occured to me that Firemind's Foresight was a great card for this deck. Not only can it fetch the Burst, but it can also grab counters and kills at the same time, with the interesting interaction of being able to grab Turn//Burn as a CMC 2 or CMC 3 card, letting you grab two of them alongside the Burst (if I'm understanding the rules around split CMC correctly). If you have the burst, you can just get shocks or Syncopates, depending on your needs.

In order to justify using the pair of illusionist's bracers I also put in the Mercurial Chemisters as the bracers take this card from merely good to truly insane.

Essentially I decided to ignore the possible infinite that comes from including green in favor of a slightly lower, but more reliable ceiling of simply producing 2*X tokens, +1 counters, or instances of 2 damage to my opponent per turn with a cheaper, more reliable deck.

Still considering putting in an Izzet Keyrune or two, which would allow the deck to go infinite.

[phlip]

If you want more redundancy for the combo, have you considered Hidden Strings? It doesn't give you the +1/+1 counter that Burst gives you, and it takes 2 mana, but it lets you untap two things even if you don't have the bracers. Elite Arcanist + Hidden Strings + Guilded Lotus is infinite mana (and infinite spells, if you have Young Pyromancer)...

[edit] Oh, wait, Arcanist can only copy instants, can't it... and Hidden Strings is a Sorcery... never mind.

[Utilitarian]

You know every time I went to work on this deck design I have that conversation with myself, philip.

Every time.

It always ends the same way -_^

[AdmiralMemo]

Maybe throw in a couple of Quickens?

[Utilitarian]

Maybe throw in a couple of Quickens?

To what end?

[Kapol]

To make the deck quicker?

But I think that Savage Summoning might be a better option. Not sure how much it'd do in the deck, but it seems like a more reliable way to get Arcanist out without worrying about having him in the open for a full turn.

[Utilitarian]

Wouldn't be able to cast it as the deck runs no green mana, and is intended to stay that way for economy and reliability

As for Quicken, there's only two sorceries in the deck as it is, doesn't seem worth it

[Kapol]

Derp. I was looking at Korvys's deck.

[Kapol]

So... I managed to get one of the FTV:20. Due to my brain, I had to take it out of the white box it came in to check the cards. I've noticed that Jace is a bit frayed on the edges. It's not too bad by any means, but it's not hard to notice either. I'm mostly worried about the resell value if I open it or getting a complaint it I sell the box later. Is this worth complaining about and trying to get a new box, or is that normal for FtV sets?

[tamaness]

Huh. I picked up a FTV:20 yesterday, and my Jace looked fine. I'll photograph him if you want to compare.

[Kapol]

I dunno if a comparison will help, but I tried to take a picture of what it looks like. Here's the best I could get:

Collapsed for size - Click to Expand

The little silvery areas are where it looks to be a bit banged up. They're easier to see in-person, since the camera didn't like to work with me.

Like, if this was any card other than Jace, I wouldn't worry about it. But people do care, and that likely brings it from NM to SP, which is a drop in price. I'm just not sure how much or if it's even that bad.

[magicpokey]

it looks like the foiling is coming off, FTV 20 is foils, right?