The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Nojh » 15 May 2012, 09:41

So Magic fans who've been around awhile: I'm rather re-new to the game. I stopped playing around 3rd edition and re-started at 2012. I've really been enjoying Innistrad block, especially with the top down horror design and the storyline involved with it. Yay zombies and werewolves!

So the questions I pose to you, those of you who have been playing for awhile, with the announcement of Return to Ravnica what kind of story or themes should we newbies be expecting? I've heard the LRR Crew say that Ravnica is a cool place and its announcement seem to be greeted with cheers but I'm kinda curious what are the cool things about Ravnica in the past that makes returning to it with anticipating?
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby vxicepickxv » 15 May 2012, 20:59

So, here we go. Results from the case. Griselbrand did have the most foils in it at 3 in 7 packs. The Herald gave me the most mythics at 2 in 8. Gisela netted me the worst with 1 basic land foil and no mythics. I pulled a total of 4 mythics, 20 tokens and managed to nab the two mythic angels I needed for my commander deck.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby phlip » 16 May 2012, 03:43

So, I'm looking at the ISD block deck that won PTAVR, and trying to turn it into a Standard deck to play at a local tournament this weekend... I hear it's kinda hard to pilot, so I'll probably fail miserably, but it'll be fun, and that's all that matters.

Main problem is that the deck has so many new rares and mythics that I don't own... the deck would cost me around $250-$300 to complete if I just bought the rest as singles... I don't think I can justify that for a "it'll be fun" deck. Hopefully some of my friends have the cards and aren't using them, so I can borrow them...

Anyways, this is what I've come up with so far. The main deck is essentially untouched, apart from the W/U dual lands. In the sideboard, I took out the Cathedral Sanctifiers (since Hayne said in an interview after winning that they really didn't do as much for the deck as he'd hoped) and the Geists of Saint Traft (since they were mostly there to be a way to deal with the opponent's Geists... and in Standard that card is a bit less common, I don't think it's common enough to have single-card-hate for it in the sideboard). Replaced them with Negates (against control... to deal with opponent's counterspells, since they'll be more prevalent in Standard than ISD block) and DoJ (bring in against aggro creature-heavy decks, since that seems to fit with what the deck's trying to do).

Anyone have any other ideas?
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Geoff_B » 16 May 2012, 04:10

How does that deck win? Do you basically hope to survive until your opponent runs out of cards or you summon angelic hordes to come forth? I'm seeing a lot of control/removal spells but no actual damage until Entreat the Angels comes into play.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby phlip » 16 May 2012, 05:17

That's basically it... main win condition is to stall your opponent until you can get Entreat down for the big damage. Secondary backup win condition is to stall your opponent until you get Tamiyo to ultimate. There's some more words here (albeit written about a slightly older incarnation of the deck).
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby vxicepickxv » 16 May 2012, 16:06

The biggest problem with a Standard version I could see you running into is Temporary creatures, in particular Inkmoth Nexus. Because it's only a creature sometimes, it's very hard to keep it disrupted until you can get Tamiyo out. If they're doing it right, that's going to be tricky, to say the least.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby DuelLadyS » 17 May 2012, 07:54

So I've been thinking... I'd love to have a commander deck ready by PAX. I'm partial to knights, so Rafiq piques my interest as a commander... but, I basically know zero about the format. Any tips? Are there any must-have cards I should be throwing into any commander deck I can gather to start with?
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Jenelmo » 17 May 2012, 08:14

This is a good guide on how to build a Commander/EDH Deck
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=291478
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Lord Hosk » 17 May 2012, 09:16

Avacyn Restored Prerelease on MTGO. in the first 5 minutes over 250 games fired.

250 X 16 players X 30tickets
$120,000
and it keeps going. Good for you WotC
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Kapol » 17 May 2012, 13:55

Any chance anyone here would mind giving me some feedback on my deck? The link can be found here. Sorry if it completely sucks. I built it with the cards I got from my fat pack with no other real support (only cards I have are my white/green starter deck and the fat-pack cards, and I don't want to take apart the starter quite yet).
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby vxicepickxv » 17 May 2012, 16:47

phlip wrote:So, I'm looking at the ISD block deck that won PTAVR, and trying to turn it into a Standard deck to play at a local tournament this weekend... I hear it's kinda hard to pilot, so I'll probably fail miserably, but it'll be fun, and that's all that matters.

Main problem is that the deck has so many new rares and mythics that I don't own... the deck would cost me around $250-$300 to complete if I just bought the rest as singles... I don't think I can justify that for a "it'll be fun" deck. Hopefully some of my friends have the cards and aren't using them, so I can borrow them...

Anyways, this is what I've come up with so far. The main deck is essentially untouched, apart from the W/U dual lands. In the sideboard, I took out the Cathedral Sanctifiers (since Hayne said in an interview after winning that they really didn't do as much for the deck as he'd hoped) and the Geists of Saint Traft (since they were mostly there to be a way to deal with the opponent's Geists... and in Standard that card is a bit less common, I don't think it's common enough to have single-card-hate for it in the sideboard). Replaced them with Negates (against control... to deal with opponent's counterspells, since they'll be more prevalent in Standard than ISD block) and DoJ (bring in against aggro creature-heavy decks, since that seems to fit with what the deck's trying to do).

Anyone have any other ideas?
The biggest weakness you have by moving that to standard is actually Surgical Extraction. If your Entreat gets pulled, you're pretty well hosed.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby phlip » 17 May 2012, 17:35

vxicepickxv wrote:The biggest weakness you have by moving that to standard is actually Surgical Extraction. If your Entreat gets pulled, you're pretty well hosed.

I actually woke up with that thought on my mind this morning... that the existence of Surgical Extraction makes running this sort of hold-out-until-I-get-my-one-win-con deck kinda scary... I guess I'd have to side out Thought Scour against it, at the least. Hmm...
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Kyogissun » 17 May 2012, 19:55

Nothing major to add... Except I pulled Tibalt and Sigarda today.

This was after selling my Cavern of Souls for 15 for a Sigarda.

So yeah, I seem to be tapping into some pretty solid luck. I sold my Temporal Mastery yesterday only to end up pulling one in another booster that same day.

Really would have preferred Tamiyo over Tibalt, but that's got nothing to do with price and everything to do with that I seem to be fond of Blue/Green/White cards. Red and Black not so much for some reason.

So yeah, gonna go back to the card shop tomorrow night and watch some FNM and just watch people play or maybe find just some new friends/players to ask for deck advice. I'm figuring I need to learn some ins and outs before I even 'think' about trying anything serious, so I just wanna get a feel for how these things go down.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby vxicepickxv » 17 May 2012, 23:44

Kyogissun wrote:Nothing major to add... Except I pulled Tibalt and Sigarda today.

This was after selling my Cavern of Souls for 15 for a Sigarda.

So yeah, I seem to be tapping into some pretty solid luck. I sold my Temporal Mastery yesterday only to end up pulling one in another booster that same day.

Really would have preferred Tamiyo over Tibalt, but that's got nothing to do with price and everything to do with that I seem to be fond of Blue/Green/White cards. Red and Black not so much for some reason.

So yeah, gonna go back to the card shop tomorrow night and watch some FNM and just watch people play or maybe find just some new friends/players to ask for deck advice. I'm figuring I need to learn some ins and outs before I even 'think' about trying anything serious, so I just wanna get a feel for how these things go down.

Tibalt is a lot harder to use than Tamiyo, but he should work in a R/U Snapcaster deck. Tamiyo is tricky to use, but a lot easier to Tibalt.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Yaxley » 18 May 2012, 07:00

Kapol wrote:Any chance anyone here would mind giving me some feedback on my deck? The link can be found here. Sorry if it completely sucks. I built it with the cards I got from my fat pack with no other real support (only cards I have are my white/green starter deck and the fat-pack cards, and I don't want to take apart the starter quite yet).

Well, first off, it has 74 cards. You pretty much never want more than 60 simply for consistency's sake. You're also running three colors, which can work in certain decks, but probably doesn't here. Other than the 2 Borderland Rangers, you don't really have any way to make sure you have all the colors of mana that you need. So you could easily be sitting there with lots of Forests and Islands in play and a hand full of white cards that you can't cast. My advice would be to cut one of the colors, probably blue or white. Then aim for 22-24 lands and 26-28 spells in the two colors you choose.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Kapol » 18 May 2012, 10:48

Yaxley wrote:Well, first off, it has 74 cards. You pretty much never want more than 60 simply for consistency's sake. You're also running three colors, which can work in certain decks, but probably doesn't here. Other than the 2 Borderland Rangers, you don't really have any way to make sure you have all the colors of mana that you need. So you could easily be sitting there with lots of Forests and Islands in play and a hand full of white cards that you can't cast. My advice would be to cut one of the colors, probably blue or white. Then aim for 22-24 lands and 26-28 spells in the two colors you choose.


The problem with that is a lack of cards. I don't really have much of anything in terms of green or blue that would replace the 25+ cards I'd lose by taking white out (which would be the only real choice). That's why I tried to focus more on an aggro-combo deck with cards to increase mana (Druids' Repository) and get cards out faster with some others (Descendants' Path and Primal Surge). Too many sorcery or enchantments would harm my ability to use those (ending Primal Surge if they come up and going to the bottom of the deck with the Path).

That said, I'll try to cut some of the creatures (which I needed to do anyways) and, with them, cut out some of the mana I put in to offset the number of creatures I had. Plus I've heard to put 24 lands in a 60 card deck, which is why I upped the number to make up for the diversity that there is in the deck right now.

But I do appreciate the advice. When I get more cards (hopefully I'm going to get more tonight, planning on going to a FNM draft event) I'll be able to consider changing things up a bit more.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Lord Hosk » 18 May 2012, 18:18

This was my 6 booster avacyn pre-release on MTGO, I played on friday and I started 40 minutes before LRR, they were done before my last round started.

Maybe Im just too new at this, but this seems like it was a really mediocre draw.

I want to see what anyone else would have tried to pull out of this.

I went with White Green. I thought about white red but then my curve was all wanky and I was short on guys.

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=339312
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Under_Score » 18 May 2012, 19:55

So tonight was probably my best night of FNM. It was the second time I've had a 3-1 record, but because there weren't many people, it was enough this time to place me in the top finishers, giving me extra prize pacts and the promo. So, in celebration of my (small) victory, I wanted to share my deck and see what people thought.

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=339401
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Lord Hosk » 18 May 2012, 21:25

ok so vampire+lance and thatcher =win
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Under_Score » 19 May 2012, 09:37

...Honestly, I completely forgot that the Thatcher sacked at the end of the turn. I think there was many a times that I could've put counters on my vampire and didn't. Still, not sure it would've been enough to win me the last match. I was mostly playing with Flowering Lumberknot in mind. I came back in a game where I was at 2 health and my opponent had lifelinked up to 35 by using Ulvenwald Tracker and Lumberknot to kill his creatures.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Kyogissun » 19 May 2012, 21:17

Went to FNM last night. Ran into a former co-worker there. Found out he's a big MtG fan. Also ran into someone attending my college in the fall so I got his number and shit. Bought 6 boosters, traded some shit in, used the trade in credits to get Tamiyo. Bought some dice, an Ultra Pro binder and that's about it.

Thankfully, I'm one card short of the three particular cards I wanted for collection and playing purposes. Also, at FNM I played against said co-worker and lost both times. I finally figured out what my G/W deck was lacking and really, it's lacking some low cost blockers to hold me out until I can get the cards I really need on the field.

Also got some advice for building a B/G deck around Tamiyo, getting the suggestion of using Birthing Pod, a green spirit type that was 1G/1C to cast, had haste and swings for 2/1 but I can't remember the name of and just the general suggestion that the big thing is gonna be about just continuing to focus on protecting her and holding the line till I can activate her emblem ability.

Got some friends coming over on monday and we're probably gonna focus on deck building. They're planning to pick up another fat pack but I've already bought 14 boosters in this past week. I've got plenty of cards to work with so at this point, I'm really needing to focus off of building something from my cards and whatever they've got from the innistrad block.

When I've got a deck built and a strategy that works, I'll finally get around to posting a list so you guys can give some commentary.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby dackwards d » 19 May 2012, 22:09

Bought a second AVR fat pack today... have still to pull a single black rare (I main black), but I can't really complain since I got Tamiyo, a Cavern and several other good ones. Angel of Glory's Rise and Herald of War mean the R/W human deck I was considering will probably end up happening, though Glory's Rise may find itself in my 'Human Sacrifice' deck based around feeding humans to vampires (alternate deck name: The Humanitarians), since it should usually have a graveyard full of juicy human cattle to res.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby phlip » 20 May 2012, 04:27

I made the stupidest mistake I've ever made in a Magic game, in a draft today...

To set the scene, he has Fettergeist and Demonic Rising on the board, and passes the turn, gaining a 5/5 Demon. On my turn, I draw the 6th land to cast the Thunderous Wrath that comprises the entirety of my hand. So, I pass the turn back, figuring he'll sac the Fettergeist (by not paying its upkeep cost) and try to get Rise a second Demon. So my plan is to shoot his demon before combat (ie after he's already sac'd the Fettergeist) so he has no creatures, and then gets no Demon. Maybe he had a creature in is hand he could cast, but at that point if he did I was dead no matter what I did.

So I pass to his turn, and as expected he sacs the Fettergeist. But then he plays Homicidal Seclusion. But I'm thinking "Oh, that doesn't matter, I'm going to kill his creature anyway" and say OK. Then, when he declares attackers, I shoot the demon.

Except, of course, Homicidal Seclusion grants a toughness boost, and the demon survives. If I'd cast the burn in response to the Seclusion it would have killed it, but because I didn't, it not only became out of my reach to kill it, but I actually cast the big burn spell, doing nothing except taking it out of my hand. (Actually, to be strictly accurate, it didn't do nothing... when the Demonic Rising activated at the end of the turn, he got a second demon, the Homicidal Seclusion deactivated, and the first demon became a 5/5 with 5 damage and died. Which meant the Seclusion re-activated, and now he had an 8/6 lifelink blocker instead of just a 5/5.)

If I'd managed to kill the demon, and he hadn't played another creature to re-activate the Rising, then I would have been able to swing in for quite a bit of damage, as I had a rather large board of 2/1's and 2/2's that had just never been able to attack through his large flyers... I dunno if I would have won, but I would have been in with a chance. But then I just threw that chance away.

I've never wanted to flip a table so badly... I guess I was lucky that it was game 3, and I had a chance to unwind and come off tilt before the next round.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby DarkAbyssKeeper » 20 May 2012, 13:58

So, I finally cracked and decided to do a pre-release draft. It turned out a little better than most of my drafts, actually.

I went 2-0 in two out of three matches, and mainly lost due to terrible mulligans in the other one.

I got out of black two picks in and decided on blue-red aggro, the blue ended up winning one of my slower matches and had the potential for some fun aggo combo with the cathars I picked up.

This is what I ended up running:
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(11 Mountains, 6 Islands)
Since no-one seemed to be in red I was was able to get a shockingly consistent deck strategy drafted. Thoughts?

Anyone else decide to ignore the steep price and go for an avacyn prerelease on mtgo? How'd it go for you?
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Lord Hosk » 20 May 2012, 16:38

DarkAbyssKeeper wrote:
Anyone else decide to ignore the steep price and go for an avacyn prerelease on mtgo? How'd it go for you?



I did a 6 booster sealed, I started a little before the LRR did, I got terrible cards, see above.
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