The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

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

Postby RytelCSF » 03 May 2011, 10:25

So while my favorite card in New Phyrexia is definitely Bludgeon Brawl due to its thematic hilariousness, I've found a card that has my deckbuilding senses flowing like they haven't been in a long time.

*deep breath*

Are you tired of drawing your low-cost, low-power utility creatures when you need your big fatties to beat face? Billy Mays here, and I'm here to talk to you about Birthing Pod!

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Birthing Pod is a brand-new piece of cutting-edge Phyrexian technology designed to get you the creature you need when you need it!

That Llanowar Elves not doing much for you in the late game? Throw it in the Birthing Pod, and now it's a Myr Superion!

Sylvan Ranger not looking so hot? Throw it in the Birthing Pod, and now it's a 4/5!

Acidic Slime did its job, but now it's just sitting there as a 2/2. Throw it in the Birthing Pod, and you can turn it into a Wurmcoil Engine! Next turn, put that into the Birthing Pod, and get yourself a 3/3 lifelink, 3/3 deathtouch, and a Myr Battlesphere! The possibilities are endless!

And it's not limited to creatures you could otherwise cast! That Conundrum Sphinx looks nice, but you're never playing that in mono-green, right? Wrong! Just put any three-mana creature into the Birthing Pod, and search up your single copy! It's just that easy!

It works with enters-the-battlefield abilities! It works with graveyard-from-the-battlefield abilities! It even works for people on a budget! That Wurmcoil Engine too pricey for you? Search up a Terra Stomper! Who needs all the bells and whistles when you've got an 8/8 trampler on your side!

But wait! There's more! Call within the next 15 minutes and we'll throw in, absolutely free, a Beast Within! Are you sick of Jace stacking your draws, and Gideon telling you who you can and can't attack? Beast Within's metamorphic enzymes will eat away at those pesky planeswalkers, or any other permanent of your choice*, leaving behind a harmless 3/3 token to be easily dispatched! Who cares about a 3/3 when you have 5/6s and 8/8s beating down?

That's the Birthing Pod, Beast Within, and five bottles of lubricating oil to ensure your Birthing Pod remains in top condition and certainly no other purpose, all for one easy payment of four mana! Call today and we'll lower that to a mere three mana and two life! So what are you waiting for? Stop struggling with those wimpy utility creatures and get the fatties you need today! Order now!

*Does not work on indestructible permanents. Use as directed.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Cybren » 03 May 2011, 11:58

Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Sorcery
2UU
Brainstorm. Target player pays 2G and discards a card. Put a 3/3 beast token into play under your control.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Lyinginbedmon » 04 May 2011, 01:17

So I had the idea of trying out a Memnarch Commander deck...except that if you play with Memnarch as your Commander you have literally nothing but artifacts and colourless Eldrazi spells...so are basically screwed.

Is there any way to make a Commander deck centering on Memnarch (though not necessarily with Memnarch as the Commander) viable? I'm thinking Blue/Green most likely, for mana ramping availability and tutoring effects. Experiment Kraj is then probably the best fit, since it can boost artifacts and gain their activated abilities in turn, such as Myr.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Trymantha » 04 May 2011, 02:37

sorry double post
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Trymantha » 04 May 2011, 02:39

Cybren wrote:Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Sorcery
2UU
Fateseal target opponent. Target player pays 2G and discards a card. Put a 3/3 beast token into play under your control.


Fix'd that for you



Lyinginbedmon wrote:So I had the idea of trying out a Memnarch Commander deck...except that if you play with Memnarch as your Commander you have literally nothing but artifacts and colourless Eldrazi spells...so are basically screwed.

Is there any way to make a Commander deck centering on Memnarch (though not necessarily with Memnarch as the Commander) viable? I'm thinking Blue/Green most likely, for mana ramping availability and tutoring effects. Experiment Kraj is then probably the best fit, since it can boost artifacts and gain their activated abilities in turn, such as Myr.


well memnarch its self allows you to go monoblue which its pretty decent for control style decks, though if you want to do a n artifact based deck i recommended Sharuumhttp://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=175127
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Lyinginbedmon » 04 May 2011, 03:38

Memnarch is a 7-mana artifact, and with blue in his effects to boot, so he's not great as a Commander. A deck with him in mind as an important element though is likely to wreak of control, which blue does indeed do best.

At which point, Arcanis the Omnipotent becomes viable, or potentially Braids, Conjurer Adept (Mishra would be too, if he wasn't specifically useless in a deck made of singles...) if the aim is to get Memnarch out.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby theDreamer » 04 May 2011, 06:54

The hell are you on about?

If Memnarch is your commander, his colour identity is blue, so you have a monoblue deck.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Lyinginbedmon » 04 May 2011, 07:12

theDreamer wrote:The hell are you on about?

If Memnarch is your commander, his colour identity is blue, so you have a monoblue deck.

Magic: The Gathering Commander Rules - Wizards of the Coast wrote:To build a deck, you first choose a legendary creature, called a “commander” or “general,” then construct a Singleton deck around it containing exactly 99 other cards. Only cards of the commander’s color(s) and colorless cards may be included in the deck. (Note that split cards and hybrid cards count as all of their colors.) In fact, if a card contains a mana symbol anywhere on it that’s not one of your commander’s colors, you can’t include it in that deck! Within the game, if you would add mana to your mana pool that’s a color not shared by your commander, you get colorless mana instead.

Memnarch is a colourless artifact.

There are certain special rules used by some playgroups to identify Memnarch as blue, but by the official rules he's a colourless artifact creature and as such would mean no colour in a Commander deck.

Unless I'm missing something rather obvious here, Memnarch predates coloured artifacts.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby theDreamer » 04 May 2011, 07:18

http://mtgcommander.net/rules.php

You see this link?

This is the official rules for mtg commander, as made by the guys who MADE mtg commander, and wizards continues to say "yeah, those are the official rules for mtg commander."

That's why the website is NOW "mtg commander" and not "edh."

The Official Rules wrote:A card's colour identity is its colour plus the colour of any mana symbols in the card's rules text. A card's colour identity is established before the game begins, and cannot be changed by game effects.
The Commander's colour identity restricts what cards may appear in the deck.


Therefore Memnarch has a blue colour identity, and you're allowed any blue or colourless cards in your deck.

Karn, Silver Golem is an example of a colourless identity commander, and as such, you would not be allowed basic lands or anything that is not a colourless spell with no mana symbols in their abilities (ie, memnarch could not appear in a Karn deck).
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Lyinginbedmon » 04 May 2011, 07:28

Ah I see, that makes sense then.

Although, Memnarch is still 7 mana, which is fairly steep for a card you can play, effectively, from the graveyard as a Commander. Certainly there are blue and colourless cards to reduce the cost however, but if there's a cheaper option that also aids Memnarch, all the better I think.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby theDreamer » 04 May 2011, 07:33

...You can play it from the graveyard?
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Lyinginbedmon » 04 May 2011, 07:34

theDreamer wrote:...You can play it from the graveyard?

By which I mean, when it would go to the graveyard you can still replay it, since it instead goes to the commander zone.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby theDreamer » 04 May 2011, 07:53

Only if you want it to, AND each time you play it from the commander zone (where it also can go if it would be exiled), its cost to play it increases by 2 colourless mana. This does not change its cmc though.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Ollie, don'tcha know! » 04 May 2011, 09:54

Just a quick ruels question that I haven't been able to find the answer to. A couple of the cards in my deck say 'Cannot be the target of your opponent's spells or abilities'.
This obviously means they can;t be affected by stuff like Doomblade where it says 'Target creature does x or y', but does it also mean it can't be affected by stuff like Sleep where it says 'All of your opponents creatures do x or y'?
And would this mean it can't have -1/-1 counters from Infect put on it, and isn't affected by First Strike or Bushido or anything?
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Lyinginbedmon » 04 May 2011, 10:04

It only applies to cards that specifically target a permanent, like Doom Blade, Revoke Existence, Mana Leak, etc. but not to cards that are just "area effect" things like Wrath of God, Sleep, etc.

As a rule of thumb, if it says "target" anywhere on the card, cards with "cannot be the target of your opponent's spells or abilities" ("Selective shroud" as my friends and I refer to it) are unaffected by it.

Additionally, Bushido and First Strike refer to combat and the possessing creature, so whether they're hitting a 1/1 Goblin token or a Troll Ascetic is irrelevant and they still go through. Infect and Wither make the creature possessing the ability deal damage in the form of -1/-1 counters, not just plant them on a target creature.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby theDreamer » 04 May 2011, 10:47

It should also be noted something like Royal Assassin's "Destroy target tapped creature" do not work.

Also, enchanting and equipping both involve an implicit "target."

Therefore, things like pacifism are also a no-no.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Ollie, don'tcha know! » 04 May 2011, 12:43

Thanks. Also, one one of the dudes in our Magic group suddenly discovered Infection decks and is now unbeatable. He's spent a load of money on all the cards, though, so we don't want to ask him to tone it down a bit (also that would be a bit sore and childish of us), but it's just no fun playing him now. How can you beat Infection without a radical deck overhall?
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Trymantha » 04 May 2011, 12:47

Ollie, don'tcha know! wrote:Thanks. Also, one one of the dudes in our Magic group suddenly discovered Infection decks and is now unbeatable. He's spent a load of money on all the cards, though, so we don't want to ask him to tone it down a bit (also that would be a bit sore and childish of us), but it's just no fun playing him now. How can you beat Infection without a radical deck overhall?


what type of decks are you guys running?
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Ollie, don'tcha know! » 04 May 2011, 12:51

I've got an under-construction Elf/Wurm/control/mana ramp/unfocused/needs more focus/OMG deck, there's a White weenie deck, a Red control deck, a White/Blue control/counter deck and a Black life-gain/burn deck.
This guy's running Blue/Black infect-with-a-metric-fuck-tonne-of-proliferate deck
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby theDreamer » 04 May 2011, 13:19

There are very few things that can, in fact, step to infect, especially of the blue/black variety.

When new phyrexia does come out, get your hands on this:
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Also, if you can, run 4 melira's keepers http://magiccards.info/mbs/en/83.html

...Outside of that, there isn't really much to beat a dedicated infect deck outside of speed...
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Ottoman » 04 May 2011, 15:25

theDreamer wrote:Outside of that, there isn't really much to beat a dedicated infect deck outside of speed...
A friend of mine has a nigh-unbeatable mono-green Infect / boost deck; it gets out cheap creatures like Necropede and Ichorclaw Myr, then buffs them with Predator's Strike, Mirran Mettle, and so on. As you can imagine, it's hella fast. The first time I was able to beat it was with an equally-fast Affinity deck.

Code: Select all

Turn 1: Seat of the Synod, Ornithopter
Turn 2: Great Furnace, Frogmite, Frogmite
Turn 3: Great Furnace, Myr Enforcer, Myr Enforcer
And it just went downhill from there. :)

In general, to resist Infect, you'll want fast and cheap removal: red damage or blue counter/bounce, maybe with some white retribution.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Bleydh » 05 May 2011, 15:31

At my local gaming club we are going to hold a launch night for New Phyrexia in which we will play a sealed tournament of three NP boosters and three Scars boosters. So looking forward to it.

My U/B Infect deck is going to get a lot better with Blighted Agent.

At the moment it runs perfectly on two or three mana with necropedes and plague stingers to infect and thrummingbirds to proliferate. If the games lasts longer than intended then I've got some contagion engines and Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon to infect and proliferate a kill in one to two turns depending on how many counters they already have.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby MowDownJoe » 05 May 2011, 18:18

So, the prerelease is coming up, and already, I've been brainstorming deck ideas. There's an article on the official site that gives a decent idea for a Bloodchief Ascension/Mindcrank combo deck, and I had been thinking of doing something like that since I read the spoiler. But I saw the one on Wizards' site, and thought, "I can do better."

So, thoughts on that deck? Obviously, at this point, I'm pretty much just spitballin', but it's got me more interested than the Splinter Twin decks people are trying to cook up.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby theDreamer » 05 May 2011, 19:00

I don't know if Ember Hauler is that great. You only need three counters on Bloodchief, and you have plenty of other ways of getting there.

Plus RR is bad for your mana curve, I think, I'm not sure, I suck with these things.

Child of Night might be a good idea, helps keep you alive till the combo.

Slavering Nulls could be a way of starting the loop, if you need to.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread yet?

Postby Matt » 05 May 2011, 20:45

Holy shit, I am almost certainly making a deck of that sort.

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