The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

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JQuill
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby JQuill » 28 Apr 2014, 11:17

Not sure if anyone has seen this, but MTGO is running some test events this coming Saturday to try and test changes to big events. You can join either Shadowmoor block sealed events (I assume these are phantom and the info just is incorrect, but the info does suggest they are normal events) or phantom Modern Masters sealed events. You get a promo just for participating and there are prizes as usual. The best news is they are completely free, no tickets to enter. Because they are a test, there will be lots of crazy things being done like players being purposefully removed from games, clock timers being screwed with, etc. The main purpose is for Wizards to test various changes in how they handle such things.

So it's certainly not your average sealed event or anything, but it is free with prizes and it is a way to try and help Wizards improve the game. If you aren't doing anything this Saturday, it might be something to look into. Also the events are first come so you'll probably want to be on when they first show up (this Wednesday at about 2:00 PM PDT), especially the MMA ones.

Relevant links...

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg_daily_other_04282014_testevents&date=4/28/2014

http://community.wizards.com/content/blog/4080821
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby phlip » 28 Apr 2014, 16:55

Dominic Appleguard wrote:Then again, if your neighbor wants to screw you they might take one of the gods that shares a color with your pick (because they know who it is, by process of elimination). Then the next guy sees a god pack with, say Purphoros and Iroas missing, and they can connect the dots and nab Xenagos...and so on till all the red is gone. But maybe I'm being paranoid...

They could do that if they want... but it'd hurt them more than it hurts you... you'll be cutting them for red for all of packs 1 and 3, and they'll only be cutting you for red for pack 2. That's part of the theory about why signalling is important... if you're able to read the signals right and stay out of your neighbours' colours, it makes both of your decks better.

JQuill: That looks interesting... Now the question is, do I think I'd be able to get up at 8am on a Sunday to enter that...
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby WickedBoy6 » 28 Apr 2014, 21:57

For a P1P1 on a God Pack, I'm still going with Iroas, hoping to wheel Heliod. I doubt whoever snags Atheros would want Heliod. Maybe Erebos to keep the pressure on the lifeloss.

Personally, I could also see a pairing of Xenagos and Nylea if you want tramplage and focused pump, or Purpheros if you wanna Shock to the face and cheaper widespread pump. Either works well with with Xenagos, really.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Duckay » 28 Apr 2014, 22:45

For those for whom this is relevant, there has been a policy change regarding electronic devices at competitive REL events.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby ArchieO » 29 Apr 2014, 00:15

JQuill wrote:Not sure if anyone has seen this, but MTGO is running some test events this coming Saturday to try and test changes to big events. You can join either Shadowmoor block sealed events (I assume these are phantom and the info just is incorrect, but the info does suggest they are normal events) or phantom Modern Masters sealed events. You get a promo just for participating and there are prizes as usual. The best news is they are completely free, no tickets to enter. Because they are a test, there will be lots of crazy things being done like players being purposefully removed from games, clock timers being screwed with, etc. The main purpose is for Wizards to test various changes in how they handle such things.

So it's certainly not your average sealed event or anything, but it is free with prizes and it is a way to try and help Wizards improve the game. If you aren't doing anything this Saturday, it might be something to look into. Also the events are first come so you'll probably want to be on when they first show up (this Wednesday at about 2:00 PM PDT), especially the MMA ones.

Relevant links...

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg_daily_other_04282014_testevents&date=4/28/2014

http://community.wizards.com/content/blog/4080821


I'll give it a go, free sealed in one of my favorite formats ever, I think it is phantom from the way it's worded but I can only hope and also the chance to help make magic online better. Its a win-win for me.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby AdmiralMemo » 29 Apr 2014, 01:30

Alright, if you know me and Magic, you know I think about silly and/or complex things. Well, tonight I thought about cards that add types to other cards, such as "It's an enchantment in addition to its other types" or "It's a Zombie in addition to its other types." I had the thought of "What's the most amount of types I can get onto a single card without invoking Mistform Ultimus, Changelings, or Runed Stalactite (which just give every creature type)?" This may also have been inspired by James and Paul's Lorwyn draft where they were repeatedly remembering Changelings were also Faeries, Elementals, Merfolk, etc. (Also I tried to focus on static effects and cheaper things, when there were various ways to add the same thing.)

Here's what I came up with.

Opponent has out:

Aurification

You have out:
Enchanted Evening
Prismatic Omen
Life and Limb
Hivestone
Mephidross Vampire
Master Biomancer
Xenograft

Then, have Ashiok use -0 to send out a Dryad Arbor

On your next turn, after Summoning Sickness has passed:

Attack with the Dryad Arbor
Ninjutsu with Sakashima's Student
Cast Sakashima the Impostor to copy Sakashima's Student
Equip Sakashima the Impostor with Angelic Armaments and Silverskin Armor
Enchant Sakashima the Impostor with Ghoulflesh
Target Sakashima the Impostor with the ability of Sensei Golden-Tail
Target Sakashima the Impostor (and some other Swamp) with the ability of Fendeep Summoner
Have out Mistform Sliver and have Sakashima the Impostor use that ability as many times as you have enough mana.

If I have this right, what you end up with is:

Sakashima the Impostor
Color identity: Green White
Legendary Artifact Enchantment Land Creature - Forest Plains Swamp Island Mountain Dryad Saproling Sliver Mutant Vampire Nightmare Ninja Treefolk Warrior Angel Zombie Samurai Wall (+1 more of any creature type from Xenograft and X more creature types from Mistform Sliver)

Flying
Bushido 1
"Whenever this creature deals damage to a creature, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature."
"2UU: Return Sakashima the Impostor to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step."
"1: This permanent becomes the creature type of your choice in addition to its other types until end of turn."

7/9 (including 2 +1/+1 counters)
1 gold counter
1 training counter

(Italic types go away at the end of the turn.)

With 24+ different types, that seems ridiculously hilarious and silly. I love it. :D
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby phlip » 29 Apr 2014, 06:39

One minor point: if you ninjitsu in Sakashima's Student, it can't come in as a copy of the creature you're bouncing, since it's already back in your hand at that point. Better to just cast the Student directly, then attack the following turn (or cast some other irrelevant creature to ninjitsu out).

Not nearly so elaborate, but my idea:

Cast Xenograft and Opalescence, then Progenitor Mimic copying the Xenograft. Every upkeep you get another copy of Xenograft, which can name a different creature type. Take enough turns, and you can eventually name them all...

(Though, if you're going to use Opalescence shenanigans to get token copies of enchantments, the traditional target is Doubling Season...)

[edit]
I wonder if you can do better by starting with Gideon in creature mode... get Planeswalker in there, too...
Gideon's +0 sets his creature subtypes to "Human Soldier", without a "in addition to" clause, so you'd need to make sure that the +0 is activated first, and all the grafting effects come on later... which means things like Student won't work, if you Student to copy Gideon (PW rule to bury the original Gideon) and then +0 the Student, it'll just be a Human Soldier, not a Human Soldier Ninja, as the +0 has the later timestamp. But if you play Gideon, +0, then play Xenograft et al, then you'll be able to graft all the other types on there (you'd need to have the Xenograft naming Saproling, so Life and Limb can run the other way and make it a land).
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby AdmiralMemo » 29 Apr 2014, 09:01

Didn't even think about Opalescence, Progenitor Mimic, or Doubling Season when interacting with this. If we're duplicating tokens, go whole hog and throw in Parallel Lives and Primal Vigor, too for 4X the tokens. :)

Your plan involves fewer cards, certainly. :) It takes longer, though, since my plan has the silly thing existing the turn after the Dryad Arbor comes out. :) So, you balance time and amount of cards if you want to try something like this IRL. :D (Who would actually do that?)

OK, so for my original plan, maybe move Fendeep Summoner to before the combat? Then, attack with the animated Swamp and the Dryad Arbor, then Sakashima's Student on the animated Swamp, and then copy the Dryad Arbor?

Also, I still haven't figured out if I can fit in Séance (for Spirit) due to how it works, or Phantasmal Image (for Illusion) due to the fact that I'd need to copy a thing, then enchant/equip, and either of those would cause me to sac it. I think that if the opponent casts Dismiss into Dream after all of the shenanigans, it could safely become an Illusion, too.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby phlip » 29 Apr 2014, 14:33

AdmiralMemo wrote:Didn't even think about Opalescence, Progenitor Mimic, or Doubling Season when interacting with this. If we're duplicating tokens, go whole hog and throw in Parallel Lives and Primal Vigor, too for 4X the tokens. :)

The Doubling Season thing was more of an aside, not related to the many-types discussion... And for that, a mere additional factor of 4 quickly becomes negligible.

Say we play Doubling Season, Opalescence, and Mimic copying Season. Next turn we try to get a token, but there's 2 Doubling Seasons on the board, so we get 4 tokens. Next turn there's 6 Doubling Seasons on the board so we get 64 tokens. Next turn, 2^70 tokens. Next turn 2^(70+2^70) tokens. That's a lot of tokens.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby AdmiralMemo » 29 Apr 2014, 16:34

Well, then... With only 227 possible creature types currently, you get there in 4 turns with just Doubling Season. :)
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Kapol » 29 Apr 2014, 16:47

Actually, there's at least one more since that article, though I'm not sure if there's been more. The only one of it's kind. More special than even the gods...

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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby WickedBoy6 » 29 Apr 2014, 21:22

Didn't want to start a thread about this yet, since it's just in speculation-mode at the moment, and I wasn't sure if anyone brought it up in this one, but...Duel of the Planeswalkers 2015?

DotP 2015 Teaser Trailer

Hands-On Preview

So, here's what's known: The story involves a Liliana-infected Garruk killing planeswalkers. You play through five planes: Innistrad is the first, then Zendikar, Theros, Shandalar, and Ravnica. You only start with ONE Starter deck of a color, then select an augment color, then earn boosters to make a personal deck. Two-Headed Giant seems to be removed in favor of a four-player free-for-all mode, it will be released in July, and it's only for PC, XBox 360, XBox One, and mobile devices.

So, what is wrong with this picture?
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Utilitarian » 29 Apr 2014, 21:54

I'm fairly choked that 2HG is gone. I have a friend who really enjoys playing it with me though he's too skittish to play magic in a non-cooperative context.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby WickedBoy6 » 29 Apr 2014, 22:07

2HG was fun, I'll admit, but...didn't they already have four-player free-for-alls in the other games, as well? Like, just regular duels with four players? It seems odd to get rid of one aspect, just to promote another one that's been there the whole time like it's a new one. If ANYTHING, I would figure they'd introduce their biggest cash cow of the year: Commander.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby tamaness » 30 Apr 2014, 04:49

The only thing about Commander is the extent to which one can customize one's deck; there's not really a way for Duels to support that.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby WickedBoy6 » 30 Apr 2014, 05:36

I think it could work. 2014 had Sealed construction, and now it seems that's integrated with the Story mode, and now that 2HG is out on it's ass, there's only story and multiplayer free-for-all - which I have to keep reminding people, was already in the other Duels games as an option. So, they have a gigantic hole to fill, and I think Commander could do it. It'd be a challenge, but they could do it. Like, a version of each pre-con, with an extra 50 cards one could mix and match. They wouldn't be totally varied, but it could work.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby phlip » 30 Apr 2014, 05:46

It's not quite two mythics in one pack, but close enough, right? Luck of the silver gods, perhaps?
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Volafortis » 30 Apr 2014, 07:21

phlip wrote:It's not quite two mythics in one pack, but close enough, right? Luck of the silver gods, perhaps?


Hey, I'd take that over a pack with 2 Archangel's Light any day.

Hell, my best pack I've ever opened wasn't a double mythic pack. It was a Snapcaster Mage, Garruk Relentless, foil Hinterland Harbor pack from Innistrad.

(Actually, thinking about it, my best was a Cryptic Command, foil Sword of Light and Shadow pack from Modern Masters, but those have a foil in each, so I don't count it)
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Phosphatide » 30 Apr 2014, 07:28

So I looked up spoilers for the final Hero's Path challenge deck.

This is is, guys. This is the challenge deck that my Thorncaster Sliver and Bow of Nylea combo has been waiting for to show off what it was meant to do, waiting ever since I constructed it for the Hydra.

Assuming I don't get wrecked before I can assemble the combo and attack, of course.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Kapol » 30 Apr 2014, 09:42

WickedBoy6 wrote:I think it could work. 2014 had Sealed construction, and now it seems that's integrated with the Story mode, and now that 2HG is out on it's ass, there's only story and multiplayer free-for-all - which I have to keep reminding people, was already in the other Duels games as an option. So, they have a gigantic hole to fill, and I think Commander could do it. It'd be a challenge, but they could do it. Like, a version of each pre-con, with an extra 50 cards one could mix and match. They wouldn't be totally varied, but it could work.


I'd rather have a draft function myself.

My main worry is that they're trying to make a MTGO lite at this point. The idea of buying premium packs to improve your card pool worries me a lot. This is a series a lot of people use to get into Magic. If they make it harder or more expensive to access good, fun decks.... then that goes out the window.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby WickedBoy6 » 30 Apr 2014, 15:51

phlip wrote:It's not quite two mythics in one pack, but close enough, right? Luck of the silver gods, perhaps?


Hmmm. I know I pulled a Garruk planeswalker and a foil rare in a pack of 2014, but I really don't remember the other card. I DO know that I opened up a Forgestoker Dragon with a foil Forgestoker right behind it in the BNG pack of the tournament. I would've ran with it, but the rest of the Red was weak.

Kapol wrote:I'd rather have a draft function myself.

My main worry is that they're trying to make a MTGO lite at this point. The idea of buying premium packs to improve your card pool worries me a lot. This is a series a lot of people use to get into Magic. If they make it harder or more expensive to access good, fun decks.... then that goes out the window.


I'm not sure how they could do a draft on DotP, unless they institute 8-player tourney games and you can only use the cards you pull in that tournament. Otherwise, you'd have a MASSIVE cardpool after only a few drafts.

They DID have Sealed in 2014, and while that COULD be fun, it seemed kind of under-powered. At least, compared to the decks you get in the main pool.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby phlip » 30 Apr 2014, 15:58

JQuill wrote:If you aren't doing anything this Saturday, it might be something to look into. Also the events are first come so you'll probably want to be on when they first show up (this Wednesday at about 2:00 PM PDT), especially the MMA ones.

Heh, I got up this morning and jumped straight onto MTGO to try to sign up for these... about 3 hours after they opened (which happened while I was asleep). Already full. I wasn't really expecting otherwise, but I had my hopes...

Oh well, at least I'll be able to sleep in like normal on Sunday.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby JQuill » 30 Apr 2014, 21:45

phlip wrote:
JQuill wrote:If you aren't doing anything this Saturday, it might be something to look into. Also the events are first come so you'll probably want to be on when they first show up (this Wednesday at about 2:00 PM PDT), especially the MMA ones.

Heh, I got up this morning and jumped straight onto MTGO to try to sign up for these... about 3 hours after they opened (which happened while I was asleep). Already full. I wasn't really expecting otherwise, but I had my hopes...

Oh well, at least I'll be able to sleep in like normal on Sunday.


Yeah, the MMA ones filled within a minute or so and the Shadowmoor ones within like 5 minutes. I think if you were there actively waiting to join you probably had no real issue getting in, but if you weren't ready to go the very second the showed up you didn't have much chance.

Now I guess we see exactly what comes of them.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby Kapol » 30 Apr 2014, 21:47

The new event deck was shown. It's pretty bad.
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Re: The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

Postby WickedBoy6 » 01 May 2014, 15:23

Eh, it seems alright. If you like Izzet, it certainly has what you like, but it could use some tooling. I'm not sure it takes advantage of all of instants/sorceries as it could.
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