The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

[Utilitarian]

With instant speed discard and reanimation you could even surprise someone with Ob Nix.

[Volafortis]

If you're not restricted by standard, may I recommend Boldwyr Heavyweights. Sure, they don't HAVE to search, but you have an 8/8 trample for 4 with no downside. It almost becomes a question of whether they want the 10 off of Ob or to take lots from the Heavys every turn.

Nah, it becomes an answer of whether or not they have removal.

Although, to be fair, I suppose if they have removal, they probably already killed Ob Nix.

[Prospero101]

Hey guys, I, uh, I have a problem.

I'm pretty sure I'm awful at Magic. One does not simply lose as consistently as I do by sheer bad luck. Trouble is, during gameplay I get so caught up in the moment that I can't point out my own play mistakes. And I certainly don't have the means to have others watch and point them out to me.

I'm making the effort to be more self-aware, at least. I keep bad hands. I bend over backwards to play black. Any mana base that's not 10-7 or 11-6 confuses the hell out of me. But how can I get better if I can't tell what I'm doing wrong?

[MisterDee]

Talk yourself through your plays (it's easier on MTGO but do it in your head if playing live.) And make the effort to go through every single option on the table and in your hand prior to committing to decisions.

That should get you to getting a small share of wins, at least. The next step is "what does the guy in front of me has in hand that could change the game?" But that requires studying the meta, and that's not what you asked about.

EDITL: alternately, you could get drunk, draft terrible M15 decks, screw up your manabase (to the tune of 14-lands deck, including two Evolving Wilds) and misread your cards. I've won a draft and am 1-0 on the second one using that strategy, so clearly it must be working, right?

[Prospero101]

For context, this refers entirely to Limited, since that's all I play these days. I have a Modern list that I won't be able to put together anytime soon, but yeah, just Limited.

[MisterDee]

Kidding aside, I've had the same problems playing Dominions 3. There's just something about the breadth of options those games offer. I won my first game of Dominions by writing a LP about it - while it's overkill for MTG, I do think that forcing ourselves to think about and justify each play is really important in those games.

[MisterDee]

And DRUNK LOWLAND DECK wins!

Admittedly, Worth went easy on me despite the terrible manabase (I went 1-2 in Game Ones, then I could fix the mana in sideboard) but it's one draft where I can definitely say my good plays outnumbered my bad ones.

Maybe, just maybe I should dip my toes into the shark-infested pool of the 8-4 drafts...

[ElFuzzy]

So I just built my new Mill Deck which is otk mind grind via kruphix. I didn't get the prophets though, so I'm running disciple of deceit instead and MAY have discovered a great combo. Oracle's insight + disciple. free combat free inspired trigger. use scry not only to fix draw but find potential pitch for said inspired trigger. card draw in general is realllly good.

[Volafortis]

When playing a deck I'm not familiar with, I'll sometimes talk to myself my options out loud. Just hearing someone, even myself discuss the options really seems to help, I find.

(And it's funny, I only really play paper Magic, so while I sometimes give away information, it seems to just as often tilt them out when they know I have answers to their things.)

Also, I never do this in major tournaments, obviously. I only do it when playtesting a new deck with friends, or trying out a new limited format for the first few times. (Once I know how a limited format works, again, I don't do it anymore.)

[tamaness]

in a new format, I spend a lot of time going over my plays. I've punted more than one game by just making the snap play and not considering the board, much less what my opponent might have.

[MisterDee]

Two realizations I had today:

1-I suck at playing control. I can recognize when I should be playing control, but I'm not that good at managing the resources I have to outlast the opponent.

2-There are a lot more learning opportunities when playing control, so if I want to get better I have to play control more often. Obviously, I figure that out at the very beginning of an aggro-focused format.

[AdmiralMemo]

I end up playing aggro better than I do control, but I don't like playing aggro as much as I do control. I loved playing Orzhov in Gatecrash because I was playing control done right. I could just sit there and play blockers and removal, all the while extorting. That slow bleed felt so good. I felt pretty good with Azorius in RTR, but not quite as good as Orzhov. When I could make Esper Limited decks in Dragon's Maze, I was pretty happy.

But whenever I would end up with things like Gruul or Boros, I would win more games. It's weird.

[Prospero101]

So I'd like to ship three years worth of draft shash to Card Kingdom for store credit. Mostly bulk commons and uncommons. Anybody have any tips for shipping bulk items like that effectively?

[steric hindrance]

Try getting those plastic boxes that card stores use to ship lots of cards. Also use padded/bubble-wrap mailers. Other than that, just follow the directions they give you (include the order number and have the cards in order, yadda yadda).

[Prospero101]

Blargh. I'm beginning to wonder if the cost of shipping exceeds the money I'll get for these cards.

[Lord Hosk]

I dont think that Card Kingdom does Bulk purchases. They have a set buy list that they update daily.

[Prospero101]

Welp, my Commander deck just got a whole lot more expensive.

[Kapol]

In my experience, selling your bulk commons and uncommons is going to cost you more in shipping that you'll get in credit. Nobody really wants the commons most of the time. And even the uncommons need to be something special to be worth anything. The best advice there would be to look for a local game store and see if they have an online buylist. I sometimes buylist a bunch of random uncommons and a few rares for $50 or so. It saves on shipping too since you don't have to send out a bunch of bulk. But they normally again have to be uncommons the store is looking for rather than just anything. You could also take the collection to the store and ask how much they'd offer.

[korvys]

If they commons and uncommons are sorted, you might be able to find a few that are worth more than the rest, if they've found a home in a few Modern decks, and the sets are hard to come by. Serum Visions for example is $5.

[Duckay]

Yeah, I only found out yesterday how much a foil Delver of Secrets is worth. It's worth going through if the sets are out of standard and see what sees play in eternal formats.

[korvys]

This site basically lists anything that's worth more than average for each set in Modern (there are ones for Standard and Legacy as well). Mostly rares, but for the commons and uncommons that are worth something, will list them too. Very useful: http://mtg.dawnglare.com/?p=modern

[Volafortis]

Woah, when did the Eldrazi jump to 50 each?

[korvys]

For that, we have a different site: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Rise+of+the+Eldrazi/Emrakul+the+Aeons+Torn#paper
It looks like it jumped about $10 earlier this year, but has been going up pretty steadily since mid 2012.

[tamaness]

It happened when Tron, Sneak & Show, and Commander all started loving them.

[Volafortis]

Well, Emrakul I knew was at 45 for a while now, but for instance, Kozilek is 51 dollars average now.