Magic: the Gathering: the Thread

[Snorkle]

Now now Pendulous, do you really dislike a bit of innovation every once in a while?

It's a fun idea for pre-releases! More should be like this (well, different from this particular one, but with something special other than the cards).

[Dontrike]

This doesn't even sound like you're talking about a card game anymore, what the hell is up with these tournament schemes?

It's the prerelease. When you go there you choose your guild and you will have an ally guild in that box. You will have your chosen guild's booster pack, your allied guild's booster pack, and 4 DGM boosters to build a deck with.

---------- Post added 2013-04-24 at 12:11 AM ----------

Now now Pendulous, do you really dislike a bit of innovation every once in a while?

It's a fun idea for pre-releases! More should be like this (well, different from this particular one, but with something special other than the cards).

Definitely can't be worse than Mirrodin Besieged. I loved picking Phyrexia and getting all of 5 infect cards, and 4 black cards. Went Mirran the next day and suddenly I had a bunch of really bad black cards. It pissed me off greatly.

[Dontrike]

Definitely decided going Orzhov, it dodges Dimir and Izzet, and this limited is looking to be pretty slow so being in a guild that could give me access to other control colors might be the best choice.

[Skarsguard]

So just got back from prerelease and came in 4th out of 90 players which isn't to bad I guess. Played White/Blue and got White/Red as my second guild surprising only 5 people picked W/B and like 20 people picked W/G which I was thinking about going as well. Boros won the guild champion thingy.

[Isrozzis]

so I went to my first prerelease yesterday, and it was pretty fun. I was not expecting there to be like 100 people there, but there were. Most played w/b or r/w, but w/b won the dragon's maze thingy. I finished 3-2, though it probably should have been 4-1 if I had been thinking at all. My decision making skills after an entire day of not sleeping are not at their finest.

I did pull a voice of resurgence though, so that was a nice pick up. It basically won games if I got to play it, especially since I had a few sacrifice outlets to get it into the token as quickly as possible, then throw gift of the orzhova or unflinching courage on it. I did enjoy the prerelease, but I think I prefer drafting better as a limited format.

[Dontrike]

I haven't drafted in some time. If I ever get another job I might just draft more.

---------- Post added 2013-04-27 at 11:01 PM ----------

Lost twice in a row in the first two rounds and dropped.

I did make my money back by opening up a Ral Zarek.

[Dontrike]

Looks like Aether Spellbomb is in Modern Masters. Nothing awesome, but it is something. It showed up in a DGM booster.

[lanerios]

After playing for years (started in 5th edition, quit just now), I have decided to give it up for a while. The speed at which the cards are released has been ramped up a lot, and to even stand a chance in any tournament you need them. How? Why not ban countless old cards, my elven deck, my goblin deck, my deckburner, all illegal thanks to stupid changes.
But most of all the pathetic balance changes. Counterspell + remove from game + whatever for 1 blue mana. When I look at my old decks, I had to pay 3 or 4 mana for that. So again, forced to buy new sets to remain good.

[Pendulous]

Looks like Aether Spellbomb is in Modern Masters. Nothing awesome, but it is something. It showed up in a DGM booster.

From the Vault? Aether Spellbomb is a terrible card. Better off with the newer versions.

---------- Post added 2013-04-29 at 03:16 AM ----------

After playing for years (started in 5th edition, quit just now), I have decided to give it up for a while. The speed at which the cards are released has been ramped up a lot, and to even stand a chance in any tournament you need them. How? Why not ban countless old cards, my elven deck, my goblin deck, my deckburner, all illegal thanks to stupid changes.
But most of all the pathetic balance changes. Counterspell + remove from game + whatever for 1 blue mana. When I look at my old decks, I had to pay 3 or 4 mana for that. So again, forced to buy new sets to remain good.

Powercreep is real, but your example is way off. The best counterspell was two blue mana. Nowadays, you have to pay 3 for Cancel, and sometimes you get a bonus effect.

[lanerios]

Ok, I'll give you that. But again, it's a pathetic way of going "stay up with the new cards or gtfo" or "Most of the cards you bought before are a complete waste of space, so have fun!"

I'll come back when I have some time to play it in a relaxed atmosphere, but the past few years, in my town, we went from 40-50 active MTG players to 2 or 3. All were sick and tired of Wizards ignoring older players, and downright forcing us to accept that all the money we poured into our old cards is a waste of time.


And Aether Spellbomb terrible? LOL.. Guess if you don't know how to use it right, probably.

[jvbastel]

I played Orhzov, getting Rakdos as second guild. Opened Teysa and Melek in my boosters. Since I don't care about my record at pre-releases and just play to have fun, I played a 4-color control-ish ... thing.

I had 2 Warleader's helix, Killing glare, 2 punish the enemy (think that's what they're called, 3 to a creature, 3 to a player) and some more removal.

Melek was AMAZING. copying a removal spell is just insane, not to mention copying warleader's helix (won me 2 unwinnable games).

Went 3-0-1, but should have scooped to the player I drawed, since it made no difference for me but would have given him an extra pack, which I only realized after the match. He should have won the match anyway, but forgot he had a scavenge creature in the yard.

What I noticed, is that, of the 4 players I played, 2 had a really bad attitude. Sure, my deck wasn't the most fun to play against (removal, bombs and lands), but it's a pre-release, and people shouldn't get upset if they lose.

[Pendulous]

And Aether Spellbomb terrible? LOL.. Guess if you don't know how to use it right, probably.

The Scars spellbombs were much more useful.

[Dontrike]

After playing for years (started in 5th edition, quit just now), I have decided to give it up for a while. The speed at which the cards are released has been ramped up a lot, and to even stand a chance in any tournament you need them. How? Why not ban countless old cards, my elven deck, my goblin deck, my deckburner, all illegal thanks to stupid changes.
But most of all the pathetic balance changes. Counterspell + remove from game + whatever for 1 blue mana. When I look at my old decks, I had to pay 3 or 4 mana for that. So again, forced to buy new sets to remain good.

That is if you want to play Standard, if you play Legacy, Modern, or Commander you can use all of those old cards. If you want to play and use new cards there is always Draft and Sealed.

Standard is quite expensive to keep up with, but a lot of the time you must pick and choose cards a head of time or that you know will last long enough and you can trade just before it rotates out getting you the new cards you want to play with. You can also pick the cards that you know will be good across multiple formats, meaning you are not buying for only one.

As for the counter you mentioned. Dissipate was first printed in Mirage, so it isn't exactly new, but back then it was shadowed by how incredibly powerful Counterspell is. Power creep has been in creatures favor for quite some time now and sooner or later the pendulum will swing back and creatures will not be as great and control will have a real chance again, and spells were much better back during 5th edition.

---------- Post added 2013-04-29 at 03:14 PM ----------

Ok, I'll give you that. But again, it's a pathetic way of going "stay up with the new cards or gtfo" or "Most of the cards you bought before are a complete waste of space, so have fun!"

I'll come back when I have some time to play it in a relaxed atmosphere, but the past few years, in my town, we went from 40-50 active MTG players to 2 or 3. All were sick and tired of Wizards ignoring older players, and downright forcing us to accept that all the money we poured into our old cards is a waste of time.


And Aether Spellbomb terrible? LOL.. Guess if you don't know how to use it right, probably.

Sets have been released the same pace for a long time now, at least 10 years. Are you possibly getting angry at all of the other products like the Premium Decks, Duel Decks, Modern Masters, and multiplayer sets? All of those you don't need to buy and every set or every card. If you wait for prices to settle you can get a lot of them for pennies on the dollar, of course others will go up and always be pricey because they are good.

While new sets are expensive you should think about some folks that just got in that want to play in other formats that are even more expensive. Even a cheap deck like Merfolk in Modern costs $300. Legacy is even more expensive to get into if you want the good cards like ABU duals, and Vintage is damn near impossible, unless you find a tournament that accepts proxies to be used.

The game is pretty much always going to be expensive.

Also Aether Spellbomb isn't very good, even eggs didn't want it. In a limited environment it isn't bad though, having a way to bounce a problem creature is definitely a good thing, especially when you can set it up turn 1 and you can replace it if you don't need to do that.

[Isrozzis]

So what do you guys think the price on Voice of Resurgence is going to stop at? I'm curious if I should hold onto mine a bit longer and trade it off for say a geist of saint traft or two. The past few days it's gone from ~19 to almost 25. I know it's not going to climb indefinitely, but I wonder how high it's going to get.

[Dontrike]

So what do you guys think the price on Voice of Resurgence is going to stop at? I'm curious if I should hold onto mine a bit longer and trade it off for say a geist of saint traft or two. The past few days it's gone from ~19 to almost 25. I know it's not going to climb indefinitely, but I wonder how high it's going to get.

It will definitely go up as people are wanting it for whatever decks they need, but probably a month after it should start to slowly dip down. It is a good card, but it really shines in Modern and Legacy where flash based decks run around and of course it does have nice Standard uses.

The question is whether Voice will go down past Geist before rotation, because when that happens Geist will shoot down by quite a bit, it sees some play in Hexblade type decks so it will be wanted, but not to the degree it is now.

It's price is pretty normal for a good card that has a lot of hype behind it.

---------- Post added 2013-04-30 at 03:34 AM ----------

New Chandra for M14 will be named Chandra, Flamebringer. I wouldn't doubt a new Garruk and Jace if the same card for two core sets keeps going.

Here is the art.

[Isrozzis]

It will definitely go up as people are wanting it for whatever decks they need, but probably a month after it should start to slowly dip down. It is a good card, but it really shines in Modern and Legacy where flash based decks run around and of course it does have nice Standard uses.

The question is whether Voice will go down past Geist before rotation, because when that happens Geist will shoot down by quite a bit, it sees some play in Hexblade type decks so it will be wanted, but not to the degree it is now.

It's price is pretty normal for a good card that has a lot of hype behind it.

Hmm, you raise a good point. Voice is a really good card, and I expect to see it in a lot of standard decks as well as legacy and modern, so I think it will maintain a fairly high price for awhile. I suppose as more of them get opened the price will slowly decrease.

I'm looking to play some sort of bant deck since I actually have the mana base to play it. I'm a bit lacking on Hallowed Fountain's but I'll pick those up as I draft. The main thing that is against me is that I don't have any thragtusks or restoration angels. If I had them I would probably be running some sort of mid range bant deck. Maybe prime speaker, maybe wolf run, but I don't have them lol.

I do have 2x silverblade paladins, 3x master biomancer, 2x sigarda host of herons, 4x loxodon smiters, 1x sublime archangel (which I have still yet to find a good spot for, though I love the card) and some other random stuff. I kind of want to do bant auras, as I seem to have a decent start to it. I am lacking the geists, but I do have stuff I can trade here and there, and the LGS I go to has quite a few players with rather loaded trade binders, so i'm not too worried about acquiring the giests.

I do like the interaction between master biomancer and giest, so I might try to run some sort of deck like that. Though it'll probably end up being bant auras. What do you guys think?

Also, I'm not really sure how a voice will fit into a bant deck. It's obviously a scary card, but i'm not really sure where to run it. I think it would be pretty crazy in an agro deck as you can easily trade it and come out ahead with the token as well. So many choices lol. I should mention I want to avoid a thrag/angel deck. I'm not sure why, but I don't really want to play it.

[Pendulous]

So, I have a couple ideas for decks, and wanted to get some thoughts on it. For those that may remember, I only play casual, So my decks always come with that in mind.

First deck is a black/white cleric deck. Here are the cards I have ideas to put in it:

Ajani's Sunstriker, Akroma's Devoted, Ancestor's Prophet, Auriok Champion, Battlefield Medic, Battletide Alchemist, Beloved Chaplain, Cabal Archon, Rotlung Reanimator, Cathedral Sanctifier, Celestial Gatekeeper, Children of Korlis, Dark Supplicant, Scion of Darkness, Daru Spiritualist, Shaman en-Kor, Doubtless One, Edgewalker, Fiend Hunter, Grand Abolisher, Healer of the Pride, Hedron-Field Purist, High Priest of Penance, Inquisitor Exarch, Master Apothecary, Order of Whiteclay, True Believer, Mikaeus, The Lunarch, Mother of Runes, Nearheath Pilgrim, Skirsdag High Priest, Soul Warden, Suture Priest, Transcedent Master, Vile Deacon, Whipgrass Entangler, Profane Prayers, Bloodchief Ascension, Cradle of Vitality, Exsquisite Blood, Sanguine Bond, Soul Link, Vizkop Guildmage, Edge of the Divinity, Immortal Servitude, Pillory of the Sleepless, Zealous Persecution, Well of Lost Dreams, Starlit Sanctum, Pontiff of Blight, Debt to the Deathless.

Yes, that is a ton of cards, yes it took me a long time to link. And I'm sure it was unnecessary, when I could have just said, "hey, anybody got any good ideas for a cleric deck?" I figure I'd just use two of each of Exquisite Blood/Sanguine Bond. I have no intention of using it as the infinite combo it can be, I just thought it would work well in the deck. I would only need one Scion of Darkness, since I can fetch him from anywhere with Dark Supplicant. Plenty of potential one-drops. What I like most about this collection is, it's got a little bit of everything. A little direct damage, a little creature lockout (Entangler, Pillory), life gain, big creatures. But obviously, it's too many cards, even if I used one copy of each (bad idea of course). Also, I havne't really looked into lands other than Starlit Sanctum. Figure I could get some suggestions here.

Second deck I thought of would just be a green/splash white wurm deck, just for fun. Obviously, it's not a tribal creature. Problem would be, they're all big, and I'd need something else in the deck. I like green. I like big creatures (with TRAMMMPPLLLE). But just putting the two together doesn't work. Better yet, splash red in it as well. Fires of Yavimaya, and plenty of good red/green wurms.

[Radux]

Well Pend, taking a look at your B/W deck, there's obviously far too many cards there to have any sort of legal deck (unless you plan on playing with 9-10 lands and only 1 copy of each card? I think we both know the answer to that).

You very well may be on to something for an EDH deck, though, if you wanted to find a decent general.

[Sorrior]

After playing for years (started in 5th edition, quit just now), I have decided to give it up for a while. The speed at which the cards are released has been ramped up a lot, and to even stand a chance in any tournament you need them. How? Why not ban countless old cards, my elven deck, my goblin deck, my deckburner, all illegal thanks to stupid changes.
But most of all the pathetic balance changes. Counterspell + remove from game + whatever for 1 blue mana. When I look at my old decks, I had to pay 3 or 4 mana for that. So again, forced to buy new sets to remain good.

I share this view about alot of things..I used to collect Yu Gi Oh ahd some really nice crads...Now most are banned and newer fans just talk about how broken they are and i just ask "then why even make em in the first place" I mean they all have counters....

Heh i guess it's the catch with cardgames though huh.

[Skarsguard]

I didn't look at all the cards but I would put some draw in there like Sign of blood man I love that card so much.

---------- Post added 2013-05-04 at 06:21 PM ----------

I share this view about alot of things..I used to collect Yu Gi Oh ahd some really nice crads...Now most are banned and newer fans just talk about how broken they are and i just ask "then why even make em in the first place" I mean they all have counters....

Heh i guess it's the catch with cardgames though huh.

Yeah every card game that I have played is like that. I haven't played a ton of card games but yeah Magic,WoW,LotfR,Pokemon and anything else the older cards are usually so much better. Then again I haven't played pokemon since fossil and LotfR is about 10 years so I don't know if they have made better cards. Oh heroclicks was the same as well.