Magic: the Gathering: the Thread

[Karrotlord]

Finally got a chance to activate Karn PW ultimate. It felt good.

Cool, what did you keep after the restart?

And speaking of feel good, I just pulled off an infinite combo in my Knightfall deck and gained an "arbitrarily large" amount of life.

[Dontrike]

Cool, what did you keep after the restart?

And speaking of feel good, I just pulled off an infinite combo in my Knightfall deck and gained an "arbitrarily large" amount of life.

I only got two forests out of it, but it was good enough to play Daretti turn 2, which is almost always a death sentence, especially with Myr Battlesphere on turn 3.

[Dontrike]

Commander goodness starts. Some pretty interesting stuff. Partner is a great design as it gives you a lot of options to mix color combinations as you want, plus you could potentially have a 3 color EDH deck with 2 Commanders, giving you a bit more flexibility. Basic landcycling makes sense to come back here, and I always love seeing old mechanics brought into new cards and always nice to see Flanking.

Only thing I'm not a fan of so far is the set symbol, no real reason why, just not a fan of it.

4 color general is definitely strong.

[Pendulous]

Yay, proliferate is back.

[Dontrike]

Yay, proliferate is back.

Always good to see that, and Flanking.

- - - Updated - - -

Some more goodness. I'm a bit disappointed there won't be 2 cycles of 4 color legendaries.

[Dontrike]

So much cascade is going to happen if you get multiple combats.

[Dontrike]

So the decks are fully out and here are my thoughts about this years Commander product.

First let's go through the cons.

1. Too few four color cards. I can't believe that there is only five cards with four colors, not to mention there being only five legendaries with four colors. Past Commander products have had at least two new legendaries of the colors the decks represented. With there being so many two color cards it takes away from cards that identify as four colors. They should have just increased the number of new cards by five and gave us another four color cycle, like the Nephilim.
1a.This goes hand in hand with it, but why no Nephilim? Even if they were not legendary there still should have been new ones, they are the primary reason people wanted a 4 color Commander product. This is a huge head-scratcher as to why they were left out.

2. Ludevic. When I think Innistrad's greatest genius and the greatest necro-alchemist I don't think "group hug" effect. I expected this guy to either be blue, blue/black, or grixis, maybe doing something like making zombies/horrors or something similar to Mimeoplasm, making an amalgam of multiple creatures. Even if that is dumb the necro-alchemist shouldn't be helping opponents. The worst part is that his ability doesn't even force your opponents to hit each other, as they can crack a fetch, use a painland, or just have Phyrexian Arena to get benefit from Ludevic. Not to mention if someone hits you for 40 and your other opponent(s) for 2 they still get a card. Just terrible.

3. No Reflecting Pool. I am amazed not one deck has one. Not the biggest con, just surprised.

4. Partner. I like Partner, but with them trying to force this mix and match thing on us the product as a whole didn't really feel like the four color set it was trying to be. This might be where they should have increased the new cards another five, with the other 4 color cards I mentioned earlier, and allowed there to be 10 allied and 10 enemy, rather than 5 allied and 10 enemy pairs. These might have been better places in a Commander booster set, rather than in a product with so few new cards allowed, and allowed more four color cards in this four color set.


Pros

1. The decks are rather well put together. Just from looking there doesn't seem to be at least one deck that is terrible, like in previous years, but I won't truly know until I play with them.

2. The reprints. While nothing is crazy amazing like Wurmcoil Engine in C14 there are a lot of $5-$10 cards in each deck and that is very welcome.

3. Partner. Partner gives some nice mix and match possibilities, although many of them feel like half a card if they were to be alone. It is nice design when you can do two, three, or four color decks with them.



Overall I'm not sure where I would put this in the rankings of Commander releases, but I would have to put all the releases as such....

1. C14
2. C11
3t. C15
3t. C16
5. C13
6. Commander's Arsenal

[Dontrike]

Looks like we have some new cards that came from a poster. Expertise seems to be incredibly pushed.

Yahenni's Expertise
2BB Sorcery (R)

All creatures get -3/-3 until end of turn.
You may cast a card with converted mana cost 3 or less from your hand without paying its mana cost.

Trophy Mage
2U Creature - Human Wizard (U)

When ~ enters the battlefield, you may search your library for an artifact card with converted mana cost 3, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.

2/2

Scrap Trawler
3 Artifact Creature - Construct (R)

Whenever ~ or another artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, return to your hand target artifact card in your graveyard with lesser converted mana cost.

3/2

[Dontrike]

Looks like Ajani will be joining the Gatewatch, and hoo boy is his card good.

[Karrotlord]

So the next set of masterpieces is out and there's some awesome artifacts on display... including Ornithopter...

On another note, I'm working on a Knightfall deck with Splendid Reclamation in it and need some ideas for big stompies to waste all that mana on. Budget friendly so no Emrakuls, unfortunately.

[Dontrike]

So the next set of masterpieces is out and there's some awesome artifacts on display... including Ornithopter...

On another note, I'm working on a Knightfall deck with Splendid Reclamation in it and need some ideas for big stompies to waste all that mana on. Budget friendly so no Emrakuls, unfortunately.

The Masterpieces in Aether Revolt may not be as huge as Kaladesh, but there are really no disappointments.

Some of the big fatties I like using are World Breaker, Polukranos to shove all the mana into monstrous, Worldspine Wurm, or my favorite Krosan Cloudscraper.

[Golden Yak]

So what's the latest lore that's going on in Magic-land-verse? Last story I heard was that the last Eldrazi from Zendikar got locked in Innistrad's moon. What's going down now?

[Dontrike]

So what's the latest lore that's going on in Magic-land-verse? Last story I heard was that the last Eldrazi from Zendikar got locked in Innistrad's moon. What's going down now?

Also Sorin being trapped on Innistrad by Nahiri so he is endless pain and can't planeswalk.

Right now in Kaladesh we have Chandra going back to the plane, her home plane, to stop the government from doing to others what happened to her. She finds her mom, whom she thought was dead, while Liliana and Nissa follow along, both playing the other side of the coin in mentoring. Liliana being the bad big sister trying to get her to lose control so Liliana can, most likely, control her later for her own ends, and Nissa trying to guide her through her anger.

Kaladesh has a fair to find the brightest and best inventors, but really it turns out it is just a way for Tezzeret, who has taken some control as one of the highest in the government, to find something he can use, to what ends we don't know yet. He does find an inventor named Rashmi who has invented a teleporter, but was given the task to make one bigger and better, which turns out can be used to travel to other planes. (Some seem to think Tezzeret wants to use it to conquer other planes or do something else to/for Nicol Bolas.) Liliana wants to kill Tezzeret, for something we're not sure on yet.

Chandra's mom is the leader of a group of rebels trying to overthrow the government. The full Gatewatch comes to help Chandra and Ajani is there as well, although Gideon is not sure as to what their real purpose should be on the plane or other planes.

As of the most recent story Rashmi escaped Tezzeret after tampering with the portal she made, as Saheeli comes to her aid while the Gatewatch spreads out a bit with the rebels to attack different points.

[Golden Yak]

As of the most recent story Rashmi escaped Tezzeret after tampering with the portal she made, as Saheeli comes to her aid while the Gatewatch spreads out a bit with the rebels to attack different points.

Cool, cool, I know some of those guys. Checked out the MTG website - lotta changes there. Found the spot for the story, so I'll be doing some browsing. Kaladesh sounds like a cool setting.

[Dontrike]

Cool, cool, I know some of those guys. Checked out the MTG website - lotta changes there. Found the spot for the story, so I'll be doing some browsing. Kaladesh sounds like a cool setting.

It certainly is rather interesting. I'm enjoying the story.

[PizzaSHARK]

Can I get some second opinions about a Modern deck concept I've been working on? http://pastebin.com/PVgT4eSQ

The basic conceit is using Bitterblossom in conjunction with the soul sisters to have both a constant influx of life as well as an endless stream of 1/1 flyers to be used for sacrificing, chump blocking, chip damage, etc. Additionally, Path of Bravery can make those 1/1's into 2/2's, 3/3's, and so on while also providing an additional source of life income. Ajani's Pridemate are included to fuel any need for big monsters since they'll get quite big with constant, separate +1 life activations, and Knight of Meadowgrain is added for an extra 2/2 that also has lifelink AND first strike.

I've tried to cover my bases with the cards. The deck is primarily aggro and combo oriented, but I've tried to include a bit of control and protection from control where possible, usually focused around spending the life that I'll be constantly accruing. A single soul sister on the field makes Bitterblossom completely free, while each Bitterblossom becomes at least +1 life every upkeep if I have at least two soul sisters. Because I'll probably be at above 20 life for most of the game (unless I'm against another aggro deck, probably), I've included a lot of Black cards that usually have life costs as compensation for low mana costs. I ultimately preferred Dark Tutelage to Phyrexian Arena because all of my cards are cheap (most expensive CMC is 3 and the average mana cost of my deck is under 2), and Dark Tutelage only requires 1 black mana, while Phyrexian Arena requires 2.

Thoughtseize gives my deck a splash of control and allows me to view and manipulate my opponent's hand. Both Bond of Agony and Suffer the Past fit well into my deck, and I decided to add 2 of each rather than 4 of a single card since I think both have strengths and weaknesses. Suffer the Past is dependent on my opponent having cards in the graveyard, which makes it unsuitable for an early game burn (if I happen to find myself with mana but few other cards to cast) and could backfire if my opponent has a deck based around utilizing exiled cards. Bond of Agony burns me as well as my opponent, but my deck's nature should mean that I will typically have a major advantage on life total and life income, so it's more flexible. I added two Aegis of the Gods to give me another cheap beater while also giving me the option of becoming hexproof against control decks; the Aegis of the Gods creatures can be fairly easily protected by Brave the Elements when needed.

Sideboard includes a variety of cards that I hope should give my deck necessary flexibility. Disenchant to deal with decks built around artifacts or enchantments (in the event Hexproof won't protect me from them), Fiendslayer Paladins to replace Knight of Meadowgrain against black/red burn decks, Go for the Throat (which seems like a superior version of Doom Blade) if I need targeted removal, Authority of the Consuls to be fielded against enemy creature decks, and Arrest to deal with problematic monsters with activated abilities.

Any suggestions or thoughts? I've only got 20 lands, but with four of those lands pulling double duty and an average mana cost of 1.65 (and no cards with more than 2 mana symbols), 20 feels like enough. I could probably trim some of the spells or creatures down to 3 to squeeze in a few extra lands if need be.

[endersblade]

Auriok Champion

And man, that deck would get wrecked after a board wipe...

[Dontrike]

I am liking how they gave her the creature type vampire.

[Pendulous]

She fits perfectly with a lot of older Zendikar era vampires that have proc on death effects.

[endersblade]

I am liking how they gave her the creature type vampire.

That's going to make a wicked EDH General. Especially in Tiny Leaders.