Magic: The Gathering

[DirtyJosé]

I've mentioned before that I took a long break from wrestling in the past. Another childhood hobby of mine that I had abandoned was Magic: The Gathering. This game came into my life in 1994-95, as suddenly the kids on my block were slinging spells and building decks. I played for a few years casually, and then left as I had lost interest. Fast forward to 2007, my roommate in San Francisco was an avid player who often had his friends over to play games. At first, I watched over their shoulders, commenting on what changes had come about in 10 years. Then they got me to try a game with them. I was hooked, again. I haven't stopped since then.

I'm hoping I find some new friends to swap ideas, stories, and deck builds with. Do you play? Do you draft? Or are you only a casual player? EDH? MTGO? Magic Workstation? Share your thoughts and stories here, or ask some questions if you're interested.

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

Oh yeah dude, I play it all. I went to states and did decent. I did top 8 with a last minute change from Solar Flare to red/white tempered steel. It's really fast and beat solar flare everytime I played it. Also beat wolf run which took first at StarCityGames a few weeks ago. FNM this week is going to be crazy because with the packs I won from states I pulled 2 Lilianas and I need to get rid of those fast because now that states is over they will plummet.

 

[DirtyJosé]

Congrats on the top 8, dude. Good job on reading the meta, too. I'd be interested in those two Lilianas, but I think you'll have better luck just off loading them at FNM this week. Any memorable plays or matchups from the event? I've got into the habit of taking notes and such from things like that, just to reference from time to time. They also make for some neat stories and lulz over the insane shit that can go down in any given game.

So your thoughts on the double sided cards? Seems like once people get over the hump of using them, it's all ok.

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

I think they were a horrible idea especially in draft. Then Wizards has to make the rule where if you take a flip card it has to be on the top card of you're draft picks? WTF? I did see this one guy get banned from magic tournaments. My friend is now a level one judge, which he got at the even, and I caught him cheating. He was playing against me and decided not to de-side. Judge came over and we were the random deck check. He tried to unside board and I told the judge that he already presented the deck to cut. Turns out he was running 6 Inkmoth Nexus and then tried to say that the judge was framing him and then attacked the head judge but the head judge knocked him on his ass. some funny shit.

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

So it's Friday and I have a crazy idea with green white infect so I think I'm going to build it and test run it against goblins and then tempered steel and if it runs good against those decks then I will play it tonight. If it don't then I'm going to run red/black/green which I have won with several times in the past. Basically its green ramp into M12 Chandra then ramp into Sorin's Veagance. It's amazing to see the look on people's faces when they lose to that.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

I've mentioned before that I took a long break from wrestling in the past. Another childhood hobby of mine that I had abandoned was Magic: The Gathering. This game came into my life in 1994-95, as suddenly the kids on my block were slinging spells and building decks. I played for a few years casually, and then left as I had lost interest. Fast forward to 2007, my roommate in San Francisco was an avid player who often had his friends over to play games. At first, I watched over their shoulders, commenting on what changes had come about in 10 years. Then they got me to try a game with them. I was hooked, again. I haven't stopped since then.

I'm hoping I find some new friends to swap ideas, stories, and deck builds with. Do you play? Do you draft? Or are you only a casual player? EDH? MTGO? Magic Workstation? Share your thoughts and stories here, or ask some questions if you're interested.

Yeah, maybe you can let me in on why they've banned so many sets from tournament play? I played for a couple of years about a year or two after your first started. From my understanding, you can't have awesome cards like Royal Assassin, Timetwister, and Mirror Universe anymore (or maybe it's just the power nine and the rest of the cards that were taken out starting with the revised set).

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

Magic is not like any other card games. Sets rotate out. Basically 3 or 4 sets will be introduced in a year and last years cards are no longer allowed to be played in what is called type 2. Sometimes cards get reprinted and are allowed to see play again but most are unlucky and are used for type one, extended, and legacy types of matches. Legacy is allowed to play any cards you want in a tournament. But the reason for rotation is so new decks can be made and no one uses the same thing to win every tournament. If you go to a big tournament then you will see that everyone plays the same thing because they are good decks. I just came back from one a few weeks ago and there were 89 people but only about 10 or less different types of decks.

 

[DirtyJosé]

There are a variety of formats, each with a different list of which sets you can use cards from TDigs. On top of that, each format has a banned or restricted list which states which cards can not be used and which cards you can only use one of (though the latter is rather rare). This is done to ensure the health of the format. For example, if one deck or strategy or sometimes even one card warps the format so much that EVERYONE is forced to utilize it to see any kind of success, or if one card is so powerful that every deck in the format uses it because it's too risky not to, it'll likely end up as banned.

Vintage is the format where more or less any card which has seen print can be used outside of the ban list (the Power 9 can still be used in Vintage, for example).

Legacy is similar, but the list of sets you can use starts at/after Ice Age and includes everything after that.

I'm not sure on what Extended and Modern are totally set around, maybe Finder can explain better than I can right now. More or less though they allow a great number of sets going back a few years from now, but also feature slightly larger ban lists usually to dissuade players from using insane combo decks.

The most popular format is Standard, which includes only a handful of the most recent sets and rotates as new sets/blocks are released.

FYI, Royal Assassin has been reprinted a few times in the last few years. You can still use him in many of these formats. He's just been a little outclassed most of the time.

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

Modern is everything 8th edition and up and Extended is the current block and the block that just rotated out I think.

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

4 Viridian Emissary
3 Rampant Growth
3 Solemn Similacrum
1 Birds of Paradise
3 Primeval Titan
3 Green Sun's Zenith
3 White Sun's Zenith
4 Elspeth Tirel
3 Garruk Primal Hunter
4 Oblivion Ring/Beast Within

Made a new deck. I need a few more cards in it plus the lands but yeah this is what I plan to run on Friday Night Magic. Tell me what you think

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

So I basically talk to myself in this thread lol.

Anyway, I'm building a Commander deck which is a 99 card deck plus one Commander which has to be a legendary card. Also you can only use one of a certain card. So you can't use 4 Doom Blades in the deck like in Standard and Legacy. I'm making a fun Black and Blue deck with...I forgot the name...as my Commander. Have any suggestions for my deck? Anyone? I guess I'll have to reply to myself later....

 

[DirtyJosé]

Bribery. Chainer's Edict. Black sun's Zenith.

Go removal and draw engines. Your low end creatures are going to suck but you have access to some of the best high end spells in the game. Avoid counters unless they give.you a boost, like Spelljack. Whose your commander?

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

I keep forgetting his name and what he does. But he is sick. I'm thinking about making a mill Commander deck if I can find enough Mill cards. Blue/Black mill with some removal, counters, and zombies might be fun.

 

[DirtyJosé]

Thing with that is that you have to mill like 90 for each player in the game. You want something reputable and hefty. Tools are there for sure but it'll be rough in a duel an even harder in multiplayer.

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

Of course. I'm just doing an outline right now. Did you get a DCI "Go For The Throat"?

 

[DirtyJosé]

No. I haven't done a "proper" live event for months now. The last I remember doing was the Mirrodin Besieged Pre-Release event. You'd think there'd be more and better options for FNM's in a large place like LA, but you'd be wrong. The events I know that are held weekly are either too far out of the way or in locations that really can't handle more than a dozen people anyway. I drafted one FNM at this place in Santa Monica; two pods of 8, and they barely had the table space for it and only 5 chairs. Yeah, fuck that. I have been getting more and more into MTGO because of it.

Man, I tell ya'; the scene was/is much better in San Francisco. Weekly FNM's and such at Cards and Comics Central on Geary, where there was room and a good crowd. Weekly $7(!) drafts at Kennedy's Irish Bar and Curry House (now there's a weird mixture) where we had access to a large banquet room. We'd have at least 3 pods of 8 going. I'd show up an hour early to get plastered with friends at happy hour and then draft beats! Ah, good times, good times. Combine this with the fact that between Superstars Game Center in Sunnyvale and ChannelFireball you'd get some awesome events year round, and you get one happy camping Jose living in the Bay Area. God, I need to get the fuck back there again.

Anyway, my favorite EDH/Commander General is Scion of the Ur-Dragon. Built it with Wheel of Sun and Moon in mind, so I could just cycle up whatever dragon I needed that turn. Kinda "toolboxy" in that I could use that to answer whatever was going on on the battlefield at that point in time. I ended up building in an enchantment theme with it since the strategy revolved around getting the Wheel out ASAP, so usual EDH good stuff like Aura Shards and stuff was in there. If only I could get that thing together online.

Final point: have you drafted or played much Innistrad limited? I'm a little behind, but I've been drafting on MTGO and a few times in person. I've had moderate success, but only after choking out the first few times. Odd set with odd distribution it seems. Still fun. Opening Mikaeous, the Lunarch or Mayor of Avabruck certainly makes things go smoothly. On one hand I love that the removal is pretty much all conditional, but on the other hand I hate it (usually only when I'm wishing I had a nice clean kill spell).

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

I do love alot of cards in Innistrad. I have a play set of each of the new lands. I just made Wolfrun White which is amazing. Also had fun with red/white tempered steel using the Red curse that is a rare. I forgot the name.

I bought a box today of Scars. Best box ever. Foil Koth and a regular Koth same pack. Elspeth in the next pack and then a Foil Wurmcoil and a Mox Opal in the same pack. Talk about some fucking luck. Also picked up a couple of dual lands that I needed so I had a great day in the field of magic.

I tried to get into the online crap but can't find out how to do it. My brother needs a few cards to complete the set of Innistrad so he can get a real set so I'm hoping he gets that.

My friend runs the same commander deck. He is the judge I talked about recently. One of the best MTG players I know. The best one I know sadly passed away but one a series of tournaments down here and actually got scholarships to college and shit.

 

[DirtyJosé]

That a fucking amazing pull, dude. Congrats, I'm rather jealous.

So, while we're talking EDH, here's what I've whipped up over the week:

Commander: (1)
1 The Mimeoplasm

Ramp/Mana Fixing: (6)
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Dimir Signet
1 Sol Ring
1 Golgari Signet
1 Simic Signet

Enchantment/Artifact/Etc. Destruction: (4)
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Acidic Slime
1 Terastodon
1 Steel Hellkite

Recursion: (7)
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Wrexial, The Risen Deep
1 Rise for the Throat
1 Eternal Witness
1 Mimic Vat
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Artisan of Kozilek

Spot Removal: (4)
1 Go for The Throat
1 Eyeblight's Ending
1 Rend Flesh
1 Putrefy

Board Wipe: (2)
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Life's Finale

Draw/Card Advantage: (7)
1 Mulldrifter
1 Jace's Archivist
1 Sphinx of Uthuun
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Windfall
1 Damia, Sage of Stone

Counter: (8)
1 Spell Crumple
1 Trickbind
1 Hinder
1 Perplex
1 Counterspell
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Dissipate
1 Arcane Denial

Tutors: (7)
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Buried Alive
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Demonic Collusion
1 Drift of Phantasms
1 Praetor's Grasp

Misc. Utility: (8)
1 Wonder
1 Capsize
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Propaganda
1 Troll Ascetic
1 Avatar of Woe
1 Butcher of Malakir

Win Conditions: (5)
1 Triskelion
1 Tainted Strike
1 Vulturous Zombie
1 Vorosh, the Hunter
1 Reins of Power
1 Living Death

Land: (41)
6 Swamp
6 Island
4 Forest
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Temple of the False God
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Dreadship Reef
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Command Tower
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Yayimaya Coast
1 Underground River
1 Treetop Village
1 Spawning Pool
1 Faerie Conclave
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Woodland Cemetary
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Barren Moor
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Svogthos, the Restless Tomb

Gonna put it through it's paces soon enough. It was built off of the "Mimeoplasm" precon Commander deck, though it was almost gutted entirely to suit my needs. I researched various builds online before whipping this up. I wanted to lean off of the "kill n' mill" build of the original deck and add in a more toolbox control kinda feel to it. I like the synergies in it, at least on paper. I forgot to tell you last time; depending on your General and your deck, Tainted Strike can be a surprise kill/win condition. Oh, and this is all on MTGO, btw. In real life I could add cards like Voidslime and such; finding them online is proving to be kind of a pain.

Current wishlist includes:

Voidslime
Forbid
Rhystic Study
Beast Within
Geth, Lord of the Vault
Decree of Pain
Mystic Snake
Demonic Tutor
Crystal Shard
Lord of Extinction

Let me know when you get your Commander deck running and what you have going on in it.

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

Sounds like a fun deck to play. I just bought A full foil Sliver Commander Deck so I hope it does good. I built a funny little infinite mana into devil's play, red sun zenith, or fireball deck. It's really funny because no one expects it. But I have to change up what I do in the second match because they expect what to kill lol.

I took 3rd in the FNM last night and got a foil thrun! First pick was a m12 Garruk and 2nd pick was spellskite and batterskull foil Some great packs. Had a total of 31 people there

 

[DirtyJosé]

Took third overall in an online 4-round Swiss Daily yesterday. Format is Modern, which I'm hot on right now. Been playing Mono-Red Burn, though for this event I went with Living End Combo. Here's the official report from Wizards: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/MagicOnlineTourn.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/tourn/3166163

I think you'll recognize me on that list.

Anyway, also in Modern news is that Punishing Fire and Wild Nacatl got the ban hammer. Your thoughts on this, homie? The idea is that it opens up room for other aggro/creature based strategies, and I'm rather inclined to agree. Many people, though, take offense at something like Nacatl getting banned.

 

[LoudClearVoice]

I never played Magic but when I was in Middle School/Jr. High, all the nerds would gather in the halls before classes and play Magic. It actually looked quite fun to be honest.

Anyway, I used to steal their cards (and sell them) like this: I'd put a loop of tape or double sided tape on the bottom of my shoes then I'd walk close to their games, or stand close to the games, talking to my friends, stepping on cards that were off to the side. The cards stuck to my shoe then I'd walk further down the hall and peel the cards off my shoes. Other friends started doing it too. Good times.

Did the same thing with Pogs too but I played that game myself too.

 

[DirtyJosé]

Instead of stealing and selling cards, you should've learned to play. At the very least, you should have taken those cards and gathered about the parts for a deck. I must say though that I have half a mind to kick you in the junk for your crimes against my fellow nerds.

Anyway, I've been playing the Modern format hardcore since it's the upcoming PTQ season. I've been split between two decks; Living End and Burn.

Living End is slightly combo-ish. It revolves around filling up the graveyard with creatures the first few turns using mechanics like Cycling and Evoke. It then goes to cast Living End for free from the deck using the Cascade mechanic. Living End brings all those goodies back to life for free, with the bonus of wiping the board of whatever was in play beforehand. It's best suited to an environment with mucho aggro/creature strategies, as is the case right now with Zoo more or less still the most popular deck (though in light of the recent bannings, people are experimenting with other ideas more often).

It's strengths are that it preys upon anyone trying use creatures, be it to get into the red zone like Zoo or Affinity, or to combo off themselves, like Melira combo. It's weaknesses are that Control can keep it from popping off, that graveyard hate is plentiful and so is Cascade hate, and that some decks (like Burn or Storm combos) will just not care and do what they do anyway. This is the deck I piloted to 3-1 the other day, with my only loss coming to a Hive Mind combo deck.

The other deck I've been playing is Burn. This deck plays just like it sounds; it more or less gives up on playing creatures (outside of 2 of them) in favor of spells which deal damage straight to the dome. With the right hand it's terribly fast and hard to stop. Playing this deck comes down to numbers; knowing how much you can do to someone in x amount of time, knowing how much punishment you can take before you worry, and knowing when to point damage towards a creature or a planeswalker if it means keeping you alive long enough to do lethal damage by other means.

The advantages of this kind of deck is that their really aren't too many defenses to burn spells. Only a few of the colors have the tools to really hurt it or hurt it's game plan. Also, if the deck goes uncontested for a few turns, it will do heavy damage and can finish the game in 4 turns with the right hand. The weaknesses, however, are that the strategies that do hurt it can hurt it bad. Counterspells can muck up the play; generally, a blue player isn't keen on wasting a counter on a simple burn spell, but they will hold onto one for those last few lethal spells of yours which are the most important. The other part of counterspells which sucks for the burn player is that it can keep you off tempo, allowing your opponent to set up shop for their own plan before you can finish executing yours. Also very very upsetting to this deck is any life gain. Anything which fucks up your math is bad. If you're looking at your hand and see you can get there in the next two turns with everything you have, but then watch as your opponent casts something like Timely Reinforcements, gaining 6 life, you've likely lost the game at that point. The final weakness of burn decks is that, possibly even more than aggro decks, it needs gas. It needs plays. You aren't playing any kind of card draw spells, and so once you've burned through your hand, you are at the mercy of the luck of the draw.

Anyway, I'm looking at building a few other decks for the format. Living End is my go-to, but if I sense that the masses are moving away from Zoo and into other things, I'll likely start playing Burn more often.

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

I'm going to play this:

5x Mountain
5x Swamp
4x Dragonskull Summit
2x Lavaclaw Reaches
4x Blackcleave Cliffs

Instant (11)
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Galvanic Blast
4x Tainted Strike

Enchantment (3)
3x Phyresis
Sorcery (12)

4x Duress
2x Forked Bolt
2x Flame Slash
4x Assault Strobe

Creature (14)

4x Kiln Fiend
2x Moltensteel Dragon
4x Immolating Souleater
4x Spellskite

 

[DirtyJosé]

This is what I've got so far:

Living End

Spoiler

Creatures - 30
3 Architects of Will
4 Monsterous Carabid
4 Deadshot Minotaur
4 Street Wraith
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Faerie Macabre
3 Jungle Weaver
3 Ridge Rannet
3 Shriekmaw

Combo Enablers - 10
4 Violent Outbreak
3 Demonic Dread
3 Living End

Land - 20
3 Forbidden Orchard
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
4 Mountain
2 Swamp
1 Forest

Sideboard -15
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Fulminator Mage
3 Ingot Chewer
3 Brindle Boar
3 Krosan Grip
4 Ricochet Trap

As you can see, almost everything can be put in the graveyard for 1 mana. Shriekmaws, Ridge Rannets, and Jungle Weavers can be put in the bin for 2 mana, and Street Wraiths go in for free. Faerie Macabre can be put in the bin for free as well, though usually you hold on to the them for tech plays; typically you want to hold them to ensure nothing of theirs comes back from a Living End resolving, especially if you have to do it twice or more in one game. It also can just stop or slow down other strategies like Pyromancer's Ascension or Gifts Ungiven/Reanimate. Fulminators are just too good in this format, and using one, getting it back from Living End, and then using it again is usually the saving grace against Control decks. The sideboard is built to take on Burn decks with life gain to buy us the extra turn or two we need to get in the red with our ill-gotten gains, to take on graveyard hate like Leyline of the Void or Tormod's Crypt with Ingot Chewer and Krosan Grip (which does double duty against Splinter Twin combo decks), and to help fight Control decks with Ricochet Traps to render their counter spells useless.

Burn

Spoiler

Burn Spells - 30
4 Bump in the Night
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Shard Volley
4 Magma Jet
4 Flame Javelin
2 Flamebreak

Creatures - 8
4 Goblin Guide
4 Keldon Marauders

Land - 22
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
12 Mountain

Sideboard - 15
1 Flamebreak
3 Smash to Smithereens
3 Sudden Shock
4 Krosan Grip
4 Rain of Gore

30 burn spells, 20 of which come out for 1 mana (counting Rift Bolt as the suspend cost; you should really NEVER need to pay the full price on it). Of the 30, 22 do 3 damage. Math is in your favor with this kind of arsenal. Goblin Guides first turn can be even better than any of the burn spells, and can go the distance on their own frequently. Keldon Marauders just hurt; even if they die or for some reason don't attack, it's still 2 damage for 2 mana. And if they do go uncontested, they are 5 damage for 2 mana. The sideboard is built to punish life gainers; Rain of Gore just shuts down Martyr/Proclamation of Rebirth decks that are getting so popular right now. Smash is for Affinity, the only deck as fast or faster than us, and really just for any troubling artifacts like Birthing Pod (or Spellskite ). Krosan Grip is mainly just for Leylines of Sanctity and Splinter Twin. Sudden Shock is my tech for Control decks or really anyone who might have ways to stop lethal burn damage. Control can't counter it, and Storm decks can't Grapeshot until it resolves. It's mostly for finishing up the job.

@Finder: How long have you been playing a list like that? I've read about similar decks, but I've never come across one on MTGO yet. Seems pretty quick and nimble. I'm guessing some of the choices are based on budget; why Duress and not Thoughtseize? Why Galvanic Blasts? I gotta say though that I do love Tainted Strike; it just wins. It won me games in Scars block limited, and it's won me games in EDH. Just a great sneak-in win condition.

 

[Sinister Shadows]

I never played Magic but when I was in Middle School/Jr. High, all the nerds would gather in the halls before classes and play Magic. It actually looked quite fun to be honest.

Anyway, I used to steal their cards (and sell them) like this: I'd put a loop of tape or double sided tape on the bottom of my shoes then I'd walk close to their games, or stand close to the games, talking to my friends, stepping on cards that were off to the side. The cards stuck to my shoe then I'd walk further down the hall and peel the cards off my shoes. Other friends started doing it too. Good times.

Did the same thing with Pogs too but I played that game myself too.

So you're a dick? good to know I guess.


Anyways I haven't played Magic in years. (since shortly after Guildpact was released) Never played tournaments or anything really besides of a draft here and there, mostly played games with multiple opponents, so the deck I played most was a mono black built around subversion.

Was recently thinking of buying some cards just for the hell of it, perhaps collect a little bit since I don't know anyone that plays where I live now.
(I quit when I was having the best luck getting Foils for some reason, got a foil Birds of Paradise from Ravnica shortly before Guildpact released, and a Foild Angel of Despair on the day of the Guildpact release, doubt they are worth much of anything now though.)