Return to the Magic: The Gathering Thread

[illisid]

RnD HAS been working to get red a bit of a better identity, though. Giving red some looting has been part of that.

[GG7]

Ugggh, no one at the local place I go to for Saturday magic had Intangible Virtue.... I even fought a guy with a lot of tokens and he didn't have any. Those are the last things I need to finish my spirit token deck. Well, last cards that I can actually afford, curse you oh glorious Saint Trafty-Poo.

Edit: I caved and bought them on Ebay.

[Zombiitwo]

My friend just pulled a Cavern of Souls and a foil Vexing Devil out of the same pack.
Then my other friend pulls a Gisela and a foil Angel of Glory's Rise out of another pack.
I open a pack and get a Demonlord of Ashmouth (Literally worst rare in AVR) and no foil.

Why do I have such bad luck with packs

[GG7]

My friend just pulled a Cavern of Souls and a foil Vexing Devil out of the same pack.
Then my other friend pulls a Gisela and a foil Angel of Glory's Rise out of another pack.
I open a pack and get a Demonlord of Ashmouth (Literally worst rare in AVR) and no foil.

Why do I have such bad luck with packs

Try different things, like picking packs with different people.

[Zombiitwo]

Man, Stonehorn Dignitary plus Conjurer's Closet is a fuckton of fun to play.

[Kuraimano]

Uh, little premise: I'm not good at Magic

I still like it though, can I have any of your opinions about this deck I made? http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/exit-strategy/

I playtested it with a friend and he beat the crap out of me with a black deck (so yeah, no Fear), then he used a rather powerful elemental red deck and we are something like even in terms of victories.

It's the first deck I've ever made by myself (I already have a red deck but it's copied from a tournament winner, so cool and everything but I don't feel like it's mine) and before starting to gather cards I'd like to confirm that it's not utter shit at least. The idea was to play a goblin rogue deck but with Goblin Grenades. And no, I would like to keep it like this (based on creatures and damage) instead of changing it completely and make it a control deck, as someone already suggested...

(p.s.: It used to have Boggart Mob in the main deck, then I switched to that fairy card and thechange seemed to have yielded good results)

[illisid]

Overall it looks like a solid casual deck, but here are a few suggestions:
1) play more land. 20 is generally too little, you usually want about 40% of your deck to be lands. 24 is a good average, though your deck is low on the mana curve so you can probably go for 22-23. Keep in mind statistics, if you have 20 lands, then your average hand will have 2 lands, and by turn 3 you will have your 3rd land, but that's only on average. A significant amount of time you will be completely unable to draw lands, and even on average curve, reaching your 4th land will be tough. With 24 you should get 3-4 lands in your opening hand and be able to hit your 5th land drop on time a majority of the time.
2) I can easily see your deck's synergies, but what are your most powerful plays? What are the sequences you can do that will put the most pressure on your opponent? Example, my new standard deck will plan to go turn 1 llanowar elves, turn 2 strangleroot geist + rancor, which represents a lot of damage really quickly. Or t1 birds of paradise t2 lingering souls, t3 strangleroot geist + souls flashback. Your best curve that I can see is t1 prickly boggart, t2
2.5) some of the cards in your deck don't really do a lot. They're synergystic, sure, but not particularly great. Frogtosser banneret would be better in a higher cost deck. Since all your creatures cost 3 or less, you aren't gaining any speed with him (turn 2 banneret turn 3 earwig squad isn't necessary since turn 3 earwig squad happens anyway). Since your deck is aggressive, a 2 mana 1/1 that saves you a little mana doesn't help so much. Corrosive mentor and stinkdrinker bandit are both pretty weak by themselves, and (in my opinion) don't provide enough of a benefit to be worth the slot. I also think go for the throat, lightning bolt, and goblin grenade is a little too much removal, you should only need 2 of those.

Specific suggestions:

Cut Frogtosser, stinkdrinker, corrosive mentor, and go for the throat. Add 3 more lands, preferably lands that add either R or B, add 4 pulse tracker, the 4th lightning bolt, and the other 4 cards could be up to you. Reckless waif is a rogue, for what that's worth, and it's a pretty great aggressive card (though not a rogue in werewolf form), though then you have to worry about having access to red mana on turn 1.

Hope these suggestions helped

[Kuraimano]

Overall it looks like a solid casual deck, but here are a few suggestions:
1) play more land. 20 is generally too little, you usually want about 40% of your deck to be lands. 24 is a good average, though your deck is low on the mana curve so you can probably go for 22-23. Keep in mind statistics, if you have 20 lands, then your average hand will have 2 lands, and by turn 3 you will have your 3rd land, but that's only on average. A significant amount of time you will be completely unable to draw lands, and even on average curve, reaching your 4th land will be tough. With 24 you should get 3-4 lands in your opening hand and be able to hit your 5th land drop on time a majority of the time.

Yeah, I was thinking about this as well but the deck seems to work already with this few lands, so I figured I might just x4 the black/red ones hoping the one that enters tapped won't slow me down too much, so that would make 22 lands. But I already had to squeeze A LOT to make all my cards fit in a 60 cards deck. Are you suggesting I should play more than 60? I was taught by my magic-nerd friends that it is not advisable (and again, I guess you are not suggesting that since that would also require more than 22-23 land cards).

2) I can easily see your deck's synergies, but what are your most powerful plays? What are the sequences you can do that will put the most pressure on your opponent?

Well it's simple really, as you might have already seen... I try to deal some damage with Prickly Boggart who has fear, and then everything comes into play with prowl. Earwig Squad is basically pure gold, if I manage to enter even just one or two of them on the battlefield and I know my opponent's deck that's quite the wrench into his plans! I used Boggart Mob as a powerful card that a friend of mine recommended, but it would just slow me down since I would have to sacrifice a goblin and have this 5/5 fatguy with summoning sickness on the field. So I removed that and found this rogue fairy: she has flying, so she's a good alternative to Prickly's fear if I have to deal damage to use prowl (it counts, as she is a rogue). Also she permanently buffs all rogues I play while she's on the battlefield, pretty cool no? And of course then we have Goblin Grenade, which was the card that gave me the original idea. I love using that card in red decks, so I figured why not try to slam it into another kind of deck and there it is, 5 damage shots in case things go wrong (since most of my cards are goblins). Used Mad Auntie as a side and she seems pretty awesome too but I don't really have a use for her regenerate goblin abilities, but it's still a big plus along with her buffing the goblins I guess?

2.5) some of the cards in your deck don't really do a lot. They're synergystic, sure, but not particularly great. Frogtosser banneret would be better in a higher cost deck. Since all your creatures cost 3 or less, you aren't gaining any speed with him (turn 2 banneret turn 3 earwig squad isn't necessary since turn 3 earwig squad happens anyway). Since your deck is aggressive, a 2 mana 1/1 that saves you a little mana doesn't help so much. Corrosive mentor and stinkdrinker bandit are both pretty weak by themselves, and (in my opinion) don't provide enough of a benefit to be worth the slot. I also think go for the throat, lightning bolt, and goblin grenade is a little too much removal, you should only need 2 of those.

I see... I mean, I consider the Frogtosser one of my main cards but I guess that's because I'm no expert like you. I read specific rules of the card, and it was stated that it also affected the Prowl cost of cards, so basically one of those on the battlefield and I can use Morsel Theft and many other creatures by just tapping one each (much like a mini-storm of goblins). I guess I can also avoid corrosive mentor, I put it there mostly because I'm afraid of indestructible creatures (white knights, I'm looking at you), but I guess I have go for the throat for that and anyway knights tend to have protection from black as a side anyway. As for the Stinkdrinker, that was my main candidate for removal, I really don't like it.
Why should I cut Go for the throat? That makes me feel a bit defenseless to be honest. As for the goblin granades... If I cut those, that would kinda remove the point of having my red lands. So I might as well do another cool deck that is either black or a real black/red instead of a black with one red spell... that kinda sucks, I liked this as theming. 2 goblin grenades seems such a shame, isn't that a good finishing move (and yes, a handy remover of creatures I guess)?

And yes, you definitely helped by clearing out some doubts I had, but now I have many others, I'm very unsure about cutting on many of the cards you suggested to...

[Zombiitwo]

why does tapped out feel the need to change their website layout/design every other week
it's fine dammit stop


Since this is deck appreciation hour, what do you guys think of this?
It's built for the in-between season, which is why I'm running both M12 and 13 cards in here.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/flickr-1/

It's a ton of fun to play, and I won FNM yesterday with it, sans the Serra Avatars and Cathedrals of War. It's obviously no match for Heartless Havengul or a good U/R or U/W Tourney-level Delver deck, but it plays pretty good.

[dynamicEquilibrium]

It looks like a strong concept, but your particular list seems problematic in that you have many times more flicker effects than creatures with ETB effects to use them on
I would definitely go up to the full four Inquisitor Exarch, since that looks to be your most reliable kill condition
there should certainly be something else good in standard as far as etb effects are concerned
I'm quite sure that there's some angel in the 3-4 cost bracket that does something brokenly overpowered when you flicker it
barring that get a nice token generator, since things that drop 2-3 soldier tokens on ETB are super common and also broken as hell with the Navigator

also Runechanter's Pike makes me say "ehhhhhhhh"
it just doesn't seem focused
if the point of your deck is to assemble a combo for gaining obscene amounts of life while slowing down your opponent, then having Equipment in it doesn't really fit... I can see why it looks good, but you really have too few instants and sorceries for it to stand on its own merit

my recommendations:
axe entreat the angels, delver, and the pike, maybe the closet
add more exarchs, maindeck Stonehorn just because it gets you a free win against maybe 40% of all decks
add Mana Leak, add more Oblivion Ring and Ponder

honestly not sure about Serra Avatar since I can see that it is pretty clearly amazing but also sooooo expensive
also just as a matter of personal taste I would bring Deadeye up to four copies since he is pretty clearly the most powerful flicker effect but you have such a ton of flicker already idk if it's necessary



unrelated and egotistical news I am finally starting to acquire cards for my casual deck that I posted a list of somewhere in the depths of the last thread
I don't remember all of it anymore but basically you get Umbral Mantle, Training Grounds and a creature that taps for two, get infinite mana and then use Jade Mage, Goblin Cannon or Spawnsire of Ulamog (especially Spawnsire) to do some very funny things

[Zombiitwo]

It looks like a strong concept, but your particular list seems problematic in that you have many times more flicker effects than creatures with ETB effects to use them on
I would definitely go up to the full four Inquisitor Exarch, since that looks to be your most reliable kill condition
there should certainly be something else good in standard as far as etb effects are concerned
I'm quite sure that there's some angel in the 3-4 cost bracket that does something brokenly overpowered when you flicker it
barring that get a nice token generator, since things that drop 2-3 soldier tokens on ETB are super common and also broken as hell with the Navigator

also Runechanter's Pike makes me say "ehhhhhhhh"
it just doesn't seem focused
if the point of your deck is to assemble a combo for gaining obscene amounts of life while slowing down your opponent, then having Equipment in it doesn't really fit... I can see why it looks good, but you really have too few instants and sorceries for it to stand on its own merit

my recommendations:
axe entreat the angels, delver, and the pike, maybe the closet
add more exarchs, maindeck Stonehorn just because it gets you a free win against maybe 40% of all decks
add Mana Leak, add more Oblivion Ring and Ponder

honestly not sure about Serra Avatar since I can see that it is pretty clearly amazing but also sooooo expensive
also just as a matter of personal taste I would bring Deadeye up to four copies since he is pretty clearly the most powerful flicker effect but you have such a ton of flicker already idk if it's necessary



unrelated and egotistical news I am finally starting to acquire cards for my casual deck that I posted a list of somewhere in the depths of the last thread
I don't remember all of it anymore but basically you get Umbral Mantle, Training Grounds and a creature that taps for two, get infinite mana and then use Jade Mage, Goblin Cannon or Spawnsire of Ulamog (especially Spawnsire) to do some very funny things

i think the angel you're thinking of is Goldnight Redeemer, it's 4WW and is a 4/4 body and when it enters the battlefield you get 2 life for each creature you control, only other one i think you're thinking of would be restoration angel
paired with a flickering captain of the watch that will be insane

[GG7]

GUILDS ARE COMING BACK!
Return to Ravnica has 5 guilds, Azorious, Rakdos, Selesnya, Golgari, and Izzet.
The second set is called Gatecrash, and has the other 5, Dimir, Gruul, Orzhov, Boros, and Simic.
The third set has all 10.
For the pre-release, you chose a guild and get a box of that guild. The box has guild spindown life counter, 5 or 6 packs, a guild pack of the guild colored cards and the pre-release promo, a letter from the guild master, and guild achievement cards. Also you can use the pre-release promo.

[kickan]

And every guild gets a brand-new keyword, that plays well with the guild's cards from the old block.

So excited. SOOOO excited.

[Bobster]

Oh man, that sounds like awesome news. I'm just hoping everyone won't end up picking the same guild for the prerelease, because, let's be honest here, everyone loves Izzet.

[GG7]

I will probably pick Azorius, since I always use W/U.

[illisid]

I've honestly not been much of an izzet. Not sure what I'd pick though.

[Kollaps]

I probably would pick Izzet. Not because it really matches me for any reason other than my philosophy of "Red/Blue is a great color combination." I kind of wonder what they're going to do with these keywords, honestly. Like, more specifically than just what can posted earlier.

(Also M13 prerelease was boring, but it was the first time in a long time I got whined at by somebody for the fact that he was having bad luck.)

[kickan]

I love UR but I'm not as much of a fan of the Izzet because they tend to be a bit silly/comic relief. For the RTR prerelease I'll probably pick either Golgari or Selesnya, depending on what their mechanics turn out to be. For Gatecrash, I'm thinking Simic or Orzhov. I'm really curious to see what they're doing with the Simic this time around, from their new guild leader it seems that they've taken a bit of a new direction since we last saw them. Which I'm happy about, because "mad science/gene splicing" is probably my least favorite angle for GU flavor. I much prefer things along the lines of Overbeing of Myth and Fable of Wolf and Owl.

[Kollaps]

I'm also a huge BioShock fan, so I probably appreciate the thing going on with the Simic a bit more. So, uh, I don't know. Although, yeah, you do raise kind of a point about the Izzet. (Also that mechanic was just not very interesting in execution. "Here's (usually) an overcosted spell that you can continuously recast just by paying the CMC again!" Now granted, even Shock + Replicate would be a little OP, especially when Lightning Bolt wasn't in standard, but.)

[kickan]

Oh, I like Bioshock type stuff just fine, I just don't like that it's become more or less synonymous with the GU color pair thanks to the Simic. Every guild is guilty of that to some extent, but I have a grudge against the Simic because that flavor feels pretty narrow and more setting-specific to me, compared to some other broader guild themes. Boros or Dimir flavor is a lot less restrictive.

[dynamicEquilibrium]

Oh yeah I loved Fable of Wolf and Owl and definitely hoping they turn in that direction for this block
best enemy hybrid card in the game, in my opinion
that style of green-blue where you produce creatures and cards together has always been one of my favorite deck archetypes, especially for Limited where people can't be Metagame Prepared and remove all your stuff

also I just got the cards for a new Casual deck and it is probably the funniest deck I have ever seen anyone with
it was born of a discussion about Goblin Grenade where I said that the card is balanced if you have one but if you draw more than one you just kill your opponent instantly so the drawback doesn't apply
basically it's a whole deck of goblin tokens and one drops, but with Goblin Grenade, Arms Dealer, Siege-Gang Commander and Voracious Dragon so you're guaranteed to get at least a few of them
you just make a few cursory attacks to do like five damage and then sacrifice every creature at once to end the game instantly

[Kollaps]

Are you using Krenko in there, just to make it even worse? Well, okay, probably not necessary. I imagine the deck goes a little fast to have a good use for him.

[PrinnySquad]

Gonna pick Rakdos all the way. I love me some R/B.

[Kollaps]

BR is probably one of my favorite color combinations for limited, because removal is really, really handy... especially in that kind of density.

[PrinnySquad]

I cannot express how glad I am Mutilate got reprinted in M13, especially with the loss of BSZ. It also gets me the most hate when me and my friends play Duels 2013, so that's an added bonus.