MTG?

[Kirby]

Well, I thought about the idea of "tempo", and tried to make a fast deck to counter these "control decks" that people have been playing.

It worked pretty well, and my team won. I don't know if it will work next time, since people saw my strategy, but here's the deck I used today:

2 Chandra's Outrage (4 damage to target creature, 2 damage to creature's controller)
2 Manic Vandal (2/2, destroy target artifact when enters battlefield)
2 Lava Axe (5 damage to target player)
2 Arc Runner (5/1, haste, sac. at end of turn)
2 Fireball
4 Lightning Bolt (3 damage to target creature or player)
3 Flame Slash (4 damage to target creature)
2 Vulshok Heartstoker (2/2, target creature gets +2/0 when it enters battlefield)
2 Fiery Hellhound (2/2, 1 red to get +1/+0)
1 Assault Strobe (Target gets double strike til end of turn)
1 Deep-Slumber Titan (7/7, doesn't untap until it's dealt damage)

17 red basic land

I was aiming for a fast deck. It seemed pretty effective, at least for today. I'm sure someone will bring in a card like "Circle of Protection: Red", or something next Tuesday...

[Violence]

Congrats, you came up with the concept of "Red Deck Wins" all by yourself. It's the archetype that those of us will be dominated by in Magic 2012 when it is released in several weeks.

If that does happen, or if they start running protection from red(shortened to pro-red) creatures, I would recommend seeing if you can get your hands on some Leyline of Punishment, a very cheap rare, around 50 cents a pop.

Another card that would just help your deck in general is Unstable Footing. It's strictly better than Lava Axe in your deck, and like... 10 cents. Most people will give it to you for free.

By the way, you don't happen to have Shrine of Burning Rage, do you? Because it's not only damage that can't be hated out by story circle, circle of protection(unless it's CoP:Artifact), and pro-red cards, but they also can't kill it profitably if you keep up mana to use it in response to them trying to destroy it. It also keeps increasing every turn(regardless of whether or not you miss the trigger on your upkeep, since it is not a may), and gets stronger for each of your red spells. Even if your deck runs out of gas, you still have this growing source of damage that your opponents can't effectively stop, making it definitely a great card to be used. I've seen shrines do 27 damage before, it's kind of disgusting.

If you don't feel like getting the cards, here's one thing that you can do if people start drinking haterade. You can switch up your deck into a support deck. Switch out your Arc Runners and Lava Axes and Assault Strobes and offensive creatures for more burn spells, and suddenly, you're a Mono Red Control-type deck. Your role changes from being the fast beat stick to being the guy who destroys your opponent's creatures so that your teammates can get in unhindered. If they all start running shroud/hexproof/pro-red creatures, things could get annoying, and it may then be time to switch deck ideas.

[Wiggum]

Spine of Ish Sah
Viridian Corrupter
Kuldotha Flamefiend
Piston Sledge
Spread the Sickness
Blightwidow
Phyrexian Rager
Morbid Plunder
Ichor Wellspring
Divine Offering
Blisterstick Shaman
Burn the Impure
Fangren Maurader
Leonin Skyhunter

Replying to first post.
Since every card is just fantastic, the best option is to go for the Spine of Ish Sah for 3 reasons:
1) It is colorless
2) It is removal
3) You might get a way to break it in the SoM packs

Assuming it was gone, you probably take Flamefiend/Spread the Sickness depending on first pick.

[Tooveli]

Flamefiend without a doubt.

I've only had experience of NMS though so I'm just going to pretend the format has the same speed/archetypes (which is obviously very wrong).

Ordering the rest is tough though

Viridian Corrupter (I could see myself dropping this down the list as there are less artefacts in NMS)
Spread the Sickness
Burn the Impure (Doesn't deal with bombs as well as Spread the Sickness)
Blightwidow
Fangren Maurader (This loses some value in NMS)
Divine Offering (I'm guessing would be above blightwidow pre NPH)
Blisterstick Shaman (This would be below Spine if NPH didn't have so many good 1 toughness cards)
Spine of Ish Sah
Morbid Plunder (Obviously great but not good enough for strong colour commitment first pick)
Phyrexian Rager (How can you open a pack with this card 11th pick?)
Leonin Skyhunter (" " 12th " ")
Piston Sledge (I'm guessing this was better before NPH or maybe I'm undervaluing it)
Ichor Wellspring (I like this card but the pack is stupid)

How can some peoples earlier posts have had Piston Sledge so high? Piston Sledge over Spread the Sickness surely can't be right. Were pre NPH draft games all over before turn 5?

[Wiggum]

How can some peoples earlier posts have had Piston Sledge so high? Piston Sledge over Spread the Sickness surely can't be right. Were pre NPH draft games all over before turn 5?

It comes from not wanting to push into a color first pick. Back in ZEN/ZEN/WWK drafts, trusty machete was a strong first pick. This comes from the same idea. Drafts by definition are creature based formats and as such, equipment like piston sledge are really strong in either infect or real damage.

This is a similar to reason to me drafting Spine of Ish Sah. While it isn't necessarily the undisputed best card in the pack, the fact that it is colorless allows me to be gently pushed into a color when I see the best cards getting passed to me instead of fighting over Black and Red across the table.

[Kirby]

@Violence:
Thanks for the tips. Of course I think that Shrine of Burning rage would be a nice addition (I don't have the card right now), but Leyline of Punishment sounds particularly intriguing.

Just to confirm, "Damage can't be prevented" overrules "Protection from red", right (it's a "red card", so some might argue that its abilities are "protected from")?

In general, how do you make this type of distinction?

[CSamurai]

@Violence:
Thanks for the tips. Of course I think that Shrine of Burning rage would be a nice addition (I don't have the card right now), but Leyline of Punishment sounds particularly intriguing.

Just to confirm, "Damage can't be prevented" overrules "Protection from red", right (it's a "red card", so some might argue that its abilities are "protected from")?

In general, how do you make this type of distinction?

The rules text of circle of protection from X is, or was, 1: Damage from a source of (the specified color) is prevented.

Now, pro-red creatures can't be targeted by red spells or effects from red creatures, if I recall correctly, but there is no protection from red for the player, and non targeted spells, such as creature destruction that destroys all creatures, still affect protection from X creatures.

If 'all creatures on the enemy team take X damage, damage cannot be prevented' is the text of the card, then that card is the holy grail of protection killing.

Now, for all 'rulings' you'll want to check specific cards, and read up on their rulings, and there are some good databases online to let you do that. Do a google search for the card you specifically want to research, and it should pop up in one of the magic databases, and the rulings should be present in the screen somewhere.

[shapenaji]

@Violence:
Thanks for the tips. Of course I think that Shrine of Burning rage would be a nice addition (I don't have the card right now), but Leyline of Punishment sounds particularly intriguing.

Just to confirm, "Damage can't be prevented" overrules "Protection from red", right (it's a "red card", so some might argue that its abilities are "protected from")?

In general, how do you make this type of distinction?

The rules text of circle of protection from X is, or was, 1: Damage from a source of (the specified color) is prevented.

Now, pro-red creatures can't be targeted by red spells or effects from red creatures, if I recall correctly, but there is no protection from red for the player, and non targeted spells, such as creature destruction that destroys all creatures, still affect protection from X creatures.

If 'all creatures on the enemy team take X damage, damage cannot be prevented' is the text of the card, then that card is the holy grail of protection killing.

Now, for all 'rulings' you'll want to check specific cards, and read up on their rulings, and there are some good databases online to let you do that. Do a google search for the card you specifically want to research, and it should pop up in one of the magic databases, and the rulings should be present in the screen somewhere.

Well, with the red leyline in play and a slagstorm, that holy grail exists!

[Solomon]

After attending Anime Expo and seeing the massive number of players in the MTG tournament they held in the tabletop gaming room, I really regret not getting into MTG when I first heard of it 8+ years ago . It just feels too late now.

[Violence]

It's actually quite easy to get into, Solch, you just learn how to draft the newest few sets, and slowly make standard decks.

The most common format only encompasses the last year or so of cards, and new cards are released 7 times a year.

The latest core set comes out soon, and it's a great time for beginners to get into the game without paying out the mouth for specific cards.

[Kirby]

Yeah, I would second that it's not hard to get into. I wouldn't call myself that good of a player, but I think I'm probably at least as good as one of the guys I work with, who says he's been doing it since he was in the 4th grade of elementary school (though, he has more cards).

[Violence]

I've only been playing for about two years, but just the other day, I picked up a friend's legacy(the possible card pool is every card in Magic, with a banlist) deck, and after about a 5 minute primer, I proceeded to use it to help him test some other decks for a legacy tournament.

Legacy is hard, though, play skill has an even higher impact on the game. I played BUG Aluren, and man is it fun! Pernicious Deed is just a horribly unfair card compared to anything in Standard right now.

Every single card in the Legacy deck(minus the basic lands) were cards that did not come out while I've been playing, but just learning the fundamentals of how to play and being a decent player in general let me perform as a decent test partner.

[Kirby]

Whew. What a lot of work!

I just finished putting all of my cards into excel. I made different columns for different attributes that a card might have (eg. trample, lifelink, infect, etc.), so that I can quickly query for cards that I have of a particular attribute. This didn't work for all cards, because some cards have unique abilities, but I tried to make as many categories as possible.

In any case, all of the cards I have are inputted, now. The only thing I wish I had done differently at this point is to be more specific with spell casting cost. I listed casting cost as a single number so that I could sort it easily, but I should have added columns for casting cost of different colors, so I could tell the difference between something that is two colorless and 1 blue mana, and something that is 1 colorless and 2 blue mana, for example.

Either way, it has worked out for organizing my cards so far. I made a deck yesterday pretty quickly, because I could query the types of cards I wanted.

I also put all of the cards of each color in alphabetical order, so that, when I find a card in excel, I can quickly find it in real life.

It took a lot of time, but I'm glad that I did it.

[Zombie]

Been playing since Time Spiral block myself, though the rising price is putting the game on the backburner for me. Constructed and 1-v-1 guy all the way, though I can be bothered to play the occasional Cube draft. FFA multiplayer is a messenger of doom from hell and makes the game about politics instead of Magic.

Loved Time Spiral-Lorwyn Standard, nowadays I mostly play German Highlander and Pauper, as other formats are simply uninteresting. Would've perhaps gotten into Legacy, but of course the f**kers had to ban Survival. So much for that, then.

To those of you with old cards which are Legacy staples, like Wasteland, it's definitely a good time to get rid of them. Legacy Tournaments are getting more and more popular, and the prices for cards are skyrocketing.

Sword of Fire and Ice is now worth 60 dollars and still rising. What is this I don't even.

Tell me about it :'(
Any good new Constructed card is Rare or worse, Mythic and thus costs a million (hello, 12/15ths of a pack of Limited chaff)

Been contemplating selling my money cards (Wasteland, Swords (RU, GB), Force, Tropical Island etc.) and just proxying the stuff since I only go to like one Highlander tournament a year or something anyway.

And really, being a Go player makes Magic a lot easier. I make less mistakes, I can see mistakes more easily, and the path to improvement is really quite straightforward, imo.

I also just stare blankly whenever people tell me how hard Magic can be and how there are so many different possible plays at many different junctures.

Because I know better.

Heh. Yeah, after you reach a certain level the choice is usually obvious or between two clear lines of play (The evaluation may be hard, the plays themselves not really). At least unless you play something monstrous like Meandeck Tendrils (Vintage), Doomsday (Legacy) or Pattern-Rector (Highlander). Then you likely do have a fuckton of playlines to consider.

But yeah. Those decks are considered hard. For a reason. Certain old boardgame is like that. Every game.

I have an urge to brush off my old MTGO account and see if I have more time to play online, since I only get out about once a month for FNM.

Don't. There's a free program called Cockatrice that works on 'doze/Mac/Linux and saves you from paying real-world prices for virtual stuff with the same horrid ripoff scheme. (I mean, 20 bucks for a virtual card? Seriously?

At the comic shop I played at, you were required to HATE Atogs (because of the infinite combo). If you opened a shiny new pack of cards and got an Atog, the owner would let you use his staple gun so you crucify this abomination of a card on the "wall of Atogs". There must have been 400 or so Atogs stapled into directly to the drywall.

Oh man. Memories.

Used to tear Brilliant/Clarion Ultimatums and Altar Golems to pieces myself. Certain Johnnies at the cardshop were crying in anguish at the just punishment meted out to craptastic cardboard. Said Johnny now aspires to play Smash competitively.

Anyone know what my best plan is for selling it?

Also, should I reinvest that money in a few packs for drafts from the current format or will it be a slippery slope even though I'm 7 years older, wiser but with the same fascination for games... ?

1. Sell collection to bot for tickets.
2. Sell tickets on eBay or something
3. ??? (Don't restart the game unless you plan on playing w/Cockatrice or similar)
4. Profit.

Aside from new mechanics, the main rule change seems to be instant resolution of combat damage... that makes me sad.

R.I.P. Momentary Blink, best common ever.

It's almost sad how eager I am for the XBLA MTG game coming out in a week or so... It's easier to get your money's worth out of that game than a single real-card draft, though. And any game with local coop wins in my book.

Duels is horrible. Apart from the puzzles, which are brilliant. You just know something good is going to happen when you get an assignment of "Kill opponent. Now." and are given a Protean Hulk on the field.


@ Kirby:
I'm so screwed up my head handles the "what is in my collection" part
Congrats on starting on UB control and inventing RDW.
You might want to use either Gatherer or Magiccards.info for finding new cards for your decks and things like that. They have powerful filtering tools that make it really convenient to see if what you find exists.


Violence's explanations thus far have been good, but his terminology is a bit off. It's not card power, it's card advantage. THIS is card POWER.

Anyway, this post turned out to be somewhat of a monster, but that's what you get for making a six-page thread about my #1 hobby

[Zombie]

Whee! It's that time of the year again! What time of the year, you ask? The time when Finland's biggest PnP RPG/card game/tabletop wargaming/??? convention is held, and apart from Yomi, I've been playing a ton of Magic, almost exclusively German Highlander with Pattern-Rector as my weapon of choice. I've got to say, I doubt I've ever played a Magic deck that is so thoroughly enjoyable for so damn long. There have been decks that are as fun as Pattern-Rector, but they've all lost their luster eventually (just too easy, I guess).

So, ladies and gentlemen, the best deck in the game:
Warning: Contains a monster. A beautiful, beautiful monster, but a monster nonetheless.

(Think this is hard enough for you Violence? )

Apart from gushing over that one deck, I'd recommend anyone who's played the game a bit longer to try German Highlander. It's an amazing format:
1. Normal rules, none of this weird Commander bs.
2. The big singleton decks bring back a small bit of the feeling of the old times when decks were made out of singletons out of necessity. It also encourages trading within a Highlander community because no one really needs more than a copy or two of any one card.
3. Eternal format, but costly (mana-wise) cards are still actually relatively viable, unlike in Legacy.
4. The lack of any single card is rarely an obstacle to the deck functioning well (except in special cases like mine)