God I'm old.
Darrell
Darrell
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RB's Magic the Gathering Thread!
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 (October 29th, 2014, 20:47)darrelljs Wrote: I quit after Arabian Nights. So a long time ago :-). Man you're old.  Me, OTOH, I used to play around the 4th edition/Ice Age release.  As for constant new releases, this put many people - including myself - off. I don't know how it is today, but I decided I would not be paying hundreds of Euros for a bunch of printed paper cards every time a new edition was released. (October 28th, 2014, 17:58)yuris125 Wrote: Notable feature is that Jeskai Wins once again did not get a spot. Fabrizio Anteri played the deck, but only finished 10th. So wait, you beat this guy who wrote this article I just read on a UK MtG website? Good job, dude! Have you placed at PtQs/GPs/I don't understand the tournament structure before? (October 30th, 2014, 18:50)TheHumanHydra Wrote: So wait, you beat this guy who wrote this article I just read on a UK MtG website? Good job, dude! Sorry to disappoint you - I did not play against Fabrizio, I just finished better than he did. I only mentioned him to show that Jeskai failed to make top8 not because of lack of skill - at least in his case I do not have any notable finishes yet, admittedly I only played in 2 GPs, travelling is difficult because my visa is only valid for the UK. GP London 2013 I got the worst sealed pool I ever had, and then mis-built it. So not really the one to remember. In Manchester this year, I was on course of day 2 until my deck refused to work in the last 2 rounds, and finished 6-3 after being 5-0 and 6-1. The only memorable moment from there is that I beat Tamas Glied, who overcame that loss and finished second. He got a game loss in our match, but being his only day 1 loss is still something to remember  I was close to a PTQ top8 a couple of times, but didn't happen yet. Hopefully this season.... (October 29th, 2014, 18:42)Cheater Hater Wrote: That deck looks good, though I'm surprised we haven't really seen much of it--it's similar to the RG Elspeth lists in block. Chained to the Rocks is good as well, though it puts a lot of pressure on your manabase--how much better is it than, say, Suspension Field? MUCH better. 1 mana vs 2 is huge, I do not have much spare mana in the early game, and being able to deal with their threat and develop my board is very very important. Plus Chained to the Rocks does not have limitations and can answer Goblin Rabblemaster, Ashcloud Phoenix, morphed Sagu Mauler, etc. According to Frank Karsten's Holy Word, with 9 lands which can be Mountains, I'm over 90% to have one in play by turn 6. Which is good enough for this deck I think (October 30th, 2014, 03:59)Gustaran Wrote: As for constant new releases, this put many people - including myself - off. I don't know how it is today, but I decided I would not be paying hundreds of Euros for a bunch of printed paper cards every time a new edition was released. How about paying a few Euros to hang out with people and draft? Especially now when it is Khans of Tarkir draft, one of the best limited formats ever. If not, then I assume Magic is just not enough gun for you
(October 31st, 2014, 09:05)yuris125 Wrote:(October 30th, 2014, 03:59)Gustaran Wrote: As for constant new releases, this put many people - including myself - off. I don't know how it is today, but I decided I would not be paying hundreds of Euros for a bunch of printed paper cards every time a new edition was released. Seconded. It's a really fun format, and there is no One Right Deck yet. The best advice I've received on drafting Khans is "what deck does the table want you to draft? Find it and play it." Best win yet: finals against a Temur deck that had: Dig Through Time, Surrak, 2x Knuckleblade, Ashcloud. I had a rareless mostly-green Abzan deck. 3x Wooly Loxodons, post-board 2 Rotting Mastodons, Kin-Tree Invocation, enough removal and a solid curve. It wasn't about him stumbling on mana - it's that a 6/7 blanks three of his bombs, and Ashcloud or Dig is definitely beatable.
October 31st, 2014, 10:58
(This post was last modified: October 31st, 2014, 10:58 by TheHumanHydra.)
Hey, that's still cool, Yuri. Good luck with your other events this season; let us know how you do!
I think Khans is a really great set to draft too. It feels really different - a lot slower - than other formats I've drafted, not that I've drafted very much or very intensively, and a variety of strategies are possible. Further, with the inclusion of the fetchlands, it seems easy to trade your draft pools into value for your constructed decks - just yesterday I traded a Polluted Delta I drew for two Eidolons of the Great Revel, completing the key playset for my Modern Burn deck. I'm now decidedly more optimistic about being able to get into the Modern format despite the apparent cost of a competitive deck, so much so that I'm now considering adding the fetches to my planned list, despite having considered them 'a bridge too far' monetarily just a few days ago. Great, fun, valuable set! There are some other options for playing Magic without having to invest hundreds each set, too: - build a Cube. This is like drafting, but instead of opening new packs each time, you draft from a fixed card pool each time, normally carefully tuned for balance and 'replay value'. This would make playing Magic more like breaking out a family board game - 'do you want to play Monopoly? How about the Magic Cube?' - play Pauper. This is a constructed format in which only commons are allowed - and you know they're a-dime-a-dozen. - play Modern - the format I was talking about building a deck for above, in fact motivated partly by monetary constraints. As an 'eternal' format, the cards in Modern never leave the format, so you don't have to worry about re-investing hundreds every year. Generally you can build the same deck and use it for years and years, basically the foreseeable future, only updating it with maybe a card or two (or none) per set. Now, many of the most competitive decks in this format are absurdly expensive due to the number of highly sought-after rares they run, but if you do your research, you can build a deck that is both cheap and competitive. The aforementioned Burn is exploding in popularity, as is Blue-Red 'Delver' (from the card Delver of Secrets). Blue 'Tron' and White 'Hatebears' are other deck archetypes that are inexpensive and good. Finally, if you know how to replace the expensive 'fetch-' and 'shock-' lands with almost-as-good and much less expensive multicolour lands, you can reduce the cost of these decks by a lot. (Euh, sorry for the mouthful; I guess I'm just excited about getting into this format.) - build an EDH deck - Elder Dragon Highland, or Commander, is a fan-created format in which you build a hundred-card deck revolving around a Commander, or chosen legendary creature. You can have no more than one copy of each individual card in your deck, unlike the normal four. This format is designed for multiplayer, and to be more about the experience and all the crazy plays that can happen in such big games than about crushing your opponents. This is another format in which, once you've built your deck, unless you feel like building a new one, you probably only 'have' to add/replace a card or two each set (and even then you could probably just skip it if you felt like - their are enough options to be overwhelmed as it is!). In recent years Wizards has even started releasing pre-built Commander decks containing staple cards and cool new Commanders to help people get into the format - the next batch, of mono-coloured decks this time - releases in a week or two. - Just don't! (Invest hundreds each set.) If you find the game fun but don't want to spend all your money on it, and don't care to play competitively, why not just buy/build a deck or two and play them with friends, and not worry about always gearing up with the latest 'tech'? A couple draft sessions and you'd have cards enough to build reasonably coherent decks, Wizards releases starter decks ('Intro packs') with each new set, as well as more advanced 'Event decks', and, finally, the 'Duel decks' line of paired decks (eg. Elves vs. Goblins) are designed to be pitted against each other as-is (though you can of course modify them if you'd like). Anyway, yeah, now's a great time to be playing Magic; it's really popular and the sets are really fun and interesting, and there are a number of ways to get (back) into the game, somewhat competitively or just casually, at all sorts of price-points. It's just too bad us RB members couldn't sit down in a room together and play each other!
If you haven't watched it yet I can recommended South Park episode 8 of season 18 "Cock Magic" which features several MtG battles:
http://southpark.cc.com/ (US) http://www.southpark.de/ (Germany) 
Got to the final of a PPTQ this Sunday, and unfortunately lost a favourable match-up there, with the following Gruul Aggro list
This has been an amazing season for standard. As long as you don't mind playing Siege Rhino. There are at least 3 different Abzan decks (agrro, control, Whip), which only have manabase and Siege Rhino in common - but it does mean Siege Rhino is 50%+ of the decks in most tournaments Hope standard remains as diverse post-Fate Reforged, the set seems to be good for standard, but Monastery Mentor + Jeskai Ascendancy may end up being even worse than Rhino |
