RB's Magic the Gathering Thread!

[Cyneheard]

How has Modern Masters been for you?

I've drafted twice:
WB Spirits splashing Burst Lightning. That deck is very grindy, and needs good finishers. Went 1-2, despite 2 Nameless Inversion and a LOT of Soulshifting

Grixis Eldrazi Ramp. The deck was ramp, removal, and big things. Went 2-1 because the RW Equipment deck was stacked. And T3 Etched Champion with Metalcraft is totally beatable when you have 0 artifact removal.

Financially, it's been good (opened 20 packs, including 2 Sealed practice pools) - Foil Clique, Clique, Cryptic, Twin, miscellaneous $5-$10 cards.

Is anyone else going to be at the GPs next week? I'm going to Vegas.

[Cheater Hater]

How has Modern Masters been for you?

I've drafted twice:
WB Spirits splashing Burst Lightning. That deck is very grindy, and needs good finishers. Went 1-2, despite 2 Nameless Inversion and a LOT of Soulshifting

Grixis Eldrazi Ramp. The deck was ramp, removal, and big things. Went 2-1 because the RW Equipment deck was stacked. And T3 Etched Champion with Metalcraft is totally beatable when you have 0 artifact removal.

Financially, it's been good (opened 20 packs, including 2 Sealed practice pools) - Foil Clique, Clique, Cryptic, Twin, miscellaneous $5-$10 cards.

Is anyone else going to be at the GPs next week? I'm going to Vegas.

It hasn't--I don't have that much interest in drafting it IRL at $10 a pack (especially with all the damaged cards floating around from the new packaging--how have yours been?), and it doesn't come out on MTGO until Thursday. I'll probably play a decent amount on MTGO though, though mostly because I need content for my column

[Cyneheard]

We've been pretty fortunate in my group - the cards have been in good shape, although a lot of cards were printed poorly (washed out text in particular - didn't hit the $$$ cards). I don't really want to deal with Customer Service if there's a problem, but who knows what will happen.

They do bend easily (fortunately this was a not-valuable uncommon).

I'm amazed at the number of people who have just cracked boxes for value, not trying to draft/play with the cards - I opened my stuff quickly, but I wanted to get some Sealed reps in early.

[yuris125]

I was going to play a MM Sealed PPTQ, but the pool I opened had too much value to pass it, so I dropped before pool swap. I would not have dropped for a single Tarmogoyf or something like that, but when I opened a foil Dark Confidant, foil Leyline of Sancitity, Bitterblossom, Wilt-Leaf Liege, and Surgical Extraction.. and there was a standard side event I wanted to play anyway... this was too much So played only one sealed after that, went 3-1 with a UW artifact deck after opening a Tezzeret and 16 playable artifacts including 3 Myr Enforcers (although the definition of "playable" was stretched, I played Expedition Map as a 1 mana artifact which in most cases had no text)

The format seems fun, but with the price being as high as it is (I paid £95 for 2 sealed events! good thing I opened what I opened in the first one ), I don't expect to play a lot

[Cyneheard]

MM Sealed:
I had a lot of fun at GP Vegas.
Did terrible in the main event (0-2 drop). Should've built a bad Aggro deck instead of a bad control deck (no wincons).
The side events went well - 18-7 across 5 Sealed events. Basically got my entry fees in prize packs. Sealed is OK - you get to do broken things, but it's not a difficult format to build decks in. Mana fixing is great - so it's easy to go 3 colors, and 4-5 is OK if you have the mana base to support it.

Modern:
I built Grixis Twin - got half the stuff from all my MM playing, and aggressively bought/traded before a lot of the prices spiked. Snaps were 55-65 at Vegas (TCGMid is $85 now), and got most things before the buyouts really kicked in. I didn't buy Tarns at $50-55 per, not with BFZ around the corner. Anyone else have a hard time getting cards with prices moving so much?

Fetches:
Decklist I saw did 4 Tarn, 4 Delta, 1 Mire.
I'm running 4 Mire, 4 Delta, 1 Strand - and added another Steam Vents instead of an Island.

[T-hawk]

Anyone else here play Commander?

I was last into MTG ten years ago, with no interest in the spending treadmills of limited or competitive constructed, but a Commander/EDH deck can last a good long time for casual scrubbing. I've got a local playgroup from the My Little Pony CCG that gave up on that and went back to Magic, so I just put together an EDH deck to join them. Best part is I built it mostly for free by trading leftover playsets from Ravnica block that inflated in value (Remands at $11 each.)

Turns out Aurelia, the Warleader can be really diesel as an aggro commander. With a source of double strike and some sort of damage doubler, she wipes a player in a single turn of commander damage. My intention was for an angel fatties deck, but Voltroning Aurelia is so good...

[BRickAstley]

That brings back memories thinking of Commander.... I never got into MTG all that much, but once in college I was in a group that started playing Commander, and I wanted to try it out, so I got a premade deck and was given some basics and played a little with those. It was fun but it didn't quite catch me either. The only thing I remember was that the figurehead of the deck I bought was Animar, Soul of Elements, and he was pretty fun to use. I can't even find a card list for the deck I bought with him in it. :P Oh, there was a Riku of Two Reflections in there too.

[yuris125]

I never understood the fun of Commander... whenever I tried it, it felt like something dominated by multiplayer politics. Knda like Civ games with full diplo But I'm very much into competiive Magic, and there are very few competitive players who also play EDH

[Cyneheard]

Commander is what got me hooked back into playing Magic, but I stick to Limited and Constructed now, and use Commander for down time sometimes.

It's fun. But it's less skill testing and it's very playgroup dependent. It's also a lot less fun to win every time, unlike 1v1 Magic. And a lot of players don't care to make good decks, so it's really hard to find the appropriate power level.

My favorite deck is my Marchesa deck - it's a toolbox where I'm always having to figure out what absurd things I can do with my hand/deck. Resiliency is an amazing thing in a multiplayer game. And there's been plenty of times where I go "oops, there's a two-card combo here."

Best: Mer-Ek Nightblade and Deathbringer Thoctar. Get 2 counters on Thoctar. Shoot a dude. It dies to Deathtouch. Get the counter back. Repeat until enemies are dead.

[Cheater Hater]

Yeah, Commander can be fun, but only when you're playing with other people mostly--even playing on Cockatrice or something you have to deal with everyone running their combo decks and such.

Speaking of combo decks, why is it suddenly safe to reprint Timetwister in Magic Origins? Yes, I know Day's Undoing isn't nearly as good, but comboing it with Quicken (or even Leyline of Anticipation) seems crazy--this card certainly is worth testing. Then again, maybe I should just focus on playing with Demonic Tutor--am I the only one who thinks Spell Mastery is extremely easy to hit? Heck, Dark Petition could make Storm a thing in Modern again--it's even a ritual if you have an active Pyromancer's Ascension!

As for other Magic Origins stuff, am I the only one who's a bit underwhelmed by the planeswalkers? I mean, it feels like you're just playing them for the creature side (2/1 for W, Borderland Ranger variant, Merfolk Looter), and the Planeswalker is a bonus (in most cases; Jace feels like it could be a detriment, especially in a control deck--I guess that's what Delve's for ). They also decided to make another Opalescence for some crazy reason (and in an environment with Enchantment Creatures already to boot--and we still have to deal with timestamps thanks to the gods ).