Magic: The Gathering

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

I saw this card and suddenly missed you guys.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Prime Hivemind deck material right there.

[Malacite]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Yeah so Dragon's Maze was kinda meh...

Honestly, Return to Ravnica was overall underwhelming sadly. I liked the original iteration better. For one thing, I can't understand for the life of me why they pussed out so badly on Boros... ugh.


The next set is sounding pretty awesome though, very heavily based on greek mythology I think. I'm really hoping for a Kamigawa 2.0 (lots of Legendaries)

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Did the prerelease yesterday about Noontime.

Signed up with the Boros (yay) and got the Izzet as my secret ally (yay).

The Boros pack had Assemble the Legion (uh . . .).

The Izzet pack had Firemind's Foresight (ugh).

Two of the Dragon's Maze boosters had Golgari Rares (Gaze of Granite and Varloz, the Scar-Striped, specifically).

Just for completion's sake, the last two Rares sucked significantly less: Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker and Lavinia of the Tenth, but with my pool it was debatable whether it was worth dipping into Black, and since I'm biased against it anyway only the latter saw use. (Thankfully, Lavinia is good. She is really, really good. For real.)

Got a ton of mana-fixing for Green, but next to no playable Green cards.

Went 2-2 in four rounds worth of play (the store was using a highly simplified prize structure that made the event last only four rounds). First was lost to color screw, since deckbuilding ended before I figured out the proportions of mana I needed. Fourth was lost to some hipster Simic dude who was packing more removal than you'd reasonably expect Simic to have. But the two rounds I won were beautiful, particularly during Game 3 for each of them, which involved explosive openings with Madcap Skills.

In the end, I walked out of the store with naught but the pack I got at the start, 25% of the Kozilek EDH deck I'm building bought directly from the shop, some goodies for my Standard Boros deck (missing only Legion's Initiative and Pyrewild Shaman from the new set), and a slight envy for the person across the table from me at the start of the event who, among other things, notably opened both Isperia, Supreme Judge and Ral Zarek.

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

I just got back from my pre-release. My experience was characterized by absurd luck of both kinds. I drew Izzet/Boros as well, exactly as I'd hoped. I got precisely zero Viashino Firstblades, but found a bomb in Boros Battleshaper. Then I opened by Gatecrash pack and found FUCKING AURELIA. So I built what I felt was a very solid RWU deck, threw in those two bombs and ...

Proceed to get my ass kicked. I went 1-2, 1-2, 2-1. Most games I was either mana starved or mana flooded. Of the four wins, in two my opponents got remarkably bad draws, and I was able to play both Aurelia and Battleshaper, so the only times they really saw play were in games where victory was already a foregone conclusion. Two games were really good, though, ending in clutch reversals the turn before I would have lost, with Traitorous Instinct shifting the board exactly enough to get through lethal damage. Both against very good decks, too. My last opponent built a really strong control deck featuring Master of Cruelties and Undercity Plague. I've never seen such a thing in a limited format. Anyway, my record was pretty bad but through yet another reversal of fortune ...

I manage to top 8. My second opponent wasn't going to stick around for the rest of the tourney, so he reported I won our match 2-1 to give me a shot at the prize pool. Nobody managed a 3-0 record so my 2-1s were good enough to edge me in. Plus, the store manager had extra prize product around, so he pulled some shenanigans and offered to throw two extra packs into the prize pool for every pack we purchased. The other guys there were fucking card fiends, so after the split I walked away with nine freakin boosters. Score.

I'll post my decklist after dinner if anyone cares. Sadly my son went 0fer six. He made some pretty questionable card choices, but he had a pretty poor pool anyway, with virtually no bombs in his colors and a very anemic choice of creatures for Simic/Izzet. I think he had a good time anyway, though.

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

By the way, just to make sure I haven't gone crazy/retarded, when Viashino Firstblade comes into play, that triggered ability giving +2/+2 goes on the stack, allowing me to Burn it for two before it resolves, right? Every single person I asked said that it would basically come into play as a 4/4 and there was no window in which it was 2/2, including the store owner who claimed he was a DCI judge. I would have lost the game in which that play took place, anyway, but since I'm 100% positive I'm right, it pissed me off greatly.

[Malacite]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Right, it's a triggered ability so it goes on the stack. This is different from a replacement effect such as, say Glorious Anthem wherein the +1/+1 would immediately be in effect the moment the creature entered play.

Anyone still use cockatrice? I been wanting to play but no one's been on lol. Also, BUG is probably the best draft pick option if possible.


As for that Minotaur, I still can't figure out exactly how in the sweet hell it works. Does he restrict all combat down to just 2 guys, or is it every combat you can force 1 critter to attack/block? He just strikes me as a crappier Odric honestly.

Tajic on the other hand, he's a f'ing bombshell especially in limited.

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Every combat you can declare that one of your opponent's creatures can't attack/block and another one must attack/block. So you can perpetually keep his best guy out of combat while forcing him to throw away his smaller guys.

[Malacite]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Oh ok. Good ability, but the creature is ridiculously overcosted, like much of Boros' best cards.

Seriously, I hate the design choices for them this time around. Rakdos and Selesnya are aggressive as all hell but the dedicated aggro guild gets shafted? Da fuq is that about MaRo?

I'll take Lightning Helix over Warleader's Helix any day.

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

As far as constructed is concerned, absolutely, but Warleader's Helix was tearing up in sealed.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

I really should take that judge test some time (responsibilities be darned, I hate my being-rightness being questioned by someone with false authority*), but seeing as I'm not a judge, take this with a grain of salt . . .

. . . that said, you should be able to Shock Viashino Firstblade before it pumps itself.

You cast Viashino Firstblade. It resolves. The moment it resolves, an extra body is on the board, so the opponent can't respond afterward with a theoretical Instant that, for example, cared about the number of creatures on board before the Firstblade hit. However, Viashino Firstblade's second ability is a triggered ability and therefore uses the stack. It is put onto the stack the moment the Viashino body hits the battlefield upon resolution. Since a stack was created, unless you wanted to respond to your own triggered ability (unlikely), priority is passed to the opponent to see whether they want to respond. If they respond to a Shock to the Viashino, and the Shock resolves, state-based actions are then checked, and sees that Viashino Firstblade has lethal damage marked on it, thereby killing it and countering its second ability.

Contrast, for example, Planeswalkers, which is a funny anecdote that the probably mistaken players probably had in mind when they made their claims. When a Planeswalker spell resolves, unless any permanent then in play at that time has any triggered abilities that care about permanents/Planeswalkers entering the battlefield, priority is not passed, so therefore, assuming it's currently their main phase, the player who played the Planeswalker may then immediately (if they so choose) activate one of the abilities on said Planeswalker by paying one of the activation costs of adding/removing a certain number of loyalty counters to said Planeswalker. This is why it's a bad idea to, for example, declare your intent to cast Lightning Bolt on a freshly-cast Liliana of the Veil.

Honestly, I don't even know why the Firstblade is even controversial. It's not like it was state-based rocket science like Dryad Militant was for control players. (For future reference: unless the spell rids the field of Dryad Militant explicitly in its rules text, it's probably being exiled upon resolution. Any Instant/Sorcery that kills by way of damage, for example, will be exiled before state-based actions are checked. If Murder rids the field of her, though? Safe in your ironic Graveyard.)

*-One time when hanging out with furries playing Magic, there was a dispute regarding how powerful the boost of Etheral Armor was when its controller's Creature was taken control of by an opponent. I would've hoped that the fact that the control of the Enchantments wouldn't have even been touched would have been obvious, but one of my friends just happened to be a DCI registered judge; "I am the DCI," in his words. And he erroneously ruled in favor of the Enchantment player, that just because his opponent took control of his Creature, he therefore took control of all Auras attached to it as well, thus leaving a dude with a much less threatening Ethereal punch, and thus ultimately wrongly deciding the game in the Enchantment player's favor. Yes, this was a casual, literally kitchen table game, but that level of obvious misinformation, from somebody waving around that level of authority like one of those signs that people dance with on the street corner as a day job, obviously bugged me enough for me to remember it 2-3 months after the fact.

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Yeah, you're giving them too much credit. I was the only one in the conversation who used words like "triggered ability" or "stack." The "judge" was seeing if there was a card-specific ruling on the oracle.

That's interesting about the militant. The distinction wouldn't have occurred to me.

[Malacite]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

I was just using that as one example though.

It's very telling when the bulk of RW's viability lies in Innistrad block. Hell, even compared to the original Ravnica block, some of the guilds were a lot stronger - Boros, Izzet, Orzhov & Gruul in particular. This time around it's been Golgari, Selesnya, Rakdos & Azorius tearing it up (Simic isn't so hot all by itself but mixed with Black or White it's ridiculous - more so black).

Would it really have been so bad to have Boros Elite for example, give +2/+2 to all attackers? Or put Firemane Avgenger's ability on a weak 2-drop? Battalion is a very all-in mechanic, but it's not reflected at all in majority of boros cards. Boros should have had a lot more aggressively costed creatures that are OK on their own (e.g. Boros & Skynight Legionaires) but really shine when attacking as part of a group. All it takes is one good removal spell to shut down their entire mechanic. Worse, the majority of their "bombs" are grossly over-costed and/or "win more" cards;

Aurelia should have been set at 5 CMC, especially given how weak her body is. Either that or at least bump her to 5 toughness to get her out of range of most burn spells...

Assemble the Legion is another stupid card that would have been overcosted even at 4.

I'll take Agrus Kos back, tyvm - there was a damned good 5-drop finisher. Tajic's not bad, but I would have loved him so much more if he gave everybody double strike (though admittedly, that might be overkill on an indestructible critter)

EDIT: Another good example for a battalion card would have been -1/-1 to all blockers or dealing 1 damage to target creature for each creature you're attacking with.

EDIT 2: Really wish Hasbro would stop being such douche bags and release a proper MTG game, like Konami did for Yugioh. Duels sucks ass, since you can't actually build decks only add or subtract cards you unlock - you can't even set how many lands you want. MTGO can kiss my ass too.

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

One time when hanging out with furries playing Magic, there was a dispute regarding how powerful the boost of Etheral Armor was when its controller's Creature was taken control of by an opponent. I would've hoped that the fact that the control of the Enchantments wouldn't have even been touched would have been obvious, but one of my friends just happened to be a DCI registered judge; "I am the DCI," in his words. And he erroneously ruled in favor of the Enchantment player, that just because his opponent took control of his Creature, he therefore took control of all Auras attached to it as well, thus leaving a dude with a much less threatening Ethereal punch, and thus ultimately wrongly deciding the game in the Enchantment player's favor. Yes, this was a casual, literally kitchen table game, but that level of obvious misinformation, from somebody waving around that level of authority like one of those signs that people dance with on the street corner with as a day job, obviously bugged me enough for me to remember it 2-3 months after the fact.

/headdesk

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Really wish Hasbro would stop being such douche bags and release a proper MTG game, like Konami did for Yugioh. Duels sucks ass, since you can't actually build decks only add or subtract cards you unlock - you can't even set how many lands you want. MTGO can kiss my ass too.

Any "real" MTG game would almost certainly put MTGO out of business, and seeing as MTGO is built on the pay structure that shovels the most money in Hasbro's direction, I couldn't see them allowing that to happen. Imagine if there was an official version of Cockatrice with Duels's production values. Nobody would ever buy cards again.