Magic: The Gathering

[Firewind]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

There are plenty of T1 decks out there than can 3 turn a Hellkite. Jund is kind of that ridiculous right now.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Yeah, the Keyrune comment threw me off, but if you're playing plenty of Green (and really, with shocklands, you can easily get away with Green + two other colors), Turn 1 Arbor Elf, Turn 2 Farseek Arbor Elf, Turn 3 Hellkite with enough mana left over to Cloudshift and kill any Storm Crows your opponent might have.

Isn't Craterhoof Behemoth the go-to for mana-dork ramp, though?

[Firewind]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Yeah, the Keyrune comment threw me off, but if you're playing plenty of Green (and really, with shocklands, you can easily get away with Green + two other colors), Turn 1 Arbor Elf, Turn 2 Farseek Arbor Elf, Turn 3 Hellkite with enough mana left over to Cloudshift and kill any Storm Crows your opponent might have.

Isn't Craterhoof Behemoth the go-to for mana-dork ramp, though?

Cards

Are a number of the many counters to mana-dork ramp that immediately spring to mind. Either board wipe the stuff used to produce mana or tap it, or bounce/counter/remove the thing he's ramping up to pull out.

Also Craterhoof Behemoth? Really?



Cute.

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Fire, that is huge, dude. Spoiler please.

I see Craterhoof being played primarily in Unburial Rites decks. Ramp decks lately tend to be WG with no R, so Thundermaw isn't seeing play in them, but there are some RWU control and tempo decks that have been using him.

I was thinking turn 1 Pilgrim, turn 2 Boros Keyrune, turn 3 Hellkite. Doesn't leave any mana open, but the Thundermaw's citp ability would take care of any flyers for a turn, and in the worst case scenario you just eat them on turn 4.

[Malacite]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Hmm, interesting program - I'll have to share this with mah buddies o.o


Also, really want Gatecrasher to get added ASAP lol. Pretty much the only guild I *don't* like in the new grouping is Simic. Though I love Boros the most, so much win.

[Firewind]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Fire, that is huge, dude. Spoiler please.

I see Craterhoof being played primarily in Unburial Rites decks. Ramp decks lately tend to be WG with no R, so Thundermaw isn't seeing play in them, but there are some RWU control and tempo decks that have been using him.

I was thinking turn 1 Pilgrim, turn 2 Boros Keyrune, turn 3 Hellkite. Doesn't leave any mana open, but the Thundermaw's citp ability would take care of any flyers for a turn, and in the worst case scenario you just eat them on turn 4.

Oh don't get me wrong, I LOVE Craterhoof in my Standard Elf Deck, but I'm not sure on why I would put Craterhoof in a Tourney Quality deck over Thragtusk if I'm honest. You can deal with Craterhoof without penalty. With Thragtusk nothing you can do to it to get rid of it benefits anyone but the person who controls it. Counter or destroy it? I still get the token and if I'm playing Jund or GB I can easily get it back for the life gain. Bounce it? I get 10 life. Leave it be? I've got a 5/3 on the board I can have out as early as turn 3 and I still get the token when it dies.

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

You don't get the token if Thragtusk is countered, thankfully. That card is strong enough as it is. Countermagic and Pacifism are about the only good answers to it in the format.

The way the reanimator decks seem to go is to play Faithless Looting, Mulch, or something of the like on the first couple turns to get as many fatties, Lingering Souls and Unburial Rites in the yard as possible, Lingering Souls on turn 3, and on turn 4 reanimate the Craterhoof to swing for 16 damage flying/trample. If the play comes later then everything's even bigger and probably lethal in one shot, so you basically need to be holding an instant speed answer with the mana open to use it on every turn after 3 or it's game over, and of course if you kill it they just bring it back again. It's pretty strong. And they run Thragtusk too, of course, because they have forests and Thragtusk is ridiculous. There's a lot of graveyard hate available that can put a serious crimp in those plans, but it's not being widely played.

[Malacite]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

God damn there's a lot of crazy shit in Standard right now...

I'm trying to put together a decent Rakdos aggression deck but damn...

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

YM, make your computer stop exploding

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Internet went out again, guys. Sorry. I'll mildly pester my IT guy about it in the morning.

[DemonDuck]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

It really depends on the individual card, but I think some of the dual lands are up to $100 and moxes and black lotus still run into the $1,000+ price range. Like I said, it'd be worth your time to just look through your collection and price everything out since there's a good chance you're sitting on a small fortune without even realizing it.

Ask Yyg about his $15 mountains.

Now that is interesting. I know I had at least one black lotus in my deck.

[Firewind]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Depending on the condition, Black Lotus can be very valuable.

God damn there's a lot of crazy shit in Standard right now...

I'm trying to put together a decent Rakdos aggression deck but damn...

As much as I hate using more then two colours in a deck (if you can't do what you want to do with just one or two colours then you are usually trying to do too many things and should seriously consider another one or two colours), you may want to consider splashing Blue or White (which is really Blue in disguise) if you want to make a hyper-competitive deck. Blue and White's utility is just that useful in Standard.

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

There are some mono-red variants that are pretty popular in response to all the controllish decks in the metagame. There are some highly decent one-drops in Rakdos Cackler, Stromkirk Noble, and Reckless Waif, powerful two-drops in Ash Zealot, Rakdos Shred-Freak, Gore-House Chainwalker, and Mogg Flunkies, Hellrider is a hell of a mid-game play, and Thunderous Wrath and Brimstone Volley are solid finishers. Options abound, really. There's enough variety in mono-red speed right now that I might even be able to build myself one without feeling like a copycat.

Btw, amusing answer to Thragtusk in mono-red: steal it, swing with it, and then burn it to death and get yourself a beast token.

[Firewind]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Stromkirk Noble is one of the best red one drops of the game purely because it's actually useful if you don't get one until endgame. One of the reasons why I took the Waifs out of my Standard Rogue decks is purely because the Waif isn't actually that useful (even if I do really like the card). If you get it early then it's good for wasting an opponent's removal spells but I could have played a Noble instead of it. Getting the Waif late isn't going to help me much since unless I'm running R/G I'm unlikely to ever flip her.

Compare it to the 3CMC Kruin Outlaw where you get both a great blocker and a HUGE threat that requires an immediate answer (especially in Multiplayer since someone getting manascrewed basically means you're getting a 3/3 Double Striking creature on turn 3), and it can serve as a target for removal to cover your really threatening creatures.

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

I think if you're worried about having a good blocker on turn 3, you're playing your speed deck wrong. A lot of popular decks don't have one-drops and aren't going to be able to play two spells on turn 2, so if she's your first drop you're likely to get two hits in with her as a 3/2, which is 1/3 of the way into burn spell range. Yeah, she dies to removal spells, but so does every other creature.