MTG thread

Vilgan_sl said:

I'd be pretty surprised if fetches weren't in M15 or the 2014 fall set that will make RtR rotate out. I doubt they want to have fetches and shocks in standard at the same time, but the mana base cost is a pretty obvious problem and they've already addressed half of it with shocks in RtR.

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I believe WotC has said they won't reprint fetchlands until shocklands rotate out. So we're looking at the block after Theros.

Xalara_sl said:

I believe WotC has said they won't reprint fetchlands until shocklands rotate out. So we're looking at the block after Theros.

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They haven't explicitly said so, but it's common theory among players online that WotC isn't interested in having that level of mana fixing in Standard. Personally, I don't think it would be any easier to run 3 and 4 color decks than it is now with check lands and shocks, considering the amount of aggro in the environment. It would be suicide to be running full sets of each, as is commonly done now.

Xalara_sl said:

I believe WotC has said they won't reprint fetchlands until shocklands rotate out. So we're looking at the block after Theros.

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The block after theros would be the 2014 fall set I mentioned....

M15 also being a possibility because then the overlap would be minimal and they get a bunch into circulation but get to yank it out after just 15 months instead of 24.

A month into playing Magic Events, since I got quite a bit of advice form your guys I thought I'd let you know how I did...

Well I feel a bit depressed over FNM and a tournament yesterday, won one game in each and the FNM win was a double mana screw to my opponent. Considering I was winning one game with the store bought event deck and the same with the commons/uncommons added, I feel dissapointed that adding rares appears to have decreased my win rate.


I actually faced people with similar decks to mine, two with Boros Reckoner also splashing black for Aristocrats stuff and one which was mainly blue/control with red/white for burn/Boros Reckoner.

Mains problems are:
1) Two drops are shit. They make no impact on the game.
2) Too many spells. Most creatures seem to be Searing Spear immune in some way with "Don't kill me" effects or 4/4.
3) Mana Flood/Mana Screw happening too much and even Creature Screw when it's 1/2 my deck. I suspect that it's my shuffling as I'm copying mana curves from tournament winning aggro decks with 19-21 lands, but don't want luck to be an excuse for my bad performance.
4) I could play better, I am sometimes a turn off winning. Main thing is waiting for them to be tapped out before trying a game winning play - I did this in my last game and won.

Good bits are:
1) Boros Elite/Champion of the Parish performed well in every game I got them, usually being 3/3s.
2) Silverblade Paladin was awesome with Rally the Peasants and won me a game on Turn 4. People just didn't expect that Rally the Peasants to flashback - am I required to tell them that it does?
3) I was never really waiting around for the right colour of mana, I think one game in 10 matches I was waiting for Red. A few people pointed out my guildgates but I'd rather wait a turn than mulligan a two mountain hand... I wonder which one is more likely though...

Things to do:
With Modern Master drafts next week I have a few weeks to sort my deck out and I can tweak the numbers of each card.

I think the big areas for investigation is going to be adding in black for Aristocrats cards as there are quite a few nice two mana creatures there which will work well with Blasphemous Act/Doomed Traveller. I'll have to figure out exactly how aggro-y I am going to stay though.

Chris_sl said:

Mains problems are:
1) Two drops are shit. They make no impact on the game.
2) Too many spells. Most creatures seem to be Searing Spear immune in some way with "Don't kill me" effects or 4/4.
3) Mana Flood/Mana Screw happening too much and even Creature Screw when it's 1/2 my deck. I suspect that it's my shuffling as I'm copying mana curves from tournament winning aggro decks with 19-21 lands, but don't want luck to be an excuse for my bad performance.
4) I could play better, I am sometimes a turn off winning. Main thing is waiting for them to be tapped out before trying a game winning play - I did this in my last game and won.

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Part of it is that you're new to the game. You'll get better. A couple suggestions though, all of which assuming you want to stick to Boros:

1. Doomed Traveler is used in Aristocrats lists because of sac outlet shenanigans with Cartel/Falkenrath Aristocrat. Playing Boros, you have no need of him. It's a fundamentally defensive creature unless you have a way to exploit it having two bodies. Stromkirk Noble will perform MUCH better for you. He'll also give you a turn 1 red play.

2. Some people like Firefist Striker, but I don't. It only shines in aggro vs. aggro matches where you want to push past blockers, and it dies far too easily. That's okay for Lightning Mauler since at least it'll give another critter haste. Consider Ash Zealot instead. It has haste, first strike makes it much more survivable in the early game, and it passively fucks with graveyard shenanigans without costing a sideboard slot. It's a cheap rare, and very worthwhile in a list like this.

3. Another option if you drop the spell count and play more creatures is Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. She buys you another turn to kill your opponent vs. control and midrange, and tends to protect your other creatures by being the first thing they kill. At a minimum, she deserves 3 spots in your sideboard.

4. Rally the Peasants is cute, and I used it to good effect in a R/W/B tokens deck I played one weekend, but there are better uses for that slot here. If you really want a pump effect, consider Legion's Initiative. It'll give you a smaller bonus, but it's persistent, and gets a lot of your creatures up to the key 3 power needed to push through common blockers like Augur of Bolas. Loxodon Smiter will still be a problem, however, so we'll tackle that another way.

5. This is definitely aggro, but it isn't a blitz deck and you need a slightly better top end. Anything x/4 or better is going to be a brick wall to you. I know you like them, but consider dropping Silverblade Paladin. He's very powerful, but he also encourages some poor decisions than can leave your ass flapping in the wind (i.e. attacking with a bonded creature thinking it is safe, only to have the Paladin nuked out from under you, forcing a loss of the second creature to a suddenly lethal blocker). Frontline Medic is actually a lot better at getting damage through because it gives your creatures some persistence. I'd drop all 3, up the Frontline Medics to 4, and add:

6. Hellrider is a god for this deck. He's not reliant on battalion but fits perfectly in line with what you're doing (overextending on the board to push through lethal before they can stabilize the board). The damage he causes is very difficult to prevent, since it comes from multiple sources, and he'll very often get the final bit in before the attack even resolves.

7. You are playing too few lands, and guild gates are unnecessary in this deck. You do NOT want a land coming into play tapped on your first 4 turns in this deck, ever. It's very likely game over for you if you don't consistently drop a threat on your first 3 turns. Up this to 21, or even 22. Keep the sets of shocks and check lands, and then determine the rest of your curve by adding up all the colored symbols and dividing each by 2. You want roughly that many sources of each color at minimum. You're likely to run more heavily red than white assuming most of the suggestions here, so I suspect it will lean that direction.

8. Blasphemous Act is only there for free wins with Boros Reckoner on the board, but it isn't your main win condition. You can afford to cut these down, or even remove it entirely if you're not comboing off every third or fourth game. It does work splendidly with Frontline Medic, however. If you do remove any of these, consider Mizzium Mortars. It gives you an early answer to Loxodon Smiter and other 4 drops, and if the game runs long can function almost as well as Bonfire of the Damned as a one-sided wrath effect.

Overall, I'd try something like this:

Creatures (30)
4x Boros Elite
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Stromkirk Noble

4x Ash Zealot
4x Lightning Mauler

4x Frontline Medic
4x Boros Reckoner

2x Hellrider

Spells (9)
4x Searing Spear
3x Legion's Initiative
2x Boros Charm

Lands (21)
4x Clifftop Retreat
8x Mountain
5x Plains
4x Sacred Foundry

Sideboard (15)
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3x Nearheath Pilgrim
1x Blasphemous Act
3x Mizzium Mortars
2x Oblivion Ring
3x Skullcrack

I haven't goldfished it, but that should be able to clock 20 damage by turn 4 a little more reliably, and maybe give you enough stubborn cards on the board to live through a midrange sweeper. Give it a shot.

I've never found a lot of success with it. Those same decks will just wipe the board on you and cost you card advantage. Except Reanimator, which is going to have a field full of mana dorks anyway. I really only found it useful against other aggro decks where pushing a blocker through since they had few other ways to interact with the board other than creatures.

I found that Firefist Striker was either pissing in the wind taking out one of their many blockers, or they just realised that their card wouldn't be able to block so they attacked instead - and I couldn't block myself with fragile offensive creatures.

I just bought me some faerie deck magic to play some legacy with my friends. I am excited =)

hrmm, starting to get back into magic and looking for cards that look interesting. Voice of Resurgence seems like a great card out of dragon's maze. Unfortunately, everyone else seems to think so as well 40-50$ per copy, bleh. Thinking about just liquidating rotating stuff now instead and idling till rotation. Next big local $$ tournament isn't until Theros anyway.

Anyone here getting some MM? I've got a box preordered for $200 in case I can't get any local but I suspect the print run will be bigger then predicted and box prices will crash.

I've got a box set aside for drafting. I paid a pittance for it, so I don't mind if prices drop a bit if it means I can get a door into modern.

They have affinity as a theme yet only reprinted two of the key cards -> Glimmervoid and Arcbound Ravager!

Y U NO LIKE Arcbound Worker, Frogmite and Myr? There is no way you are going to get the artifact lands and Disciple but there is still plenty of affinity cards in there for you. Now granted it could have used a non-mythic equipment like Cranial Plating but maybe that was too fast for limited.

Vilgan_sl said:

Voice of Resurgence seems like a great card out of dragon's maze. Unfortunately, everyone else seems to think so as well :

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Two weeks ago some guy let me sacrifice Voice as a meat shield and populate the elemental 5 times over the next 2 turns. It surprised me big time that he just let me do that especially when I already had two 5/5 worms with trample out.

Wuyley_sl said:

Y U NO LIKE Arcbound Worker, Frogmite and Myr? There is no way you are going to get the artifact lands and Disciple but there is still plenty of affinity cards in there for you. Now granted it could have used a non-mythic equipment like Cranial Plating but maybe that was too fast for limited.

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Artifact Lands are modern banned other than Darksteel Citadel so I didn't expect those and I knew that the New Phyrexia cards are too recent.

I did expect more though Arcbound Worker is playable. What annoying is that they printed the wrong mana accelerator, Paradise Mantle instead of Springleaf Drum! That, Master of Etherium and Cranial Plating needed to be there really.

Chris_sl said:

They have affinity as a theme yet only reprinted two of the key cards -> Glimmervoid and Arcbound Ravager!

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And Blinkmoth Nexus. The only big money affinity card that's not in MM is Mox Opal, which isn't eligible. It's a good enough theme in MM that I'm planning to use affinity as my entry point to Modern.

businesscats_sl said:

Two weeks ago some guy let me sacrifice Voice as a meat shield and populate the elemental 5 times over the next 2 turns. It surprised me big time that he just let me do that especially when I already had two 5/5 worms with trample out.

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Sac Voice to Cartel Aristocrat > Activate Skirsdag High Priest for a 5/5 demon > Untap > Cast Scion of Vitu Ghazi was a pretty common play for me last Friday. It was glorious.

Oh I forgot that one, I extensivly playtested all the Affinity cards back when I played Magic Online and I never understood the whole moth thing. Had to tap two lands to get something I likely already had (Signal Pest/Ornithopter), just keep back a critter to put your Cranial Plating on when playing decks with mass removal. I tried it and it was too clunky for my tastes.

Did you ever play Mishra's Factory back in the day? Same general principle. Critter lands are amazing.

It's also a mild accelerant. You can use it to trigger Metalcraft on turn 1 with the right hand, or to reduce an affinity spell by 1, making activation of the land basically free. Inkmoth Nexus can lead to some very fast wins with infect + cranial plating + ravager counters. The land will keep the +1/+1 counters even if it reverts back to just a land, so it'll be a large threat after a sweeper and is protected from sorcery speed removal.

I wouldn't play affinity without full sets of both.