I'm brewing a deck that splashes red. red with 4 blood crypts, 4 rakdos guildgate and keyrune means you have only 4 nonswamps in the deck.
using lili is both a guarantee to hit your land drops AND color fixing. she also makes rakdos return and corrupt stronger.
lack of board wipes in BR is pretty disappointing. White may be the color of destroy all creatures, but black usually has a more expensive and specialized wipe of it's own, and red should have slagstorm or pyroclasm effects.
as is, with underworld connections and thoughtseize, i don't see B/r control managing to survive against aggro decks, as you'll be burning through a lot of life.
it's a real shame that vampire nighthawk is rotating, he'd be excellent in this deck.
But I think the real answer you are looking for is that, like the Roman spread of Christianity, Islam was spread by great Arab and Persian empires of the Mid-East from Sub-Saharan Africa through South Asia. While Christians were still barbarians in the dark ages, these Arab and Persian empires were expanding their reach and were establishing universities and centers for learning and spreading ideas.
You surely wouldn't call the Byzantine Empire 'barbarian'?
compared to arabic nations and middle eastern empires, yes. the byzantine empire was far behind in terms of medicine, astronomy, science, and math.
not entirely sure why all of that collapsed and the mid east turned into the hellhole that you still see today (large exceptions in swaths of more "civilized" areas, but if anyone is going to challenge this statement i'm going to laugh at you) as this particular area of history is not my strong suit. but yeah, once upon a time the mid east was the most developed area of the entire world.
So I've been brewing a pretty sick looking B/r control deck.
Concept is fairly simple. 4 rakdos return. Thoughtseize, a metric ass ton of spot removal, 4 blood crypts and rakdos guildgates and rakdos keyrunes. 4 Liliana of the Dark Realms.
Maybe a chandra, pyromaster or two, as her 0 is always useful, and she can kill mana dorks. her ultimate goes off and you can copy corrupt, basically guaranteeing a win.
Previously she's been underwhelming. But for this deck, she makes sure you hit your land drops, can remove gods, color fixes, and if she gets her ultimate off, X for rakdos return is a near guarantee of over 20.
The new black god, Erebos, seems like he'd be a great fit, even if not a card to build around. from what i can see, black is most likely to hit devotion 5 out of all the colors. Underworld connections and Dark prophecy just *bury* opponents in cards, outdrawing even the best blue decks.
also thoughtseize.
The new red boardwipe is passable, even if we're losing the best sweepers.
A massive problem I see is that you burn through massive amounts of life quickly. Aggro will be pretty strong in the upcoming meta, so this matchup would be pretty difficult.
I want to make sure i didn't miss anything... is there any sort of reliable or repeatable lifegain that black or red has access to right now? artifacts, creatures with lifelink, anything?
pharika's cure could potentially be good if a lot of x/2 creatures see play. it *does* kill an early scavenging ooze at least.
edit 2- oops i'm bad at this, whip of erebos gives everything lifelink, but that basically demands that you run lower cost creatures, which control doesn't usually want to do. still, better than nothing.
edit 3- (i need to stop making threads after taking sleeping pills.) corrupt. with liliana, corrupt can get huge fast.
edit 4- just noticed that i'd already mentioned corrupt above, before edit 3.
RG Aggro just got a shiny and very powerful new tool...
Just like I've been saying all along, from the looks of things RG aggro is going to be extremely dominant, at least with the current spoilers.
if those stats are accurate... why is he not a rare.....
in limited he'd usually only be a 2/3 or 1/3 flying trampler in blue and red, which, from other cards in theros so far, would be less viable than other color combinations which have more inherent strength.
As is, without mentioning White Day, to have said that is ignorant and perhaps even racist.
Valentine's Day is a stupid construct, and there is no good reason why Japanese men or Japanese women should observe a date, any day, as Westerners have.
You can't and shouldn't judge other cultures without an understanding and appreciation of the entirety of their culture, and not from your own culture. That's tantamount to imperialism, which is completely against the notion of an increasingly intertwined global community and pluralism.
Also, gift giving is a big stretch from rape.
The only thing that you can really take away from this news story is that cultures are different. Westerners are no more superior or less superior than others if you're wont to think that way.
you're preaching cultural relativism, which is a super slippery slope to defend.
continue down this road and you'll end up refuting yourself and setting all sorts of double standards that you won't be able to explain better than "BECAUSE I SAID SO!!!1!one" and "you're just ignorant and intolerant of other cultures, you're racist! you're racist! i'm not arguing with a racist, you racist!"
i'd love to give you the benefit of the doubt, but i can't because cultural relativism is actually that ridiculous a concept to argue in favor for.
For the Painter's Servant combo with millstone... How does millstone ever *stop* milling?
From where i'm reading it, the millstone with PS in play would mill forever, even if no cards are left in the library. This would result in a draw (infinite loop) rather than a win.
Can anyone show me the rules that specify why millstone stops after the library is empty?
Drowsiness is one of those things that has an unimaginable amount of potential causes.
even with ALL relevant information and a doctorate in somnology, youd still probably not be able to figure it out completely.
Best thing you can do is to try and figure out the cause, and in the meantime attempt to address symptoms even in absence of a cause.
UB has a 2drop 3 toughness creature and a 3drop 3 toughness creature along with spot-removal and Jace, Architect of Thought. RG (Burning Tree) will NOT be hard especially with only 4-8 nonbasics.
if you mean omenspeaker, he takes the place of augur essentially, and that's not anywhere close to a backbreaking play.
What happens if UB doesn't draw both the 2 drop AND the three drop AND spot removal? i'd say it probably loses. and also, all these three cards to deal with an AVERAGE RG hand? it doesn't seem realistic to me.
also, even on the play, a turn 4 jace will not prevent you from getting flatlined immediately on your opponents untap. a turn 4 jace on the draw is absolutely too slow, but even on the play it doesn't do enough to save you most of the time.
GR aggro with 4 burning earth main will *still* kill you on turn 4, without burning earth. I don't see anything other than RG aggro having any sort of chance with the current cards spoiled. i'm hopeful that there will be strong anti-aggro cards coming.
using lili is both a guarantee to hit your land drops AND color fixing. she also makes rakdos return and corrupt stronger.
lack of board wipes in BR is pretty disappointing. White may be the color of destroy all creatures, but black usually has a more expensive and specialized wipe of it's own, and red should have slagstorm or pyroclasm effects.
as is, with underworld connections and thoughtseize, i don't see B/r control managing to survive against aggro decks, as you'll be burning through a lot of life.
it's a real shame that vampire nighthawk is rotating, he'd be excellent in this deck.
compared to arabic nations and middle eastern empires, yes. the byzantine empire was far behind in terms of medicine, astronomy, science, and math.
not entirely sure why all of that collapsed and the mid east turned into the hellhole that you still see today (large exceptions in swaths of more "civilized" areas, but if anyone is going to challenge this statement i'm going to laugh at you) as this particular area of history is not my strong suit. but yeah, once upon a time the mid east was the most developed area of the entire world.
actually the deck only runs 4 non-swamps.
Concept is fairly simple. 4 rakdos return. Thoughtseize, a metric ass ton of spot removal, 4 blood crypts and rakdos guildgates and rakdos keyrunes. 4 Liliana of the Dark Realms.
Maybe a chandra, pyromaster or two, as her 0 is always useful, and she can kill mana dorks. her ultimate goes off and you can copy corrupt, basically guaranteeing a win.
Previously she's been underwhelming. But for this deck, she makes sure you hit your land drops, can remove gods, color fixes, and if she gets her ultimate off, X for rakdos return is a near guarantee of over 20.
The new black god, Erebos, seems like he'd be a great fit, even if not a card to build around. from what i can see, black is most likely to hit devotion 5 out of all the colors. Underworld connections and Dark prophecy just *bury* opponents in cards, outdrawing even the best blue decks.
also thoughtseize.
The new red boardwipe is passable, even if we're losing the best sweepers.
A massive problem I see is that you burn through massive amounts of life quickly. Aggro will be pretty strong in the upcoming meta, so this matchup would be pretty difficult.
I want to make sure i didn't miss anything... is there any sort of reliable or repeatable lifegain that black or red has access to right now? artifacts, creatures with lifelink, anything?
pharika's cure could potentially be good if a lot of x/2 creatures see play. it *does* kill an early scavenging ooze at least.
edit- BLARG heros downfall, herp derp. awesome card right there. 2 main, 1 side.
edit 2- oops i'm bad at this, whip of erebos gives everything lifelink, but that basically demands that you run lower cost creatures, which control doesn't usually want to do. still, better than nothing.
edit 3- (i need to stop making threads after taking sleeping pills.) corrupt. with liliana, corrupt can get huge fast.
edit 4- just noticed that i'd already mentioned corrupt above, before edit 3.
Just like I've been saying all along, from the looks of things RG aggro is going to be extremely dominant, at least with the current spoilers.
From a moral point of view, tipping is absolutely mandatory.
However, if your service really really sucked, waiving the tip is potentially justified.
if your service wasn't terrible, however, i would say that it *should be* considered mandatory, even though it isn't.
in limited he'd usually only be a 2/3 or 1/3 flying trampler in blue and red, which, from other cards in theros so far, would be less viable than other color combinations which have more inherent strength.
you're preaching cultural relativism, which is a super slippery slope to defend.
continue down this road and you'll end up refuting yourself and setting all sorts of double standards that you won't be able to explain better than "BECAUSE I SAID SO!!!1!one" and "you're just ignorant and intolerant of other cultures, you're racist! you're racist! i'm not arguing with a racist, you racist!"
i'd love to give you the benefit of the doubt, but i can't because cultural relativism is actually that ridiculous a concept to argue in favor for.
From where i'm reading it, the millstone with PS in play would mill forever, even if no cards are left in the library. This would result in a draw (infinite loop) rather than a win.
Can anyone show me the rules that specify why millstone stops after the library is empty?
even with ALL relevant information and a doctorate in somnology, youd still probably not be able to figure it out completely.
Best thing you can do is to try and figure out the cause, and in the meantime attempt to address symptoms even in absence of a cause.
if you mean omenspeaker, he takes the place of augur essentially, and that's not anywhere close to a backbreaking play.
What happens if UB doesn't draw both the 2 drop AND the three drop AND spot removal? i'd say it probably loses. and also, all these three cards to deal with an AVERAGE RG hand? it doesn't seem realistic to me.
also, even on the play, a turn 4 jace will not prevent you from getting flatlined immediately on your opponents untap. a turn 4 jace on the draw is absolutely too slow, but even on the play it doesn't do enough to save you most of the time.
or simply unfamiliar with greek philosophy.