MTG Salvation

Griselbrand, Iona, Jin-Gitaxias for utility.

OG Emrakul for pure raw power. Less so the other Eldrazi, but they're still up there.

Quote from Mergatroid_Jones »

Lorwyn never felt like a fairytale plane to me. If that was part of the world's design, it didn't come through all that well.

Lorwyn was a folklore plane in the sense that it drew from British/Celtic folklore and mythology, which is ... kind of fairy taley? AFAIK most influential fairy tales today are Grimm or H. C. Andersen which is why Celtic folklore doesn't connect, but to some Brits there is a connection to Lorwyn as a fairy tale plane.

Eviscerator comes into mind. It's not *as* bad as some of the other cards here (since it's a 5/5 with prot white) but god what a waste of a rare slot.

How's your own home situation, ie table space and such? Maybe you can invite some friends home for Magic game night? What about your daughter, does she have friends that you can invite over?

I think the store is ridiculous but I'm not sure what you can do there.

Quote from DirkGently »

Demons don't have much synergy with each other (there aren't a lot of goblin warchief-type cards for demons), so there isn't much reason to build a deck around them. If you want to play kaalia, your deck will be a lot better if you're playing the best angels and dragons with your demons, rather than go deep on demons. They're also mostly pretty mana-heavy, so a low curve is going to be hard/impossible with demons. Things to consider.

This is true, but I understand the draw to actually make a demon deck. There's plenty of reason to build a deck around them - they're cool. Some people are less mechanically inclined than others, you know.

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I'd suggest you make a monoblack goodstuff control deck supported by cheap rattlesnakes. You note that your opponents are fast - try to direct them towards each other with stuff like Ophiomancer and No Mercy as rattlesnakes in front of yourself while building power. Use mass removal, too. Stuff like Damnation is very expensive but there are a few cheaper options that should be usable. Put the good demons into your deck but don't play them until your opponents have become strong enough for it to be necessary. Oh and add siphoning lifegain such as Grey Merchant of Asphodel and Exsanguinate to stabilize if you lose life to opponents and/or demon abilities.

Quote from Drain Life »

As somebody who loves control and combo more than aggro or mid-range, I guess that I will share my experiences and thoughts.

To begin with, there are several different types of control, and this wheel might help you pinpoint what kind you wish to play. Knowing what style you want, as opposed to the blanket term of "control" will also help you get better answers.

Where is this picture originally from? I can see it's from SCG, but I couldn't figure out how to reverse search the article. I can tell instantly from the picture that I'll love the article.

Quote from BlazingRagnarok »

Quote from Sephon19 »

But I just run out of money...

I hope Populate somehow integrates black. Black tokens are neat and this is an opportunity to go outside Selesnya colors. Red or blue could be cool too, but regular Selesnya tokens should be playable with the deck and four colors is too much.

If populate expands into any new colors, I expect blue to be first on the list. It is a copy mechanic, after all. While black can do some really interesting things with tokens, there are more flavorful and mechanically appropriate avenues than populate.

I would be fine with blue. Infact my favorite decks are those that do off the cuff funtime stuff, like Wort, the Raidmother RG spellslinging (token > ramp > Primal Bellow combat damage for 52); blue tokens would be amazing.

But I just run out of money...

I hope Populate somehow integrates black. Black tokens are neat and this is an opportunity to go outside Selesnya colors. Red or blue could be cool too, but regular Selesnya tokens should be playable with the deck and four colors is too much.

Dawn Dryad G
Creature - Dryad U
Artifacts you cast cost 1 less to cast for each red land creature you control.
Creatures you cast cost 1 less to cast for each green land creature you control.
Enchantments you cast cost 1 less to cast for each white land creature you control.
1/2

Next: Create a new keyword ability, keyword action or ability word and make a common with it.

Gudul Summonings GGUU
Instant
Search your library for a creature card and put it onto the battlefield face down with two +1/+1 counters on it. Then shuffle your library.

Just fwiw I read your post and lit all up. You sound like a good dad. Hope this all works out.

Other people have answered, but I'll just skip it and explain it in my own words.

If you want every color to do everything, the colors become meaningless.

Magic's colors are integral to its design and you can't equalize the colors without necessiating some basic restructuring in the game design where you might as well just play a different game altogether. Those lands that you put into your deck? Each color having a weakness pushing you towards playing more colors to cover all of your weaknesses - but playing more colors puts you into a position where you get easily color screwed. This push and pull is integral to deckbuilding and is the major reason the game works so well. The fact that you have to carefully select and balance your mana base is a fundamental element of Magic play. Sure, you'll get annoyed when you face stuff that your color has problems with but if a color has access to every tool the game becomes stale and stupid. For example, think of what white would play like if it had real card draw. A single color answering everything and being able to replenish itself. Yawn.

Remember that when you play a game, you actually don't want to automatically solve everything and/or win. You want to be presented with a puzzle that demands stuff of you, but which is simultaneously exciting to solve. The fewer obstacles you face, the less of a game it is. There's a reason why turning on a lamp isn't normally considered playing a game. So whenever you face Leyline of Sanctity as red burn, that's annoying, but then you should have added another color to answer it - but wouldn't that make you weaker to decks that don't play Leyline?

Yes. That's the point. This tension is why deckbuilding is something you actively try and do and solve.

Now, cards that massively screw over colors are kinda dumb. Stuff like Choke and Chill and Kor Firewalker and Light of Day are stupid. Leyline is less so because even if red has problems with enchantments, it can still land creatures and fight the opponent that way. But there's a reason WotC has pulled back on harsh color hosers recently - because they have - so: the tension built in designing your mana base is more often than not enough to keep you back from going more colors.

Your particular single issues - red's answer to enchantments, white's bad card draw - are particular mechanical designs that WotC is evaluating constantly. For example, recently, they're thinking about doing black enchantment removal due to the push for more colored artifacts. (Mind you: I'm not sure how the two, colored artifacts and black enchantment removal, connect but they've talked about that a few times, and regardless of the logic it is a major restructuring of black as a color.) Certain effects are slowly getting changed all the time, in particular monocolored problems in Commander have caused them to look into how to do some effects different.

That said, if you dislike color restrictions... Go play Yu Gi Oh. Or something else. There are plenty of games that don't use a Magicesque mana system. But you can't do Magic without restricting colors, otherwise colors would be meaningless.

EDIT: I now read a few more posts - so you're noting that you're ok with color restrictions but would like more in-color solutions to certain problems. Like how you think it's OK that blue can't remove stuff but can polymorph if everything else goes wrong. Now, I agree - but it still does mean that certain things will never be efficient enough. If polymorphing became too good, you wouldn't have to add colors to a blue deck. For red enchantments, stuff like Chaos Warp is a nogo (it's an active break) but some very inefficient temporary permanent stealing exist. I think this is a good solution, but I don't believe you'd be happy, because the cards are simply too bad for stuff like Modern most of the time, a format you have appealed to in this thread as a reason to push these things. Remember, you don't want red solutions to enchantments to be too good, otherwise you aren't pushed to add another color to your deck.

Quote from shenabagananins »

Quote from Sephon19 »

People need to stop claiming that Iona is fine because other players can solve the solitary monocolored player's problem. They might do so if they're nice, but they have no incentive to unless the board state calls for it in particular (which is rare).

In my play group, unless the person getting locked out is approaching critical mass, we tend to let each other out of jail to team up on the warden.

I understand that this is not a universal experience, but it's also not an uncommon one.

The thing is, from a purely mechanical perspective, there is no real incentive for that kind of behavior. Sure, EDH is a casual, social format, but the banlist should deal with the most egrerious elements that would incentivize poor experiences. Infact, what you're basically doing in your playgroup is to enforce a social ban on the card, since you actively punish the player that ruins the game for another. It's just another argument for the ban. (Not saying that you necessarily disagree with the ban ofc.)

Illuminant Procession XGWU
Sorcery R
Constitute, convoke, improvise
Search your library for an artifact, creature or enchantment and put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.

(This is for a Modern Horizons-style set, it's not for Standard complexity)
(Constitute is like convoke but for enchantments)

Next: Wizards have decided to do monoblack enchantment removal. Show me what that looks like.

I don't see myself playing this. There is a possibility in that it can hit different players, tho.