Wasn't sure what to call this. I'm aware of how the game rules work here, but unsure how to handle it in terms of face to face interaction. The situation:
Semicasual commander night at lgs. We are playing for a pack for the winner of the pod, but the REL is probably whatever the lowest possible is.
Opponent has Kahmal, Fist of Krosa, and is attacking me with several creatures. I am holding sudden spoiling. My ideal play is to wait for attackers to be declared, but play SS before he activates kahmal. So I'd like to ask, "it's the declare attackers step. Do you pass priority?" But I feel like if I say that, he'll suspect something and activate kahmal. If I say "move to blocks?" I feel like that indicates I'm passing, even though he has to pass first, so if he says yes and I then play SS, I'm reneging on agreeing to go to declare blockers. If say something like "let's take this one step at a time formally, with explicit priority passing", again, I'm alerting him that I have something and he may preemptively activate.
I'm not real familiar with all the tournament rulings of shortcutting and such. What's the best way to make a play that requires a bit of surprise, but where the onus is on the other player to declare thing that usually get shortcutted?
Did anyone ever play this card in constructed from prior sets? I remember someone playing it against me once at M19 pre-release but that's about it.
Absolutely! But then, I've been a sucker for that effect ever since Temporal Spring. Whenever there's a critical mass of them in standard, I try to remake my "Simic Strangler" deck. Right now I'm having lots of fun making people miserable on Arena with Totally Lost, Run Aground, Expel From Orazca, and (not-quite-the-same, but useful supplements in the same vein) Blink of an Eye and River's Rebuke. Primal Amulet really makes it cook, and Pteramander and Incubation Druid are perfect win conditions. It may not even win an FNM, but it's a lot a fun, especially when you're in no danger of being punched in the face by your opponent.
In the top bar of the game next to your coins and gems you should see a lotus-looking icon (similar to the card face for wildcards) - hover over that and it'll tell you how many of each you have, and the color will show what's the highest rarity of wildcard you have available.
thank you! I thought that was "the vault" that I keep hearing about. Very much appreciated!
For the most part, the new deck building interface is an improvement. But maybe I'm missing something obvious: How do I see how many wildcards I have now? It used to be that you'd see them right up front with the rest of your cards. But now I have to guess how many I have left? Is it hidden somewhere? It's driving me nuts...
She'll be in every EDH deck that can run her. Graveyard hate? You can always use some. Killing other people's fast mana (Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Moxen of all kinds), silly powerful undercosted enchantments and artifacts, stax pieces... And if you hit someone with Tormod's Crypt or Bojuka Bog or whatever then the ult can flat out kill them. And there's pretty much always reasons enough to run some form of mass graveyard hate in EDH anyway.
LOL. not in any of mine. She can kill fast mana... slowly, which misses the point of killing fast mana. For repeatable graveyard hate, I'd rather use relic of progenitus, since it can't be attacked by creatures and burn spells.
If you've already got an exile based gameplan, maybe she can help and be a finisher. But she's far from an auto-include.
OK, I have little faith that there's something we're missing that makes her good in the right Standard deck. The PW's are the stars of the show these days, and they wouldn't deliberately make such an awful one.
But with that said, this could theoretically happen in Modern:
Turn 1: Noble Heirarch
Turn 2: Kaya, +1 her
Turn 3: durdle with a kill spell or counterspell, +1 Kaya
Turn 4: Traumatize, Tormod's Crypt, -5 Kaya FTW.
on the one hand, it really needed a reprint. On the other, it's ****ing miserable to play against, and I'm not thrilled that there will be more of them out there to face down.
If you're going to include only one land destruction land (and I strongly feel every deck needs at least one) I'd go with dust bowl over any of the strip mine variants.
I got all excited about this one and then realized the pinchers are NOT actually artifacts. Bombo.
Daretti's definitely an all-star here. I just put him in my version of Akiri/Silas (less tokens, more equipment), and he's SO good. And the Blood-forged battle-axe is of course nutso. (How many axes can Akiri carry? I guess she juggles them. into your face.)
points taken on the temple and the bounce land. It's an aggro deck, so I've avoided ETBT lands completely except for the Chancery, and it and the Temple can't help me on turns 1 and 2, which is what I really need my lands to do. So out they go.
I like Rugged Prairie as an include... I'm actually tempted to put in Mystic Gate too (to help with the UU and UUU) but it wouldn't let me play Akiri if I had just the Gate and 1 other land, so I guess not.
On Mirrodin's Core and Kor Haven, I respectfully disagree. I only need the colored mana when I need it. Most of the time Mirrodin's Core is fine. And if it's in my first 2 lands, I can drop it turn 1 and charge it, then use it turn 2 with my other land to drop Akiri. So I miss a 1-drop, boo-hoo. Slightly later in the game, I can leave it as my last land I use, and if I don't use it, charge it. Then it's there if I need it. As for Kor Haven, I agree it doesn't fit the game plan, but I like to have a bit of a plan B. Answers are always good to have, and Kor Haven is a really good one. For the small risk it adds, I'm willing to take it.
I agree on the fetches. The problem is I'm running out of room. I'm not sure what to take out for them. I'm at 9 basics. 4 of them (1 of each) I need to keep. The rest are there as Twig/Amulet targets if I need them for a WW or UUU spell. Maybe with that in mind, I cut down to 3 islands and 2 plains, as that's the maximum I'd ever need. The mountain has to stay, as a Badlands isn't strictly better if I need R and my the only mana fixing I've drawn only gets basics.
Speaking of the Twig and Amulet, I disagree again that they don't do much. In this deck, they are dual-purpose. Like a pump aura with basic landcycling. Usually they sit around adding to the artifact count for Akiri and hopefully Cranial Plating, and get me to Metalcraft quickly for the Mox and Paladin. I only pop them if I really need a land, or if Silas is about to connect and there's nothing better in the GY to recur. If I'm lucky, they trigger Veldalken Archmage, or can be picked up for another +1/+0 if bludgeon brawl is out, or serve as fodder for Goblin Welder to get something better back or for Daretti to kill something or for Ghirapur AEther Grid. The baubles aren't all-stars, sure. But they serve the deck. (better than a land would)
More signets and a coldsteel heart would be swell, and would do all the same good work that the baubles do, but with Vedalken Archmage or Magus of the Future on board, cheaper is better, even if it's 2 vs. 1. More cards played means more cards "drawn", means more beats with Akiri. (Notice that only 8 cards in the deck cost more that 3. This is why.). So I'd rather keep the Twig and Amulet.
Tendo (or Aether Hub) is tempting, but I often need to cast Akiri more than once. I don't want to have to cast her a second time for 2RW, and be sitting on a plains, a sol ring, and a spent Tendo. Gemstone Mine is a bit better in that respect, except I really wish it had T: add C. I don't want to avoid using it at all to conserve counters for when I need them. And Mox Diamond is out... my land count is already low, and I'm not looking for acceleration that puts me down a card. (but thanks for the idea for my Gitrog Monster deck!)
It's mainly an Equipment-focused Akiri voltron deck, with Silas there mostly for access to blue artifact-matters cards and cranial plating.(And to a much-lesser extent, as an always-accessible artifact to play and pump Akiri by 1). I'm open to other feedback, but mainly looking for help with the mana base.
It's tricky because I want to be able to ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS play Akiri on turn 2, and likely again and again, as she gets killed often (if the opponents are smart). But other than her, there isn't much red in the deck (only 5 cards), and there's a good amount of blue (7 cards, some of which have UUU or UU in their costs.) There are only 4 black cards too (not counting cranial plating, where black is nice, but optional), but they are all removal, so I want the black to be there when I need it, and I do want the option to cast Silas if possible. (White has the lion's share with 18 cards, including 3 with WW) Thankfully the bulk of the deck is artifacts, so that loosens the rest of the mana requirements a bit.
For non-land mana-fixing, I've got a Chromatic Lantern, 4 cogs that search for land (Twig, Amulet, Bauble, Map) (all of which can be recursed with Silas), 2 signets (Azorius and Boros), Tithe (which can get dual lands and shock lands that are plains), Mycosynth Lattice, a Fellwar Stone, and a Mox Opal. In a pinch I can also use one of the artifact tutors to get the lantern, lattice or opal. If I've already got RW and need U or B, Sunforger can get the Tithe or Enlightened Tutor.
So, what lands should I be playing? I need at least one of each of the 4 basics so I can search for them with the Twig/Amulet/Bauble. I've got 5 of the 6 possible dual lands. (I skipped Badlands because RB are my 2 least-needed colors). I'd love to run all five allowable Artifact lands to pump Akiri, but could only find room for 3. (though maybe I should switch the Darksteel Citadel out for Great Furnace.) The only colorless lands I have are that Citadel, Academy Ruins (seems like a must), Dust Bowl (this is almost an auto-include for me. And Mazes can ruin Akiri's day), Kor Haven (hard to pass up), Inventors' Fair, Rogue's Passage (what blockers?), and the ubiquitous Temple of the False God.
As for the rest... it's as many good "any color" producing lands I could find, some shock lands (more tithe targets), a few extra basic plains and islands, and a random Azorius Chancery.
As you may have guessed from the Dual lands, budget isn't much of an issue, I can get or borrow most cards if needed.
I made a really annoying deck once where every card was a "fact or fiction" type of card. "Target opponent chooses ___" or "unless any opponent ___'s..." etc. Didn't really have any way to win. Just made the opponent's make all kinds of choices for me, hoping they'd eventually make the wrong one.
So what are the odds of Amonkhet actually surviving this? It seems like a waste to have an Egypt plane and then just turn into a horror version of Tatooine or Bolas slurpie.
Seems to be the usual pattern: Create a cool setting, wreck it in the final act of the block. Then when you return, find a way to undo the wrecking and say "Turns out wasn't really completely wrecked...". See Zendikar (Eldrazi's everywhere!... ok, not _everywhere_, yet...), Ravnica (the Guildpact is broken! ... ok, there's a new one now), and Innistrad (Avacyn makes the horror not horrifying anymore! ... ok, but now she's crazy!). They'll have to do the same for the inevitable return to Tarkir (..ok, some fragments of the clans survived), or the less likely returns to Alara (..ok, the conflux wasn't permanent) or Lorwyn (... ok, the Aurora's somehow continue without Oona)
Same with a return to Amonkhet. If they wreck it, they'll find a way to undo it for the return.
Semicasual commander night at lgs. We are playing for a pack for the winner of the pod, but the REL is probably whatever the lowest possible is.
Opponent has Kahmal, Fist of Krosa, and is attacking me with several creatures. I am holding sudden spoiling. My ideal play is to wait for attackers to be declared, but play SS before he activates kahmal. So I'd like to ask, "it's the declare attackers step. Do you pass priority?" But I feel like if I say that, he'll suspect something and activate kahmal. If I say "move to blocks?" I feel like that indicates I'm passing, even though he has to pass first, so if he says yes and I then play SS, I'm reneging on agreeing to go to declare blockers. If say something like "let's take this one step at a time formally, with explicit priority passing", again, I'm alerting him that I have something and he may preemptively activate.
I'm not real familiar with all the tournament rulings of shortcutting and such. What's the best way to make a play that requires a bit of surprise, but where the onus is on the other player to declare thing that usually get shortcutted?
If you've already got an exile based gameplan, maybe she can help and be a finisher. But she's far from an auto-include.
But with that said, this could theoretically happen in Modern:
Turn 1: Noble Heirarch
Turn 2: Kaya, +1 her
Turn 3: durdle with a kill spell or counterspell, +1 Kaya
Turn 4: Traumatize, Tormod's Crypt, -5 Kaya FTW.
Daretti's definitely an all-star here. I just put him in my version of Akiri/Silas (less tokens, more equipment), and he's SO good. And the Blood-forged battle-axe is of course nutso. (How many axes can Akiri carry? I guess she juggles them. into your face.)
Hmm...
points taken on the temple and the bounce land. It's an aggro deck, so I've avoided ETBT lands completely except for the Chancery, and it and the Temple can't help me on turns 1 and 2, which is what I really need my lands to do. So out they go.
I like Rugged Prairie as an include... I'm actually tempted to put in Mystic Gate too (to help with the UU and UUU) but it wouldn't let me play Akiri if I had just the Gate and 1 other land, so I guess not.
On Mirrodin's Core and Kor Haven, I respectfully disagree. I only need the colored mana when I need it. Most of the time Mirrodin's Core is fine. And if it's in my first 2 lands, I can drop it turn 1 and charge it, then use it turn 2 with my other land to drop Akiri. So I miss a 1-drop, boo-hoo. Slightly later in the game, I can leave it as my last land I use, and if I don't use it, charge it. Then it's there if I need it. As for Kor Haven, I agree it doesn't fit the game plan, but I like to have a bit of a plan B. Answers are always good to have, and Kor Haven is a really good one. For the small risk it adds, I'm willing to take it.
I agree on the fetches. The problem is I'm running out of room. I'm not sure what to take out for them. I'm at 9 basics. 4 of them (1 of each) I need to keep. The rest are there as Twig/Amulet targets if I need them for a WW or UUU spell. Maybe with that in mind, I cut down to 3 islands and 2 plains, as that's the maximum I'd ever need. The mountain has to stay, as a Badlands isn't strictly better if I need R and my the only mana fixing I've drawn only gets basics.
Speaking of the Twig and Amulet, I disagree again that they don't do much. In this deck, they are dual-purpose. Like a pump aura with basic landcycling. Usually they sit around adding to the artifact count for Akiri and hopefully Cranial Plating, and get me to Metalcraft quickly for the Mox and Paladin. I only pop them if I really need a land, or if Silas is about to connect and there's nothing better in the GY to recur. If I'm lucky, they trigger Veldalken Archmage, or can be picked up for another +1/+0 if bludgeon brawl is out, or serve as fodder for Goblin Welder to get something better back or for Daretti to kill something or for Ghirapur AEther Grid. The baubles aren't all-stars, sure. But they serve the deck. (better than a land would)
More signets and a coldsteel heart would be swell, and would do all the same good work that the baubles do, but with Vedalken Archmage or Magus of the Future on board, cheaper is better, even if it's 2 vs. 1. More cards played means more cards "drawn", means more beats with Akiri. (Notice that only 8 cards in the deck cost more that 3. This is why.). So I'd rather keep the Twig and Amulet.
Tendo (or Aether Hub) is tempting, but I often need to cast Akiri more than once. I don't want to have to cast her a second time for 2RW, and be sitting on a plains, a sol ring, and a spent Tendo. Gemstone Mine is a bit better in that respect, except I really wish it had T: add C. I don't want to avoid using it at all to conserve counters for when I need them. And Mox Diamond is out... my land count is already low, and I'm not looking for acceleration that puts me down a card. (but thanks for the idea for my Gitrog Monster deck!)
So thoughts so far:
OUT: Temple of the False God, Azorius Chancery, Darksteel Citadel, 2 plains?
IN: Great Furnace, Rugged Prairie, Vault of Whispers, 2 fetches (Arid Mesa and Flooded Strand, I guess?)
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/equip-a-palooza/
(Sideboard is stuff that's come out. Maybeboard is stuff that might go in.)
It's mainly an Equipment-focused Akiri voltron deck, with Silas there mostly for access to blue artifact-matters cards and cranial plating.(And to a much-lesser extent, as an always-accessible artifact to play and pump Akiri by 1). I'm open to other feedback, but mainly looking for help with the mana base.
It's tricky because I want to be able to ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS play Akiri on turn 2, and likely again and again, as she gets killed often (if the opponents are smart). But other than her, there isn't much red in the deck (only 5 cards), and there's a good amount of blue (7 cards, some of which have UUU or UU in their costs.) There are only 4 black cards too (not counting cranial plating, where black is nice, but optional), but they are all removal, so I want the black to be there when I need it, and I do want the option to cast Silas if possible. (White has the lion's share with 18 cards, including 3 with WW) Thankfully the bulk of the deck is artifacts, so that loosens the rest of the mana requirements a bit.
For non-land mana-fixing, I've got a Chromatic Lantern, 4 cogs that search for land (Twig, Amulet, Bauble, Map) (all of which can be recursed with Silas), 2 signets (Azorius and Boros), Tithe (which can get dual lands and shock lands that are plains), Mycosynth Lattice, a Fellwar Stone, and a Mox Opal. In a pinch I can also use one of the artifact tutors to get the lantern, lattice or opal. If I've already got RW and need U or B, Sunforger can get the Tithe or Enlightened Tutor.
So, what lands should I be playing? I need at least one of each of the 4 basics so I can search for them with the Twig/Amulet/Bauble. I've got 5 of the 6 possible dual lands. (I skipped Badlands because RB are my 2 least-needed colors). I'd love to run all five allowable Artifact lands to pump Akiri, but could only find room for 3. (though maybe I should switch the Darksteel Citadel out for Great Furnace.) The only colorless lands I have are that Citadel, Academy Ruins (seems like a must), Dust Bowl (this is almost an auto-include for me. And Mazes can ruin Akiri's day), Kor Haven (hard to pass up), Inventors' Fair, Rogue's Passage (what blockers?), and the ubiquitous Temple of the False God.
As for the rest... it's as many good "any color" producing lands I could find, some shock lands (more tithe targets), a few extra basic plains and islands, and a random Azorius Chancery.
As you may have guessed from the Dual lands, budget isn't much of an issue, I can get or borrow most cards if needed.
Any thoughts?
Same with a return to Amonkhet. If they wreck it, they'll find a way to undo it for the return.