I exist, I swear. The best excuse I have is that my opponent didn't want to scoop to my control locks, so I've been occupied. I've mostly been mourning the death of Top Control in Modern. It never really fit in the meta, but now it fits even less. With each set release, I hope for a new cheap card to help my lock. The biggest problems I have are that I need to run 16-18 land (+4 Mox Opal) to save room for a diverse array of oppression, so I need cheap control pieces, and they can't be creatures. I recently tried to raise the number of copies of Academy Ruins in the deck to 3 or 4, then add 3-4 Counterbalance as well. With that, I needed to fudge numbers and add 2-3 Life from the Loam. Other Dredge cards wouldn't fit the no-hand policy for Ensnaring Bridge, and not many are cheap. Even Life from the Loam was too much mana. To effectively run Counterbalance, Academy Ruins in Modern seems like the only legitimate strategy, and Dredging hardly even makes it possible. (Side note: the deck already runs Codex Shredder and Lantern of Insight. It's one of the main card advantage strategies used to give my opponent terrible draws, and to fix my own when I have the room. It would also help with Counterbalance, but even through tenuous testing,I haven't been able to produce effective results in the current meta).
Luckily, I have a nice paper version of Lands on which to fall back for playing Legacy. Lands really is pinnacle of control via answering all aspects of the board, recursion for repeatable answers and toolbox strategies/win-cons, and frustration for my opponent as he witnesses the cards I'm about to Loam/Academy Ruins/Volrath's Stronghold and jam back into their experience of the match.
Also, as I am approaching my senior year of High School more and more kids are getting arrested and mixed up with drugs. i think it makes her really happy that I spend my weekends playing magic with good people, staying away from drugs and alcohol while sharpening my mind.
This was the basis of "Gamer's Guild" at my University. After years of struggle, we convinced the Student Government Association to fund a student-run organization that held gaming every Friday night in a reserved space on campus. It wasn't park of "Greek life" or any similar organization. It had to be non-profit, of course, but in the end, it was and still is the most popular organization in the university's history and had a larger turnout than any sorority or fraternity. All of this because we kept pushing the message that it keeps the university's students directly on campus during wild nights and discourages self-destructive behavior.
Playing Lands, I got rocked by PaintStone that ran Dack. He kept using Goblin Welder to recurve Nihil Spell Bomb. I couldn't cycle Thicket to Dredge back Loam fast enough. Intuition never resolved. Metalworker, Ancient Tomb, and City of Traitors ensured that he always had mana for Tabernacle. After I got milled, Academy Ruins and Volrath's Stronghold (for single copies of E-Wit and Oracle of Mul Data) could hardly help me. Dack forced me to draw for the loss. I think he may have found a home in Legacy.
Good points Gunso; EDH might make really good use of it with all those Sol Rings floating around, still feels a bit underwhelming IMO but I'm no EDH expert.
Mana rocks in EDH are more than just Sol Ring. I play with anywhere from 15-26 mana rocks depending on the deck, and some of those go out on a limb to use every bit of mana (like Fractured Powerstone in Brago). That's at the competitive end. At both competitive and undercompetitive ends, people still utilize Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus, Voltaic Key, Basalt Monolith, and Everflowing Chalice very frequently. Spending 3 on Dack doesn't seem all that bad when you get 3 mana back after stealing a rock, even if it's colorless. I'm trying to get people turned on to Astral Cornucopia for the same reason.
I'm not a fan of walkers who can't protect themselves like Elspeth, Knight-Errant, JtMS, Ajani, etc. but that's just me and all I want to run are instants and bombs.
That said since his ultimate is about spells that target I'd run him with anything that has replicate like gigadrowse.
EDH will obviously play him. Mana rocks are abundant.
The real obscurity is if he'll be played in other formats. People have speculated whether or not he'll be in Legacy. I say no. Legacy has cheaper cards that perform equal/better effects for less mana, or perform slightly-less-powerful effects with the added bonus of cantrip. His -5 isn't what you use to judge whether he's playable or not. You use his immediate abilities as a reference because he may not be on the battlefield even after a turn cycle.
I do believe that Vintage control will run a single copy of him. With "colorless counterspells" like Winter Orb, Tangle Wire, and Smokestack on the battlefield, a single use of Dack's -2 can be pretty powerful. That should really be game. If you can manage to -2 again, your opponent probably doesn't control any more permanents that'll remain untapped during their PCMP.
You already have the ability to make enough mana to destroy all of your choice of artifacts and enchantments. That's where the power is. If you encounter enough Gods and Blightsteel, keep Unravel. Otherwise, Consign is there to never be a dead card.
It's very combo heavy, but sometimes it can just get the aggro plan going with ascension, coat of arms, or other such things.
I know I need fetchlands, but the only ones I currently own that are on color are polluted delta and scalding tarn.
I would like to add Kyren Negotiations at some point, but I don't want to order it online just yet.
Generally, my standards on EDH are up-tight and extremely high, but I'll still be giving suggestions based on a common budget. I won't suggest the cards with the best min-max value because that'd get you into thousands of dollars of debt, but I will suggest very good cards, all of which I would personally still run in EDH and all of which are at most a couple of dollars, most of which are 50 cents.
Cards to remove
-Praetor's Grasp: This card isn't particularly powerful because it's not reliable.
-Squirrel Nest: Not part of your combo or win-con, and it forces you to use a mana source
-Unravel the AEther: Will be replaced with a stronger card
-Farseek: Meh, it's no Nature's Lore
-Rampant Growth: Meh, it's no Nature's Lore
-Reaper of the Wilds: Not particularly strong. It's in that EDH dead-spot where it's not big enough to matter in combat, it's too small for its mana cost, and its abilities aren't that great for its mana cost.
-Ophiomancer: Not a whole lot of value there
Cards to add
+Fellwar Stone: Great mana rock for adding colored mana. Cheap to buy.
+Consign to Dust: Replaces Unravel the AEther and has better flexibility
+Worn Powerstone: Great mana rock for its value. It's cost and production ratio are unique to itself and Palladium Myr, but it doesn't die to the most common board wipes. This card is an exception to "entering tapped is bad."
+Crop Rotation: Find that perfect land you need for your situation. Wolf Run and win.
Because you have 35 lands, I'm going to make the last 3 replacements lands. I would have suggested these otherwise by having you remove some basics. 38 land is the sweet spot.
+Hall of the Bandit Lord: Obvious Haste value for Alpha Striking an opponent
+Boseiju, Who Shelters All: Ensures your good stuff resolves. You want those tutors to happen. This may be the most expensive card I suggest (not by much), but I believe these are easier to find than cheaper cards like Mana Vault (which I did not suggest for its sheer obtuse board presence if you're not prepared with higher-end combo pieces).
+Gemstone Caverns: When you don't go first, this card is great to have in your hand
If you want, take out a forest for a Dryad Arbor. Prossh lists like it for that potential value and versatility. It'll make you 1 mana to start, then Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Prossh's active, or Food Chain ramp it from there.
^
Nothing against them, but i come here to talk to intelligent players of similar games that i play and to get insights into my edh decks. I am normally at my office when i post, so i dont really have much time to focus on contests or forum games.
^
Mostly, I looked for a clan because I don't want to discuss Magic with just anyone. It may sound selfish, but I enjoy talking with similarly-minded individuals when it comes to my hobbies. That's not to say that I never want to have anyone disagree with me, or to have to disagree with anyone else here. I still expected that, it happens, we have an intelligent discussion void of heat, rage, or argument, and I'm glad.
Interacting with other clans once in a while doesn't see that bad, though. What have past clan contests been?
I do have Spanish Inquisition built in Legacy, but only because I already had the LED's and the Bayou. Everything else was around $75 (the price of one LED), so I finished it for fun. I mainly play Pox. Poxless Pox, only Smallpox's. It gets there, but there are hardly any Legacy events around here. Oddly enough, I found that Shadow of Doubt in the sideboard has actually been reaping serious benefits against combo and Delver.
That card says you draft them one at a time, which means (I believe) that you would basically set that pack aside, and when you would draft a card from another pack, you draft from it instead for the rest of the round.
It feels like anything that isn't immediately obvious to a newcomer is being stripped away.
That's the matter of getting into the game / taking it seriously versus its being just a hobby, just something you do. If someone reaches out to a game, or maybe some other pastime, as a way to recharge, maybe they do - just - want to reap a fun time from it while putting in minimum stress. And being competitive means you're looking at a game's rules to understand and exploit, but not being competitive means you want action-reaction, or input-reward responses, as this is something you're doing with your life, for that duration of time.
[...]
Cool to have you back. Food for thought.
I'm sad we dropped this topic.
We can go back to the subject of EDH. I've always got EDH min-max interaction strategies running through my head
Also, I might as well do this:
Last Updated: 27 May 2014
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Personal
----------------------------------------------------------
Name: Gunso
Nickname: Nope.
Age: 23
Location: Nope.
Occupation: Military, student.
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Magic Related
----------------------------------------------------------
Johnny, Timmy, Spike, etc: EDH Spike (hypercompetitive), Legacy Spike (Play the card, win the game), Modern Johnny (Top Control!), Standard Johnny (Fringe, non-meta, complex interactions!)
Favourite colour(s): Mono black control and BW control have my heart in most formats, but UW/UG are my EDH statics.
Favourite set(s): Tempest, Fifth Dawn, Future Sight, Legends, Zendikar
Favourite creature type(s): Praetor, all EDH staples.
Favourite card/cards: Pact of Negation, Smallpox, Recurring Insight
Favourite character/Legendary card: Nicol Bolas
Favourite format: EDH, Legacy
Favourite artist(s): Michael Komarck, Jason Engle, Drew Baker, Steve Argyle
Favourite flavourtext(s): Flavor text doesn't win games.
Favourite deck(s): Top Control (Modern), UW Stax/Staxputin/Rasputin Dreamcrusher (EDH)
When you started playing M:tG: Tempest 1997
----------------------------------------------------------
Various
----------------------------------------------------------
Sports Team(s): Nope.
Favourite Food(s): Cheese, rice, popcorn.
Favourite Band(s): Coheed and Cambria, Between the Buried and Me, Deftones, Incubus
Favourite Drink(s): Lipton powdered iced tea
Hobbies (other than magic): Martial arts, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, Legend of the Five Rings (CCG), Weiss Schwarz (CCG), heavily emulating PS1 games on my phone
Random Facts: I forgot to pay for Pact of Negation in a 6-player EDH game where I was blowing everyone out on turn 4, and I hear about it every week.
Instant Messenger: Ask me for these privately.
Luckily, I have a nice paper version of Lands on which to fall back for playing Legacy. Lands really is pinnacle of control via answering all aspects of the board, recursion for repeatable answers and toolbox strategies/win-cons, and frustration for my opponent as he witnesses the cards I'm about to Loam/Academy Ruins/Volrath's Stronghold and jam back into their experience of the match.
This was the basis of "Gamer's Guild" at my University. After years of struggle, we convinced the Student Government Association to fund a student-run organization that held gaming every Friday night in a reserved space on campus. It wasn't park of "Greek life" or any similar organization. It had to be non-profit, of course, but in the end, it was and still is the most popular organization in the university's history and had a larger turnout than any sorority or fraternity. All of this because we kept pushing the message that it keeps the university's students directly on campus during wild nights and discourages self-destructive behavior.
MTG is the negative being applied to his absolute value of a wallet.
If you wouldn't mind sending me a list of stuff you're selling, I could easily be interested.
Fixed.
Mana rocks in EDH are more than just Sol Ring. I play with anywhere from 15-26 mana rocks depending on the deck, and some of those go out on a limb to use every bit of mana (like Fractured Powerstone in Brago). That's at the competitive end. At both competitive and undercompetitive ends, people still utilize Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus, Voltaic Key, Basalt Monolith, and Everflowing Chalice very frequently. Spending 3 on Dack doesn't seem all that bad when you get 3 mana back after stealing a rock, even if it's colorless. I'm trying to get people turned on to Astral Cornucopia for the same reason.
EDH will obviously play him. Mana rocks are abundant.
The real obscurity is if he'll be played in other formats. People have speculated whether or not he'll be in Legacy. I say no. Legacy has cheaper cards that perform equal/better effects for less mana, or perform slightly-less-powerful effects with the added bonus of cantrip. His -5 isn't what you use to judge whether he's playable or not. You use his immediate abilities as a reference because he may not be on the battlefield even after a turn cycle.
I do believe that Vintage control will run a single copy of him. With "colorless counterspells" like Winter Orb, Tangle Wire, and Smokestack on the battlefield, a single use of Dack's -2 can be pretty powerful. That should really be game. If you can manage to -2 again, your opponent probably doesn't control any more permanents that'll remain untapped during their PCMP.
Generally, my standards on EDH are up-tight and extremely high, but I'll still be giving suggestions based on a common budget. I won't suggest the cards with the best min-max value because that'd get you into thousands of dollars of debt, but I will suggest very good cards, all of which I would personally still run in EDH and all of which are at most a couple of dollars, most of which are 50 cents.
Cards to remove
-Praetor's Grasp: This card isn't particularly powerful because it's not reliable.
-Squirrel Nest: Not part of your combo or win-con, and it forces you to use a mana source
-Unravel the AEther: Will be replaced with a stronger card
-Farseek: Meh, it's no Nature's Lore
-Rampant Growth: Meh, it's no Nature's Lore
-Reaper of the Wilds: Not particularly strong. It's in that EDH dead-spot where it's not big enough to matter in combat, it's too small for its mana cost, and its abilities aren't that great for its mana cost.
-Ophiomancer: Not a whole lot of value there
Cards to add
+Fellwar Stone: Great mana rock for adding colored mana. Cheap to buy.
+Consign to Dust: Replaces Unravel the AEther and has better flexibility
+Worn Powerstone: Great mana rock for its value. It's cost and production ratio are unique to itself and Palladium Myr, but it doesn't die to the most common board wipes. This card is an exception to "entering tapped is bad."
+Crop Rotation: Find that perfect land you need for your situation. Wolf Run and win.
Because you have 35 lands, I'm going to make the last 3 replacements lands. I would have suggested these otherwise by having you remove some basics. 38 land is the sweet spot.
+Hall of the Bandit Lord: Obvious Haste value for Alpha Striking an opponent
+Boseiju, Who Shelters All: Ensures your good stuff resolves. You want those tutors to happen. This may be the most expensive card I suggest (not by much), but I believe these are easier to find than cheaper cards like Mana Vault (which I did not suggest for its sheer obtuse board presence if you're not prepared with higher-end combo pieces).
+Gemstone Caverns: When you don't go first, this card is great to have in your hand
If you want, take out a forest for a Dryad Arbor. Prossh lists like it for that potential value and versatility. It'll make you 1 mana to start, then Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Prossh's active, or Food Chain ramp it from there.
^
Mostly, I looked for a clan because I don't want to discuss Magic with just anyone. It may sound selfish, but I enjoy talking with similarly-minded individuals when it comes to my hobbies. That's not to say that I never want to have anyone disagree with me, or to have to disagree with anyone else here. I still expected that, it happens, we have an intelligent discussion void of heat, rage, or argument, and I'm glad.
Interacting with other clans once in a while doesn't see that bad, though. What have past clan contests been?
Correct.
We can go back to the subject of EDH. I've always got EDH min-max interaction strategies running through my head
Also, I might as well do this:
Last Updated: 27 May 2014
----------------------------------------------------------
Personal
----------------------------------------------------------
Name: Gunso
Nickname: Nope.
Age: 23
Location: Nope.
Occupation: Military, student.
----------------------------------------------------------
Magic Related
----------------------------------------------------------
Johnny, Timmy, Spike, etc: EDH Spike (hypercompetitive), Legacy Spike (Play the card, win the game), Modern Johnny (Top Control!), Standard Johnny (Fringe, non-meta, complex interactions!)
Favourite colour(s): Mono black control and BW control have my heart in most formats, but UW/UG are my EDH statics.
Favourite set(s): Tempest, Fifth Dawn, Future Sight, Legends, Zendikar
Favourite creature type(s): Praetor, all EDH staples.
Favourite card/cards: Pact of Negation, Smallpox, Recurring Insight
Favourite character/Legendary card: Nicol Bolas
Favourite format: EDH, Legacy
Favourite artist(s): Michael Komarck, Jason Engle, Drew Baker, Steve Argyle
Favourite flavourtext(s): Flavor text doesn't win games.
Favourite deck(s): Top Control (Modern), UW Stax/Staxputin/Rasputin Dreamcrusher (EDH)
When you started playing M:tG: Tempest 1997
----------------------------------------------------------
Various
----------------------------------------------------------
Sports Team(s): Nope.
Favourite Food(s): Cheese, rice, popcorn.
Favourite Band(s): Coheed and Cambria, Between the Buried and Me, Deftones, Incubus
Favourite Drink(s): Lipton powdered iced tea
Hobbies (other than magic): Martial arts, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, Legend of the Five Rings (CCG), Weiss Schwarz (CCG), heavily emulating PS1 games on my phone
Random Facts: I forgot to pay for Pact of Negation in a 6-player EDH game where I was blowing everyone out on turn 4, and I hear about it every week.
Instant Messenger: Ask me for these privately.