The Walmarts in Gainesville/Jacksonville Florida area were not doing price match at all. They said that they no longer do BoGo price match at all. On a better note, Walgreens restocked on Sat. for the last day of the sale and I picked up 22 total Khans packs from 4 stores for about $44 and pulled 2 deltas, 2 strands, 1 mire, 1 Sarkhan, 1 Siege Rhino, and various others. Ended up being very good for me.
You may be right, but that was where it stopped the flashback, so we do not get to see if she believed him right off and what she did to investigate it. If she got back to civilization and found out that her cousin only, of all of her family, survived and was happy and richer than ever, I think she would be inclined to believe the story.
Got 8 khans packs and 2 M15 packs (all they had) at my local Walgreens and Stoke the Flames was the best card I got followed by siege rhino. Kinda sad not to get anything better, but there weren't too many complete trash rares either. Gonna keep my eyes open as I go into another city later this week, but am guessing that they will be gone that late in the week. Gonna have to grab some rain checks on these.
I ended 2-3 with a couple of favorable match-ups and some bad ones.
1st round I faced a guy running a pretty basic Mardu Butcher/Crackling Doom deck, but in both games he could never get off of 4 lands until it was too late. Won 2-0
2nd round I face a R/W burn deck that was a little too fast for me. I seemed to be about 1-2 turns from stabilizing when I would lose. Lost 0-2
3rd round I faced a w/u counter, exile and draw card deck that pretty much shut down everything that I was trying to do. At the point where I was trying to cast 5 mana planeswalkers and such he had a cheaper counterspell for each and if I could play one, it would be Banishing Lighted. Kind of frustrating being as I had practically no answers for that in the deck as a whole (sided in stormbreaths and mistcutters, but never drew mistcutters and dragons get countered.) Lost 0-2
4th round I faced a fairly standard Abzan Rhino deck and wrecked his world. This deck seems to just hard counter that one. The hornets nests and then hornets themselves really stalled out his board state, as he did not want to trade his siege rhino for a 1/1 token and 3 damage. The best part of the match was when he tried to Utter End my Hornet's Nest and in response, I Lightning Strikeed it for 3 tokens. He couldn't believe what I had just done and said to the player next to us "he just lighting striked his own nest!" It was good. Won 2-0
5th round I played against my friend that I go to FNM with and he was running a Temur ramp/knuckleblade/stormbreath deck. I feel that this is actually a rather favorable match-up for me however I was unfortunate the first game and foolish the last one. First game I practically lost to haste. He was on play and t2 dropped Sylvan Caryatid. Then t3 dropped Savage Knuckleblade with haste and on my turn I removed it. T4 another Knuckleblade with haste and on my turn I remove it. T5 Stormbreath to the face and on my turn I remove. T6 another Stormbreath! I was effectively done at that point. The only nonland permanents I drew in that game were 2 Banishing Lights that I used on the knuckleblades. Game 2 I was on play and went more as it was supposed to for this deck. Got a t3 hornet's nest and struck it later to block a stormbreath. I pretty much controlled this game all the way through. Game 3 was when I stopped thinking and kept a 2 land hand on the draw and ended up missing my t3 land drop to cost me the game. If I could have tempoed with him, I think I would have been fine, but was stuck an extra turn behind and could not recover. Lost 1-2
Overall, I enjoyed playing the deck. There are certainly some decks that are glaringly strong against it, and I am not sure what to do about some (the w/u counter deck), and some that it is really strong against. I look forward to trying it again.
Other thoughts:
-I was only running 2 sarkhans and 2 stormbreaths because that was all that I had access to. I am not sure if I want to try more or will just stick with what I have.
-I moved a couple magma jets out of main board because they felt too weak unless going against aggro specifically. I much more preferred having the extra lightning strike and fated conflagration (which worked well as removal; got those pesky stormbreaths).
- It is really fun to play with hornet's nests, and opponents hate to play around them and deathtouch tokens.
Any ideas on better dealing with the tougher match-ups?
Whenever Siege Dragon is declared as an attacker, its ability triggers and deals 2 damage to each creature without flying the defending player controls (if no wall are in play). Note however, this is before blockers are declared. Therefore, they still have the option to block or not with their 5/6 with 2 damage already dealt to it. Plus, the creature in question would have to have reach to be able to block Siege Dragon, if it took 2 damage for not having flying.
Remember the combat phase goes:
1) Beginning of Combat Step
2) Declare Attackers Step - Any abilities that say something like "Whenever x attacks" trigger here.
3) Declare Blockers Step - Any abilities that say something like "Whenever x becomes blocked or blocks"
4) Combat Damage Step
5) End of Combat Step
and both players are able to use activated abilities and instants at the end of each of the steps.
If, for some reason, your Kin-Tree Warden had flying or reach and you wanted to block, you would have 2 options (baring other external factors):
Option #1) Activate regenerate on the Warden, at any time you could play an instant, before the Combat Damage Step. In the Combat Damage Step, your Warden would be dealt the damage and deal its damage. Since the warden would have taken enough damage to be lethal, the regenerate effect would take place and instead of dying, it would be tapped and removed from combat. No other effects are triggered.
Option #2) Block without activating regenerate. Your Warden would die, triggering the Dictate and Ascendencys, causing each opponent to sacrifice 1 creature and putting 2 1/1 flying white spirit creature tokens onto the battlefield under your control.
As was said above, dying indicates being put into a graveyard. So, if your creature happens to get exiled, the abilities on the enchantments would not be triggered.
Interesting discussion and I can understand both sides of it.
As to the question of replacing a pack and continuing drafting, I think that the best answer would be to allow a player to replace a pack and continue drafting with an added rule that they cannot place/receive a prize for the draft. That way they get the benefit of getting the money cards that they would have walked with, while at the same time, the other players get to keep a streamlined draft but get the benefit of one less person in the running for a prize. So overall, players would have the option of keeping a specific pack, or placing for a prize, but not both.
On a related note, I was at Walmart a few weeks ago and they had sealed Jace VS. Vraska duel decks without the face card planeswalkers on the front. There were 4 or 5 of them exactly the same. I checked them and as far as I could tell they had not been tampered with. I did not, however, buy any to see if the cards were in there somewhere else, so I do not know how big of a mess up it was.
4x Hooded Hydra
4x Icefeather Aven
4x Master of Pearls
2x Polukranos, World Eater
2x Thassa, God of the Sea
4x Whisperwood Elemental
Enchantments 14
2x Banishing Light
4x Cloudform
4x Lightform
4x Trail of Mystery
4x Soul Summons
Lands 22
2x Flooded Strand
2x Temple of Enlightenment
2x Temple of Plenty
2x Windswept Heath
4x Yavimaya Coast
3x Forest
3x Island
4x Plains
2x Banishing Light
3x Erase
2x Kheru Spellsnatcher
3x Negate
2x Reality Shift
3x Suspension Field
What do you guys think?
I am super excited to actually play it after FRF releases.
I ran a very close version of your deck at FNM last Fri.
It looked like this:
2 Anger of the Gods
3 End Hostilities
4 Banishing Light
2 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
2 Fated Conflagration
Creatures (4)
4 Hornet Nest
Walkers (13)
3 Xenagos, the Reveler
2 Nissa, Worldwaker
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2 Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
1 Ajani Steadfast
3 Temple of Abandon
2 Temple of Plenty
2 Temple of Triumph
3 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Forest
4 Mountain
4 Battlefield Forge
3 Plains
2 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Magma Spray
1 Magma Jet
3 Erase
2 Stormbreath Dragon
3 Nyx-Fleece Ram
1 Anger of the Gods
I ended 2-3 with a couple of favorable match-ups and some bad ones.
1st round I faced a guy running a pretty basic Mardu Butcher/Crackling Doom deck, but in both games he could never get off of 4 lands until it was too late. Won 2-0
2nd round I face a R/W burn deck that was a little too fast for me. I seemed to be about 1-2 turns from stabilizing when I would lose. Lost 0-2
3rd round I faced a w/u counter, exile and draw card deck that pretty much shut down everything that I was trying to do. At the point where I was trying to cast 5 mana planeswalkers and such he had a cheaper counterspell for each and if I could play one, it would be Banishing Lighted. Kind of frustrating being as I had practically no answers for that in the deck as a whole (sided in stormbreaths and mistcutters, but never drew mistcutters and dragons get countered.) Lost 0-2
4th round I faced a fairly standard Abzan Rhino deck and wrecked his world. This deck seems to just hard counter that one. The hornets nests and then hornets themselves really stalled out his board state, as he did not want to trade his siege rhino for a 1/1 token and 3 damage. The best part of the match was when he tried to Utter End my Hornet's Nest and in response, I Lightning Strikeed it for 3 tokens. He couldn't believe what I had just done and said to the player next to us "he just lighting striked his own nest!" It was good. Won 2-0
5th round I played against my friend that I go to FNM with and he was running a Temur ramp/knuckleblade/stormbreath deck. I feel that this is actually a rather favorable match-up for me however I was unfortunate the first game and foolish the last one. First game I practically lost to haste. He was on play and t2 dropped Sylvan Caryatid. Then t3 dropped Savage Knuckleblade with haste and on my turn I removed it. T4 another Knuckleblade with haste and on my turn I remove it. T5 Stormbreath to the face and on my turn I remove. T6 another Stormbreath! I was effectively done at that point. The only nonland permanents I drew in that game were 2 Banishing Lights that I used on the knuckleblades. Game 2 I was on play and went more as it was supposed to for this deck. Got a t3 hornet's nest and struck it later to block a stormbreath. I pretty much controlled this game all the way through. Game 3 was when I stopped thinking and kept a 2 land hand on the draw and ended up missing my t3 land drop to cost me the game. If I could have tempoed with him, I think I would have been fine, but was stuck an extra turn behind and could not recover. Lost 1-2
Overall, I enjoyed playing the deck. There are certainly some decks that are glaringly strong against it, and I am not sure what to do about some (the w/u counter deck), and some that it is really strong against. I look forward to trying it again.
Other thoughts:
-I was only running 2 sarkhans and 2 stormbreaths because that was all that I had access to. I am not sure if I want to try more or will just stick with what I have.
-I moved a couple magma jets out of main board because they felt too weak unless going against aggro specifically. I much more preferred having the extra lightning strike and fated conflagration (which worked well as removal; got those pesky stormbreaths).
- It is really fun to play with hornet's nests, and opponents hate to play around them and deathtouch tokens.
Any ideas on better dealing with the tougher match-ups?
Remember the combat phase goes:
1) Beginning of Combat Step
2) Declare Attackers Step - Any abilities that say something like "Whenever x attacks" trigger here.
3) Declare Blockers Step - Any abilities that say something like "Whenever x becomes blocked or blocks"
4) Combat Damage Step
5) End of Combat Step
and both players are able to use activated abilities and instants at the end of each of the steps.
Option #1) Activate regenerate on the Warden, at any time you could play an instant, before the Combat Damage Step. In the Combat Damage Step, your Warden would be dealt the damage and deal its damage. Since the warden would have taken enough damage to be lethal, the regenerate effect would take place and instead of dying, it would be tapped and removed from combat. No other effects are triggered.
Option #2) Block without activating regenerate. Your Warden would die, triggering the Dictate and Ascendencys, causing each opponent to sacrifice 1 creature and putting 2 1/1 flying white spirit creature tokens onto the battlefield under your control.
As was said above, dying indicates being put into a graveyard. So, if your creature happens to get exiled, the abilities on the enchantments would not be triggered.
As to the question of replacing a pack and continuing drafting, I think that the best answer would be to allow a player to replace a pack and continue drafting with an added rule that they cannot place/receive a prize for the draft. That way they get the benefit of getting the money cards that they would have walked with, while at the same time, the other players get to keep a streamlined draft but get the benefit of one less person in the running for a prize. So overall, players would have the option of keeping a specific pack, or placing for a prize, but not both.
What do you guys think?
WOAAHHH!!! I thought Wizards was trying to bring down the power level! With that it would just be Urza all over again!
Garruk, caller of beasts
Domri Rade
worldspine Wurm
flesh // blood
young pyromancer
shocklands
Most certainly not going to miss:
mutavault
u/w control stuff