MTG Salvation

Volume + presence > scamming one guy.

If a buyer seems to be doing business on a large sclae and has a long-lasting web-presense, you should be able to trust their offer.

There was a slight typos, and Wizards is about to re-announce the set. The real name actually is:

Dragon's Maize

The story-line revolves around Niv-Mizzet associating with the Simic to create the new Mosanto guild and unleash their genetically engineered corn cubs. The machanics revolves aroud kernel counters and if you aim a burn spell to a corn, it deal damage equals to the number of kernel counters on the corn to all creatures. In the end, it's revealed that the ancient dragon had amassaed vast quantity of butters and all the spetacular explosions were just building-up excitement before announcing his new chain of mega-cinemas.

Or not.

I just keep facing controlish / combo-ish deck in 4xRtR sealed. I frustratingly keep getting 2-1 results. Two days ago, it was conjured currency + cylonic rift. Yesterday...

I faced an early codex shredder two games in a row. Nothing to worry about... yet he also had both azorius and izzet charms on top of supreme verdict; he always had an answer to any board state... which he could reuse later in the game thanks to the codex. First game I finally had him down within burn range with my double explosive impact on hand. After the first, he's low enough and i'll kill him next turn. He untaps, plays his 7th land, use the codex to get azorius charm back, gives all his guys lifelink, and gets out of burn range. I don't ever recall anyone using that lifelink side... but it was exactly what was needed here. Second game, he's once against within burn range, this time it's izzet charm to counter the spell.

(I also faced a guy with both Jace, architect of thought *and* niv-mizzet in the first round of that same sealed!)

Quote from bateleur

What?! You're crazy! To start with Rakdos Cackler is Uncommon. Secondly, it's miles better than the barely playable Saber.

Is it? That tells you how often I've picked it up. I actually really like the saber. I'm willing to admit it doesn't quite fit as well Rakdos aggro as Izzet aggro, but when paired with a shred-freak or frostburn, it really amped up the clock. I think it is just a bit less good as pursuit of flight (less cause it can't grant flying and doesn't augment thoughness, more becase it can be picked up when your guy dies. On an unleashed thug it turns it into 4 power first-striker, which can't be blocked by much anything.)

Major work needed on your card evaluation. Some of your picks are extremely outside the accepted norm, missing some basics.

p1p2: you pick lobber but pass a lot of rakdos. This could hurt you a bit.
p1p4: stab or frostburn weird are miles better. This is one example of bad card eval.
p1p8: thoughtflare is miles better, again. One of the best card draw of the set.
p1p10: saber. It combos with the dual-color cards and is permanent power bonus. You can pick a common 1-drop later.

p2p1: reveler or assassin are much better.
p2p3: rakdos keyrune. Fix, accelerate, first strike, nice power.
p2p4: hallowed fountain for the money or rogue passage or ragemutt.
p2p5: conjured currency. Ok, half joking here...

p3p1: pursuit of flight or explosive impact (the later is my pick).
p3p2: thoughtflare. No question about it.
p3p4: ogre jailbreaker is 4/4 for 4.
p3p6: pursuit of flight.

Quote from RABishop

My first 7 RtR Swiss, all during the prerelease/release period, ...

My last 4 RtR Swiss, all since the end of the release period, ...

These are not streaks. It's 'prey on bad players' vs. 'no bad players anymore in queues.'

On the (non-) vaguaries of the shuffler... in a 4xRTR sealed:

My opp goes: unleashed thug, rix maadi guildmage, rakdos keyrune + unleashed thug, a turn or two later) skull rend. Three 3-power first striker with guildmage backup. I lost.

Second game: unleashed thug, rix maadi guildmage, rakdos keyrune + unleashed thug, a turn or two later) skull rend. Three 3-power first striker with guildmage backup. I lost.

I think MTGO's shuffler was borkened.

Then, in the final round, I face a guy with triple annihilating fire (!!) and double frostburn weird (!!!), plus street spasm. (I somehow 2-0 him, because he misplayed his deck so badly (i.e. not waiting to have damage dealt before playing the fire, allowing me to use switf justice to 2-for-1 wreck him.)

Quote from Commons

A Gray Ogre that slowly love axes.

On a slow day like this, this typos made me laugh. Sounds like somthing the R&D department would suggest as art direction for a 'goblin pacifist' card.

I'll think Goblin Pacifist every time I'll see a guttersnipe being played from now on.

Quote from urafever

To just hopelessly name drop, in a side draft at GP san jose, Estratti had triple giant. Talk about a headache.

But, did he explains the sleigh of hands he used to slip three giants in the draft without anyone noticing? Is this a skill he uses on the PT so he wanted not to reveal how he did it? That was the point of your anecdote right? Or were you merely trying to vilify to talkative, gesticulating Italians?

I had always considered it a slow and expensive fog, but now I've read these comments and can see how you need to engineer a board state that can be profitable. It just doesn't feel like it's something that will turn a game around if your opponent has a better board presence, so it always seemed like an awful top-deck. As such, I'd still take removal and high-power attackers over it.

For me, the real upside of the card is the vigilance. Playing this instead of yet another body that costs 5 has about the same value for combat, but the fact that your build-your-own-fatty now has vigilance menas your opponent cannot crack back at you when you attack, rapidly losing the damage race.

He also had dramatic rescue. I was convinced it was mostly good because each time he X-for-1 me by taking a guy enchanted with righteous authority (2-for-1 right there, then extra cards every turn). But he insisted the card was good because he could choose to playit or not depending on the board state. It's still struck me as slow, but I end-up losing that round even though I had an awesome deck.

The difference being that epic experiment is worth as much as it ever will, while steam vents is owrth as little as it ever will. The dual will rise back, going into the teens. (At worst when RtR goes out of sales, but I'd think it will gain back much in a few months, when gatecrash releases.)

Conjured Currency...

I got it played against me today and it wrecked me. It had always seemed unplayable, but I got really screwed by it.

Your only other option is Selesnya/Golgari: common bond + corpsejack menace ain't bad, you got the expensive removal/pump sorcery and the green body at least have reasonable size. Swift justice can give you some early game (bettele + justice will give you 1-for-1 and keep th ebeetle alive and give you life). You still got some flyers. If you can survive long enough to drop the stag, you'd have half a chance. This is one bad pool.

(I still think Izzet is the right call, though.)