Some corrections:
Chiyo is Eitoku's superior, not the other way around.
Nagao is grievously wounded and presumed dead, but he survives as revealed in the next book.
In the final scene, Toshi sends Choryu the water wizard and friend of Michiko to Hidetsugu (not Chiyo the soratami).
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Nov 30, 2017Myrmadillo posted a message on If You Can't Take Criticism of Jeremy Hambly, You're Part of the ProblemI generally never read or comment on these things, but I don't think this post is appropriate as a front page article. The article doesn't explain who Jeremy Hambly is, what he has said or did, who is criticizing him, what they are saying about him, and it only gives a minimal amount of information about Christine Sprankle. As a result, I barely have a clue of what the article is supposed to be addressing. The article makes so many assumptions about prior knowledge that it's almost unintelligible. On top of that, the article is packed full of biased political statements, which makes me wonder why it was even permitted to be posted.Posted in: Articles
I come to these forums for Magic: The Gathering, not politics. If this article actually informed me about what is apparently major event in the Magic community and made a clear statement about how to correct the issue without resorting to belittling, politically charged statements, it could have actually been a worthwhile article. -
Oct 11, 2017Myrmadillo posted a message on Playing Paper PauperFor those interested, I went through the 37 problematic cards listed in the article above. Only allowing cards that are legal in Modern that have been printed at common level reduces the problematic list of cards to five that need banning:Posted in: Articles
Cranial Plating
Empty the Warrens
Goblin Grenade
Grapeshot
Merchant Scroll -
Oct 10, 2017Myrmadillo posted a message on Playing Paper PauperRather than deal with all these exceptions, wouldn't it be easier to simply play Modern Pauper? If the card is legal in Modern and it has ever been printed at common, it would be considered legal.Posted in: Articles
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Against Stompy, is it typical for affinity decks to bog up the board resulting in a stalemate until they beat Stompy with fliers? I've been reading posts about affinity killing people really fast, which wasn't my experience against the deck I played.
Has anyone considered running Mosswort Bridge? The only downside I see is that it isn't a forest, so Dungrove Elder doesn't benefit from it. Otherwise, it grabs a creature you can tuck away and whip out if you ever meet the criteria. It may be a "win more" card though, as you're probably winning already if you have 10 total creature power, but I ran into a couple situations in testing against affinity and thopter/sword where I could have met the condition.
Against the 4 decks I played (Ad Nauseum, Burn, Affinity, and Thopter/Sword), Affinity seemed to be the toughest match-up because it clogged the board so my creatures couldn't get through. In two games, we both ended up with a wall of creatures and I couldn't punch through because of Etched Champion. (It didn't help that Spellskite prevented me from casting Rancor for trample.) I'm unsure if this is a normal situation, but, if it is, has anyone considered Tanglewalker as a sideboard card versus Affinity?
So the general consensus is that Avarice Amulet and Mercadian Atlas are bad?
I originally skipped Illuminated Folio when I started out because of a discussion I read on another thread. Basically, it boiled down to the Folio failing when you most need it, i.e., when you are out of cards in hand, but Seer's Sundial helping you when you most need it, i.e., out of cards and all you draw is a land. Based on that, I opted for the Sundial. However, Jaya tends to keep cards in hand, so the Folio is probably a better option for her. At the moment, about 1/3rd of my deck is Red cards.
I currently have 10 lands and 8 mana rocks that can produce colorless. In a normal game, I'd probably be able to activate the card draw ability at least once and probably twice per round. As a result, I can't take full advantage of Endbringer, but I should nearly always be able draw cards with it.
Seeing what makes the Staff of Nin so good got me looking at cards with 1 or 0 mana cost per card drawn:
Avarice Amulet: For 4 to cast plus 2 to equip, the mana cost per card is exactly the same as Staff of Nin. If used only on your commander, you get to keep it when your commander returns to its command zone. Unfortunately, having this equipped to your commander probably just makes them an even bigger target. Has anyone here used this effectively?
Mercadian Atlas: At 2 cards for 5 mana (2.5 mana/card) and 3 cards for 5 mana (1.67 mana/card) this seems pretty good. Having to give up land drops to draw a card is concerning though, particularly in a Jaya deck which needs quite a bit of mana. Any opinions?
Moonring Mirror: Identical value to Mercadian Atlas, but this time the downside is that you have to juggle two hands of cards. This card is amazing with looting effects as well as cards like Mindmoil/Teferi's Puzzle Box. However, I've pretty much removed looting from my deck at this point. While I intend to keep playing Mindmoil, I don't think there is enough synergy to keep this card in my deck at the moment.
Illuminated Folio: At 2 cards for 8 mana (4 mana/card) and 3 cards for 9 mana (3 mana/card), this catches up with the phoenixes after only 2 rounds (since you can use it the turn you drop it) and the mana commitment is lower than Seer's Sundial. Since Jaya generally wants to hold some cards in hand, its restriction might not be that bad. Any thoughts?
Additionally, seeing how the extra utility built into Staff of Nin adds value brought me back me to:
Endbringer: Costs 2 mana per card, but can be a nasty customer on its own. Since it has more utility than simply card draw, it is more appropriate to count any card draw as gain. This yields 3 cards for 12 mana (4 mana/card) and 4 cards for 15 mana (3.75 mana/card). Additionally, the ability to draw on every opponent's turn enables card advantage at a more rapid rate than the others discussed above. The big downside is that it dies to Jaya's inferno. Has anyone tried this guy out?
Dreamstone Hedron: Costs 9 mana for 2 cards (4.5 mana/card), but a single tap to gain 3 mana reduces that cost down to 6 mana for 2 cards (3 mana/card). As long as a mana rock of this size is useful in your deck, I think this is a worthy include.
Based on the comments regarding Tamiyo's Journal in the last two pages and the fact that I recently acquired some new cards, I revisited the card draw options for my budget deck. (For those new to the thread, I only play cards that I've acquired for 50 cents or less.) Upon further analysis, I discovered a flaw in my method of evaluating the effectiveness of card draw spells.
Consider Seer's Sundial, which I've been running alongside Ghost Town for the last two years. I originally calculated this as costing 10 mana for 3 cards (3.33 mana per card) and 12 mana for 4 cards (3 mana per card). This seems competetively costed when compared to returning Skarrgan Firebird, Shard Phoenix, or Firewing Phoenix from graveyard to hand. However, this calculation neglects to account for the fact that one of the cards drawn by Seer's Sundial is simply the card you would have drawn if you didn't even have Seer's Sundial in your deck. In other words, the number of cards "gained" is actually one less than the number of cards drawn. That means it actually costs 10 mana for 2 cards (5 mana per card) and 12 mana for 3 cards (4 mana per card). In other words, Seer's Sundial must remain in play for 4 land drops before it catches up with the Firewing Phoenix in terms of fueling Jaya's abilities. Having no fetchlands in my deck, I pretty much never drop more than one land per turn and I occasionally miss a land drop, making Seer's Sundial a poor choice for my deck.
Tamiyo's Journal gives 2 cards for 11 mana (5 mana/card) and 3 cards for 13 mana (4.33 mana/card), which is worse than Seer's Sundial in terms of mana. For my deck, Tamiyo's Journal offers more consistent draw than Seer's Sundial, but needs to stay in play for 5 full rounds to catch up with the Firewing Phoenix. That's a long time considering the number of board wipes in EDH and the fact that it probably won't get played until the 4th turn at the earliest.
In essence, when casting Seer's Sundial or Tamiyo's Journal, you're committing 12-13 mana to a single card before they become worthwhile. Similarly, Tower of Fortunes has a 12 mana investment to yield 3 cards (4 mana/card), but its ability to provide a burst of cards in one turn makes it viable late game option for decks with sufficient mana.
Staff of Nin is the gold standard for trickle draw. It gives 2 cards for 6 mana (3 mana/card) and 3 cards for 6 mana (2 mana/card). Thus, it catches up with the phoenixes after 3 turns, only has a mana commitment of 6, and has an additional ability stapled on that typically costs 2-3 mana (cf. Prodigal Pyromancer).
Keep in mind that my low budget means I have no mana doublers, so this is one of the few ways I can get a bit of a mana spike in my deck. I also think my deck's mana curve has been a bit high in the past (I've been gradually reducing it over time), so that probably exacerbated my need for the extra mana.
The thing about Dreamstone Hedron is that at 9 mana for 3 cards it is actually quite mana efficient when compared to other budget card draw options. On a budget, 3 mana per card is typically as good as you can expect to get. Seer's Sundial, for example, costs 10 total mana for 3 cards and generally takes 3 turns assuming you hit your land drops (granted, you can continue to use it and get 4 cards for 12 mana, etc.). Dreamstone Hedron has the advantage that you can use it as a large mana rock and, when you want them, you can draw your 3 cards immediately rather than having to wait around.
I used to run Tower of Fortunes as well. If you consistently hit 8 mana, I think it is one of the best options out there. I ultimately removed it from my deck because, while I can consistently hit 7 mana to bring Jaya's inferno online, 8 mana has been hit or miss for me. The times I did have 8 mana and Tower of Fortunes in hand, I was too busy casting Jaya's inferno or doing other things with my mana to stay alive.
I have not actually played Hedron Archive in a game yet, but I used to run both Ur-Golem's Eye and Sisay's Ring for mana ramp, which were useful, but not great. In my last deck overhaul, I replaced them with Hedron Archive and Worn Powerstone since they are both an obvious step up.
Sandstone Oracle is on my maybe list, but it's hard to calculate how many cards you'll get out of it. On the plus side, if you have it in hand you cast your remaining cards quickly and then play it for maximum effect.
I used to play Wild Guess/Tormenting Voice, but didn't find them worthwhile. I posted my thoughts here.
My deck also runs a lot of mana rocks that can turn into cards when not needed anymore: Mindstone, Commander's Sphere, Hedron Archive, Dreamstone Hedron. Dreamstone Hedron is is actually one of the most efficient budget card draw options Red has available.
Agreed, but I can only run one Staff of Nin, so the question is what other card draw can I get on a budget.
Right now, my deck has:
1 Act on Impulse
1 Crystal Ball
1 Dragon Mage
1 Mindmoil
1 Moonring Mirror
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Seer's Sundial
1 Staff of Nin
EDIT: Swapped Browbeat => Dragon Mage as my opponents finally got smart enough to take the 5 damage rather than letting me draw 3 cards.
The best two budget cards are probably Wild-Field Scarecrow and Tamiyo's Journal. Armillary Sphere is a solid card for budget decks and, as Weebo pointed out, Wild-Field Scarecrow fills the same role but can also serve as an early blocker, which is often valuable for Jaya. Tamiyo's Journal is actually pretty decent if you're on a budget. It costs one more than Seer's Sundial, but you don't need a land drop to draw a card, so it is much more consistent. While Seer's Sundial can net you multiple cards in a round, this requires fetchlands or other non-budget cards.
Recently, I saw a post (link) stating that the partial Paris mulligan enabled some people to unintentionally short their mana base and that "a good base to work from is to start with 40 lands, 10 draw, and 10 ramp, then adjust from there based on your estimated mana needs."
This is a mana hungry deck. I'm currently running 38 lands, 12 mana rocks/mana ramp cards, and 8 filtering/card draw cards. Is that reasonable? I haven't played this deck much since the new mulligan rules.
I'm questioning all my mana bases right now. Back during Revised, I always ran 20 lands in my Red Burn decks and rarely had problems. Recently, I've been doing the same and been running into more land issues. It just recently dawned on me that if you go first, you only have 10 cards on turn 4 as opposed to the 11 I would have had back during Revised (first players could draw on their first turn back then). In other words, I was used to having 10% more cards in my hand. As such, I'm probably going to bump my land count by 10% to 22 lands in my 60 card decks.
Check out my decklist as a starting point: Budget Deck
I restrict myself to spending no more then 50 cents on any individual card and my current list rings up at less than $40 on TCGPlayer.com. I do have some outliers (Darksteel Plate being the most notable) that I managed to pick up for dirt cheap or in an advantageous trade.
Now is actually a great time to start out on the cheap. Establishing a mana base and gaining card advantage is the biggest struggle for a budget Jaya deck as good card draw (Wheel of Fortune) and mana doublers (Gauntlet of Power) are expensive. Since the release of the last commander set, there are now a large variety of good mana rocks that can be purchased for less than 50 cents (Worn Powerstone being the best of them). Affordable card advantage has become much more prevalent (including Staff of Nin, Outpost Siege, Commune with Lava, etc.).
My deck certainly wouldn't hold up in a competitive environment, but is fun to play in a casual environment. We don't have an aggressive meta until someone sticks their neck out, so I tend to leave myself open at the beginning of the game. However, once I get Jaya and Magebane Armor/Darksteel Plate or Pyrohemia and Glacial Chasm in play, I can really start tearing apart everything and everyone. Starting with my deck as a base, if you're willing to splurge on a few cards I think you'll be able to build a pretty solid deck. Others would have a better idea which of premium cards they consider indispensable, but I'd recommend starting by looking at Crucible of Worlds and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. I'd rather play those two cards and all mountains in my mana based than all the non-basics I have in my entire deck.
EDIT: Valakut has tripled in price since I started playing and I had no clue how expensive Crucible of Worlds was, so maybe starting with them as a way to bolster a budget deck isn't the best option.
I'm a budget EDH/Commander player who plays exclusively mono-red. My budget is pretty restrictive as I only play cards I've been able to obtain for 50 cents or less. Zada is particularly exciting for me since a huge amount of her core cards (e.g., cantrips, buffs, rituals) can be obtained for dirt cheap. Plus, the ability to use cantrips and rituals to great effect mitigate the typical downsides of budget mono-red (i.e., lack of card draw, poor mana ramp). I've been reading through all the Zada decklist threads here on MTG Salvation and this one appears to be the most active, so I thought I'd post my deck here for comments.
My budget restrictions necessarily mean I will not be as explosive as the "storm" style decks presented in crazy monkey and Admiral Sultan's threads. Additionally, my meta is less accepting of combo decks that blowout the entire table in a single turn. As such, I need to plan for surviving multiple turns and grinding out a win. What follows is the first draft of my budget deck. I'd appreciate any suggestions on how I can improve the list. Please, only recommend cards that can be obtained for 50 cents or less.
1 Zada, Hedron Grinder
Cantrips (9)
1 Accelerate
1 Aleatory
1 Balduvian Rage
1 Boiling Blood
1 Chaotic Strike
1 Crimson Wisps
1 Expedite
1 Panic
1 Stun
Buffs (11)
1 Brute Force
1 Brute Strength
1 Downhill Charge
1 Dynacharge
1 Enrage
1 Reckless Charge
1 Rouse the Mob
1 Screaming Fury
1 Sure Strike
1 Temur Battle Rage
1 Titan's Strength
Token Spells (6)
1 Dragon Fodder
1 Krenko's Command
1 Hordeling Outburst ($)
1 Molten Birth
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Goblin Rally
1 Mogg War Marshal
1 Ghirapur Gearcrafter
1 Thopter Engineer
1 Beetleback Chief
1 Emrakul's Hatcher
1 Precursor Golem
1 Thopter Assembly
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Chancellor of the Forge
1 Flamerush Rider (alt Flameshadow Conjuring)
More Creatures (8)
1 Goblin Chirurgeon
1 Goblin Matron (owned)
1 Spikeshot Elder
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 Archetype of Aggression
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Charmbreaker Devils (?)
1 Rapacious One (?)
Rituals (6)
1 Battle Hymn
1 Brightstone Ritual
1 Skirk Prospector ($) (alt Thermopod)
1 Inner Fire
1 Mana Geyser
1 Spawning Breath
1 Burn at the Stake
1 Devil's Play
1 Red Sun's Zenith
1 Goblinslide
1 Impact Tremors
1 Heat Shimmer
1 Twinflame
1 Mob Rule
1 Lightning Storm (owned)
1 Possibility Storm
1 Reforge the Soul (owned)
1 Spawning Pit
1 Elixir of Immortality (?)
Artifact (1)
1 Swiftfoot Boots
Land (35)
1 Foundry of the Consuls (?)
1 Spawning Bed (?)
1 Kher Keep (?)
1 Forgotten Cave (?)
1 Smoldering Crater (?)
1 Blasted Landscape (?)
29 Mountains
Key:
$ = Might not be able to obtain for less than 50 cents.
? = Unsure if this should be included.
alt = Alternate card to consider
Also, considering:
Card Filtering: Commune with Lava, Faithless Looting, Wild Guess/Tormenting Voice
Mana Ramp: Walking Atlas, Iron Myr, Plague Myr, Hedron Crawler, Sisters of the Flame
Zada Protection: Darksteel Plate, Nim Deathmantle (expensive, but I already own both)
Any advice on whether Druidic Satchel or Darksteel Pendant has more utility in general?
Darksteel Forge would also stop Tuktuk Scrapper triggers, but it costs 9 mana.
You can also try to reduce your reliance on artifacts to some degree. For example, convert your mana rocks to cards like Wayfarer's Bauble, Burnished Hart, Darksteel Ingot, and Commander's Sphere