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  • posted a message on Tuvasa the Sunlit, commanderin' preview
    If by that you mean Tier 1 excellent Hall of Famer notable Extended deck as a commander, by only 1 less power. Undoubtedly this basic implementation goes right to the top with its cmc of 3 and colors of "best", by EDHrec, and inclusivity of blue enchantments (quite a few historical bans).
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • posted a message on Infect Storm
    People play too many removal spells to kill things that go a more direct route of facesmashing for that to work. The amount of dead cards versus become immense with the synergy that it naturally has with playing other spells is way out of reach... but it is still a germ of an idea that one could take note of. Tainted strike thus being the "actual good card" here. Maybe they do? Maybe they die to ONLY Thermo-Alchemist / Tainted Strike somehow. Would try it with Grim Harvest over anything else.
    Posted in: Deck Creation (Modern)
  • posted a message on Agree or Disagree (Discussion on Tutor Effects)
    A more or less objectively unrealizable split the difference question, given the attribute of official banned list having the shortness attribute that it does, and read as being correct when reasoned out in the official statements. EDH / cEDH is not a Pro Tour format and how these things shake out are bound to move slowly rather than quickly. Take it as a given that your average power creep cards can maybe make it so that a Crystal Witness/Counterspell type of idea that you just drew into, that maybe drew you a card after scrying 2, as a massive interlock of similar ideas, would eventually come to be. Where synergy does not mean "less than best", and is not less than skilled and variant in outcome... where variant means the opposite of its own self as presently constituted, (but also has some horizon visibility); one lego piece out of maybe 4/5 of the ideas you picked as a pure combo thing at the outset. As an objective question the answer becomes 5, as people are invested in what is official and Wizards follows the one thing in all of Magic pantheon that is this way. As such, people having the answer of "5" depends ENTIRELY on how much slack the design can make taut and tune to the ultra genius tier of IQ... on what mistakes or home runs are made in the "very impactful cards" category, over time. Thus exists a bifurcation with a further bifurcation as the former, where the latter is "it only stays about the same or becomes even more polarized/stagnant". You're in the hands of R&D here because the list forging is correct for the balance of needs it must serve.
    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on Serra Ascendant needs to be banned
    The case for banning this is strong. It just doesn't match intent. This is awfully random, and too strong. I would just not include this for how good it is. The weird things this does are similar to what Sol Ring does. It just screws with the entire ecosystem of what could happen. Removal for this is hardly going to happen very much if the decks are good. Combo being too gross is not a good argument against it. It kills the entire design category of saboteur cards or accrual-value creatures that are supposed to hit your opponent a little bit and then do their thing, not just die and gain the opponent some life, or sit back. This is a worthy consideration, if not now, but, "tomorrow". Tomorrow, there should be the entire archetype of delivering smacks, and who exactly you smacked and why, early in the game, and at that point it goes. It does compound interest with other damage cards that truly could just kill the opponent. Too good WITH that idea, and randomly warp-9 beats it and each time you played, the card just decided the game. For one mana, this is too much. Every equipment that as time goes by does silly things, see Helm of the Host.
    Posted in: Commander Rules Discussion Forum
  • posted a message on Give each color they're signature cards back
    The problem with the signature cards and with the Core Sets having them on a non-rotating basis, as permanent fixtures, is clear. That leaves less room to NOT print equal on all terms, and print BETTER on one slot, or two slots, or simply worsen one slot, in a given environment. With core sets coming back, it is more like option slots are available than signature card slots. That already had changed, somewhat. Print a fresh card did that, though it didn't actually, that was a lot on the rares. They are fine, but they are better as, just for an example, Devouring Light for 2W or scale out to ANYTHING at any time for 5WW, Mana Leak but lose 1 life, Incinerate rather than Lightning Strike (this time only), Duress that CAN hit creatures for fully 5 life and is a mutual cantrip on noncreature, and Predator's Strike for only one green. And so on. These kinds of cards, I think, with Core Set rather than planted anywhere whatsoever that would take a deadening impulse as to what they could be and possibly call it axiomatic, answering NONE of your complaints, take care of the deficiencies of New World Order. You have "everything is kicker", unobtrusively, some of the time. Given the example, right. ONE was. It would take that. It would take initial late 90's expansion mechanics that hid themselves to have this be better than it was before and not just WHAT it was before.
    Posted in: Standard Archives
  • posted a message on How to beat Plunder the Graves

    Talrand, Sky Summoner

    Favorable Winds
    Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
    Voidmage Prodigy
    Void Stalker
    Niblis of the Breath
    Errant Ephemeron
    Mulldrifter
    Spiketail Hatchling
    Spiketail Drakeling
    Spiketail Drake
    Silumgar Sorcerer
    Nevermaker
    Impaler Shrike
    Meloku the Clouded Mirror
    Keiga, the Tide Star
    Drift of Phantasms
    Tolarian Sentinel
    Stitchwing Skaab
    Advanced Stitchwing
    Aethersnipe
    Serra Sphinx
    Sakashima the Impostor
    Air Servant
    Draining Whelk
    Guile

    Candles of Leng
    Scepter of Insight
    Bonesplitter
    Darksteel Axe
    Vulshok Morningstar
    Sword of Vengeance
    Sky Diamond
    Mind Stone
    Prismatic Lens
    Guardian Idol
    Commander's Sphere
    Savor the Moment
    Time Warp
    Walk the Aeons
    Muddle the Mixture
    Capsize
    Gitaxian Probe
    Gush
    Whispers of the Muse
    Snapback
    Think Twice
    Spell Burst
    Whirlermaker
    Counterspell
    Mana Leak
    Arcane Denial
    Remand
    Controvert
    Fervent Denial
    Overwhelming Intellect
    Spreading Seas, Phantasmal Terrain (for Boseiju, Cavern of Souls)
    Mental Note, Thought Scour, Vessel of Paramnesia
    Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, Bosium Strip, Elixir of Immortality
    Paradox Engine

    Faerie Conclave

    Might be slightly over, but by way of compensation, this deck is powerful.
    The cheapest that is still good. Counter target spell / buyback are raw power and stop ANYTHING and usually saw print in the common slot. In the absence of pure deck warping against that one deck, you'd have to try to do something really cheap-o that only time warping with an off-color vigilance could do for you, in some games, at least as an inclusion. Where the amount of mana is perfectly reasonable to flash back a Savor the Moment with Bosium Strip (which is also in your land ramp slot.) Gush, Probe, or, Snapback also with the Paradox Engine. You have just barely enough to make someone do a rage quit budget deck anger thing there now. Hope this helps.
    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on [Lets Brew] Ramos, Dragon Engine
    Ramos, Dragon Engine:
    Play in the midst of power gaming worries version

    Sol Ring
    Mana Crypt
    Mana Vault
    Grim Monolith
    Coalition Relic
    Farseek
    Rampant Growth
    Kodama's Reach
    Cultivate
    Skyshroud Claim
    Explosive Vegetation

    Enlightened Tutor
    Worldly Tutor
    Muddle the Mixture
    Life from the Loam
    Crucible of Worlds
    Kefnet the Mindful
    Trade Routes
    Ground Seal
    Survival of the Fittest
    Mastery of the Unseen
    Asceticism
    Greater Good
    Natural Order
    Eternal Witness
    Skullwinder
    Genesis
    Anger
    Glory
    Diligent Farmhand
    Sakura-Tribe Elder
    Yavimaya Elder
    Yavimaya Dryad
    Yavimaya Granger
    Tradewind Rider
    Ronom Unicorn
    Hearth Kami
    Mulldrifter
    Necrotic Sliver
    Temur Sabertooth
    Pharika's Mender
    Restoration Gearsmith
    Loxodon Hierarch
    Karmic Guide
    Body Double
    Reveillark
    Baloth Null
    Dawnbreak Reclaimer
    Deadwood Treefolk
    Deadeye Navigator
    Spike Weaver
    Protean Hulk
    Whisperwood Elemental
    Teneb, the Harvester
    Vorosh, the Hunter
    Maelstrom Wanderer
    Etherium-Horn Sorcerer
    Enlisted Wurm
    Greenwarden of Murasa
    Research/Development
    Dovescape
    Maelstrom Pulse
    Vindicate
    Sliver Queen
    Progenitus

    Thawing Glaciers
    Command Tower
    Path of Ancestry
    Strip Mine
    Volrath's Stronghold
    Yavimaya Hollow
    Fetches, duals, shocks
    ALL cycling lands except blasted landscape
    Grand Coliseum
    etc.

    Concept:
    This is the opposite of ever sitting on any counterspells. Cascade effects preclude. You deal with anything that could hit your creatures, wraths, targeted removal, targeted graveyard hate, on-board hosers, and against non-targeted Upheaval, Decree of Annihilation, and Apocalypse type effects, you have a line unto Kefnet the Mindful, Dovescape or Trade Routes, and a bunch of redundant effects to still do the same nonsense. Enough have been printed. And you can also Research/Development, or use your one narrow counterspell. Fun card, fun deck. Kind of uber wisthz umlauts actually. With Step 1, cast him... whew! Seems eyepopping. Progenitus or Sliver land kill endgame.
    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on Mairsil, the Pretender (Let's Brew!)

    There are a few comments to the effect that this card is not that great, they are not the majority, but, look...
    Mairsil, the Pretender: definitely doesn't suck

    Compulsion
    Muddle the Mixture
    Mana Drain
    Counterspell
    Remand
    Thirst for Knowledge
    Courier's Capsule
    Shattering Pulse
    Capsize
    Forbid
    Dismiss
    Mystic Confluence
    Fabricate
    Force of Will
    Pact of Negation
    Intuition
    Spell Burst
    Scrap Mastery
    Artificer's Intuition
    Trinket Mage
    Drift of Phantasms
    Wheel of Fortune
    Future Sight
    Windfall
    Strategic Planning
    Forbidden Alchemy
    Long-Term Plans

    Goblin Welder
    Kefnet the Mindful = no geddons #2 mainly
    Daretti, Scrap Savant
    Wurmcoil Engine
    Steel Hellkite
    Bosh, Iron Golem
    Phyrexian Metamorph
    Memnarch
    Karn, Silver Golem
    Myr Battlesphere

    Sol Ring
    Mana Vault
    Mana Crypt
    Grim Monolith
    Tormod's Crypt
    Wayfarer's Bauble
    Chromatic Star
    Chromatic Sphere
    Metalworker = !!!! Is allowed?
    Relic of Progenitus
    Sensei's Divining Top
    Anvil of Bogardan
    Izzet Signet
    Dimir Signet
    Rakdos Signet
    Coalition Relic
    Unstable Obelisk
    Armillary Sphere
    Gem of Becoming
    Nevinyrral's Disk
    Oblivion Stone
    Phyrexian Processor
    Jalum Tome
    Crucible of Worlds
    Coercive Portal
    Smokestack
    Staff of Domination
    Spine of Ish Sah
    Trading Post
    Ring of Gix
    Mishra's Helix
    Urza's Blueprints
    Mindslaver
    Expedition Map
    // Fun times only = Mizzium Transreliquat, others

    +/- a few things

    Academy Ruins
    Bojuka Bog
    Tolaria West
    Buried Ruin
    Thawing Glaciers
    Duals, fetches, Watery Grave, Steam Vents
    Urza's Factory
    Gargoyle Castle
    3 on color artifact lands
    Geier Reach Sanitarium
    Deserted Lighthouse
    Strip Mine
    Wasteland
    Mouth of Ronom
    Scrying Sheets
    Snow basics, no others

    He doesn't suck, you can't get rid of the caged cards by usual means that you play here. That's powerful. He's a Welder when you get that going. Various things like that you can't get rid of, how does it suck? It's downright awesome. Fundamentally, you have an efficient creature, and even against hate you can set up a one time intelligent play of just having something really good that won't go away. With enough of a shell that is just plain good. Any one of them. In particular, just simply leaning on the land fetchers into non-self-kill on the disk or oblivion stone, yours or otherwise. Isn't affected by null rod, HAS but ISN'T, this is spectacular. It is THIS guy who is insane, not the wizard copier. Absurd. This is totally nutso.
    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on Goblin Heirloom Scorch-O (broken mistake?)
    This deck has an Extended pedigree as Fecundity and is now mono-red, clearly Legacy time.

    4 Heirloom Blade
    4 Skirk Prospector
    4 Mogg War Marshal
    1 Goblin Lackey
    3 Goblin Vandal
    4 Goblin Rabblemaster
    4 Goblin Warchief
    4 Goblin Ringleader
    4 Siege-Gang Commander
    4 Grapeshot
    4 Ruby Medallion
    3 Street Wraith
    4 Gitaxian Probe

    13 Mountain


    So this is probably close to broken, occurring on get two equips on one goblin. You can't reliable-combo, but you can oops-combo, you can Affinity. And there's probably only needle or revoker, which would be on Prospector, so you can kill a revoker that would block your Goblin Vandal by just hardcasting Siege-Gang. Seems fun, beatable but top-tier undoubtedly. Goblins are back baby. Other than that it's just a swarm kill which will duly occupy. The one thing you can't do is make a cost reducer work for the blade, but you can still fake-desperate ritual, if it was in a played-out order that a bunch of OTHER things indeed did cost less, so somewhere in the neighbourhood of it not mattering/still being so. Maybe allowable, maybe not. Several World Champions agree: this is nuts.

    Posted in: Developing (Legacy)
  • posted a message on How bad can we break Gifts Ungiven?
    They can split it in different ways, it's not THAT easy.
    You CAN do better than Unburial Rites/Iona, though.

    Gifts Ungiven for:

    Regrowth
    Intuition
    Eternal Witness
    Crystal Shard

    Groups:
    Regrowth / Intuition in yard, Crystal Witness in hand... keep on Gifting.

    Regrowth/Witness in yard, Intuition/Shard in hand... Intuition for Reclaim, Recollect, and Den Protector, commence Crystal Witnessing.

    Further permutations all fundamentally similar.

    Get Time Warp.

    A valid ban. Incidental regrowths all pretty darn good, all good cards.
    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on Does Ahn-Crop Crasher mean Hill Giant should cost 2R now? [Vanilla Power Rankings reconsidered]
    Problem with this: A) Square stats that UN-square an appropriately costed mana point are pretty boring, IF the continuum of choices, and the overall power levels of the cards make the UNsquare statted cards playable. That is HALF of the things it was before. Moving out of commonality, Centaur Courser is not a better card than Tireless Tracker. 3/3 Tireless Tracker? B) Doing so, as general power creep which clearly IS and CAN happen... creates the NEXT thing, because that thing, as a continually loaded-upon boringness... well... then, 4/3 for 2G? Out of control. More keywords infinitely better. C) The rarity is highly relevant. Savannah Lions is a rare in Alpha. And this should answer the question. Those things are totally fine, if they were rares. They would harm more or less nothing...* They would create a possible "just BARELY good enough" boringness that pushes out slightly more interesting cards from constructed contention. They would occupy a strange space of both possibly being "are you kidding me" AND "the stone cold nuts" for constructed. And they would not stay still. D) What's ALREADY done, as you surmise, can cause possible thinking cap re-evaluation of these things. They are reasonable suppositions. But they are madly out of color pie. 3/3 for 2R? With what drawback? As a rare? With what ABILITY, AND/OR, with what drawback.
    Posted in: Custom Card Creation
  • posted a message on Legacy Burn Spell Prison (archetypal distinction for sure - NOT all-in red - for how long?)

    Legacy Burn Spell Prison (INSANE)

    4 Lightning Bolt
    4 Chain Lightning
    4 Lava Spike
    1 Rift Bolt
    4 Shrapnel Blast
    4 Goblin Guide
    4 Ember-Fist Minotaur
    4 Chalice of the Void
    4 Pyrostatic Pillar
    4 Black Vise
    4 The Rack
    4 Mishra's Bauble
    4 Urza's Bauble

    4 Great Furnace
    7 Mountain


    ATTN: Ban list - - enabled by 8x doublemultiplied redundancy as of Hour of Devastation, with further abuse
    An Emrakul or similar is terrible, you have nothing for that, but, in fact, this looks pretty much bannable... i.e. , card that was once banned, and has done stone nothing since being unbanned. Super cheapo type thing. That was a thing. I was around for it. With the full accumulation, there are only the first-mentioned type things as fair outs, whatsoever. Could not possibly race, creature is too good, can chump, take bolts, die. DCI star takes place of Starbucks old logo.
    Posted in: Developing (Legacy)
  • posted a message on Modern U/G Eldrazi Artifact Tron (The "Survival" version)
    Modern: U/G Eldrazi Artifact Tron

    1 Academy Ruins
    1 Eldrazi Temple
    1 Island
    7 Forest
    1 Breeding Pool
    4 Misty Rainforest
    1 Ghost Quarter
    4 Urza's Mine
    4 Urza's Tower
    4 Urza's Power Plant

    2 Renegade Map
    4 Ancient Stirrings
    4 Tarmogoyf
    2 Walking Ballista
    4 Matter Reshaper
    4 Thought-Knot Seer
    3 Culling Scales
    2 Condescend
    1 Crucible of Worlds
    1 Evolutionary Leap
    1 Life from the Loam
    1 Wurmcoil Engine
    1 Platinum Angel
    1 World Breaker
    1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

    Culling scales is destroy target, and then you can respond with a leap. This had not yet been found as a good version as far as I know. Where was the goyf + these + kablammo? Basically, the nonbo of the goyf plus scales is not there, and is actually just COM-bo. It will either eat their face or hold it down, altogether.
    Some of this should be familiar, and yet it was not yet a deck. The version you might play to take out a prepared room that knows it either wants to play Tron or has land hate for you. Be a step ahead. Try it out.
    Posted in: Deck Creation (Modern)
  • posted a message on Recurrable removal
    Recurrable removal:

    Porphyry Nodes, Parallax Wave + Starfield of Nyx (remove things permanently with stack tricks, let it die if you want or need to)
    Mageta the Lion, World Queller
    Mangara of Corondor + Karakas
    Wall of Omens + Land Tax + etcetera, some random enchantments that are good + Mistveil Plains + Wraths

    Vedalken Shackes is quite silly; it certainly does this, when you take one, and block another, and they both die... and then you can just untap shackles?
    So does Old Man of the Sea.
    Vesuvan Shapeshifter + Shaper Parasite
    Memnarch will just take everything eventually.

    The Abyss/Magus of the Abyss, Anowon the Ruin Sage, Call to the Grave
    Slaughter. Grim Harvest + Fleshbag Marauder/Merciless Executioner.
    All kinds of things + Volrath's Stronghold

    Molten Vortex, Seismic Assault, Fanning the Flames, Beacon of Destruction, Red Sun's Zenith, Pyrohemia, Pyromancy, Ogre Shaman

    Drop of Honey, Yavimaya Hollow, Broken Fall/Molting Skin, Master of the Wild Hunt
    Genesis + off-color ETB killers, or Somberwald Stag in green

    Helm of Possession does the same thing with the admixture of some creature you don't care about very much each time; a semi-Abyss.
    Smokestack, Culling Scales
    Nevinyrral's Disk/Oblivion Stone/Grim Poppet/Steel Hellkite + Academy Ruins

    Stormbind, Meteor Storm

    And undoubtedly more that is a bit weaker, or missed a couple.
    Posted in: Commander (EDH)
  • posted a message on Legacy Faerie Tide


    This is probably better than reset high tide, to the point of being a good deck (which that one is a bit slipped). The cycling into the sarcophagus dependency at only three, as well as others, probably makes it so. And also makes it so that extraplanar lens will not be any kind of pre-game worrying about replacement of the land, drawing four. 8(/?) turnabouts is better than 4 resets? Likely. Because of this mana factor, high tide can and should be 3 and it is not nonsense, you can lens first, cast it off an already doubled one, cast sarcophagus(if even needed - cycling engine quite randomly powerful even as a non-seeder of flashback-style plays), and then start going off, virtual more faeries and turnabouts and also zeniths, and then even the hieroglyphic illumination cast from yard will be useful as a guaranteer of things. So actually FOUR of that and only 3 tide. And it is up to you what will happen with the ordering of Cloud of Faeries, it turns into gain of mana based turn and card selection tempo if you need it to, early. And if your opponent casts two spells during their turn, an early turn, you can consider drawing a virtual 9 cards with brain freeze on yourself, based on your setup. If you already have one faerie in hand, it could savagely win you the game with less setup than if they didn't randomly give you that window. And although that's vulnerable to graveyard hate, you have a luxurious 2 rescinds that you can shove away chaff you weren't really needing to cast from yard to get to, and protect/need only the faeries. Better for a whole swath of random things, not just graveyard hate, much more flexibly and cheaply than the cunning wish and chain of vapor insurance of reset high tide, as a continuum of things within overall synergy.
    Posted in: Developing (Legacy)
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