MTG Salvation

Quote from Boaz »

Silly but basic question for you Stormers: how do you track your mana/storm count IRL? Wondering if there was an easier way then mine which is:

3 sleeved tokens put in backwards and I lay them face down on the table,
- 1 Red sleeve for red mana
- 1 Blue sleeve blue mana
- 1 White sleeve for storm count

I then use dices to keep track of all those things

I use dices and old naruto trading cards

I don't have a problem with no changes to the banister in and of itself. The format is healthy, but I was hoping to see ponder or JTMS return. What realy scares me is their wording of the explanation. This only seems to be more evidence they are intentionally neglecting modern as they feal it us the major competition for their baby standard.

It to dangerous for the health of magic in general and the stores and bussines invested in the gamejust kill the format with a massive banning or unbanning spree and people would likely realize wizards intentions, so they are just leaving modern in the corner to starve to death.

Unfortunately this will be the worst of both worlds for them, sense even an unsupported modern will continue to draw players away from the awefull mess they have created in standard.

Quote from sol501 »

Congrats! Are Defense Grid rly helps u?

I didn't get to bring it in, but I have found it very useful in the past. Droping it out turn 2 gives you a good window to combo off turn 3-4 and it forces you'd opponent to chose between keeping counter mana up or playing out their threats. It does seem a bit trickier now that gifts is the standard sense it keeps you from casting it EOT in most cases but I still think it's worth it.

Took my deck to its first FNM tonight, went 3-1 (6-3) and got 2nd. Beat Esper Death Shadow, Bant Spirits, and Bant Knightfall. My loss was to Merfolk in round 3. Used this list.



I was very happy with the deck overall, though I'm still aquiring more fetches for it. Running 3 Past in flames was important as it let me beat scavenging oozes from the spirit deck. The game against merfolk I miss played game 2 and took the wrong line.

Going to be bringing it out again Sunday for a modern tourney.

So, finaly getting the deck together in paper for FNM tomorow, very excited to finally play it in paper after years of MTGO grinding with it. I'm considering dropping my second copy of empty from the main for a third past in flames, I feal like that makes it a bit more reasonable to keep gifts looping all the way to 20 storm. Has anyone tried this?

He is certainly cheaper but I would only use him on an spell heavy build. He isn't as good in a deck with a bunch of swiftspears, spark elementals, vexing devils, keldon marauders, ect. And those are all classic budget burn cards

hey guys, played Johnny's classic storm list on MTGO for ages and would like to try and finally put the deck together in paper, these new gifts list's seem extremely cool and I'm excited to try. My fist question though is why cut 1 electromancer vs cutting 1 Baral? he is legendary, which seams significantly more troublesome and common an issue than the need for red to cast electromancer. Is this a point of debate or has there been a very definitive proof made for 4 Baral vs 4 electromancer?

Thermo is ok, but it dies to any removal where as Eidolon will get in 2 even if they kill it immediately.

Hey guys so i have been absent for a few months but I'm finally getting time to start tuning my deck again as I make my final preparations for GP Vegas in June. I'll be bringing my Mardu list to FNM tonight and up until this point I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't plan on flipping to Naya before the event but I do live in a very insulated meta (next town with an LGS is a hour drive) so if anyone has suggestions or advice on number of blazers, firewalkers, number of fast lands, ect. In particular I'm thinking of cutting a firewalker for an additional path, burn is by far the most popular deck where I live but I feel like 3 is unnecessary at an event where i may never see the mirror.

So i was wasting my time tonight browsing around on the internet and popped over to the Modern Nexus where I got an idea I thought would be really cool to see play out. A 40 deck modern tournament, but seeded based on current metagame share rather than subjective seeding like in Mox Boardinghouse's gauntlet of greatness series. I decided to make a bracket to see what it looked like and possibly fill out for fun ala march madness. This is what I got, if people find it interesting maybe ill make another one in a few months, or do a Legacy one.

Decks are seeded based on metagame share as per the Nexus, and the bottom 16 must win a play in game to enter the round of 32. Each comes with a few complimentary sentences of inebriated commentary from me.

Tarmagoyf Region

#1 Deaths Shadow Jund Vs. Winner of #8 Jeskai Midrange/ #9 8-rack
The #1 Overall Seed took the banning of probe in stride but 8-rack could prove dangerous, particularly if it was a Smallpox build with Ensnaring Bridge. Winner faces Dredge or Wafo-Tapa Control

#4 Jeskai Control Vs. #5 Dredge
The first of a few rather uneven matchups, Jeskai may be able to make it interesting with a sideboard cards, but Dredge really is the bane of control decks. Plenty of interesting sweet 16 possibilities in this section of the bracket.

#3 Jund Vs. #6 Living End
I don't know how to feel about this one, on the surface living ends strategy seems like a nightmare for Jund, but perhaps discard and Scavenging Ooze let it be disruptive enough.

#2 Gx Tron Vs. Winner of #7 Griselbrand/ #10 UW Control
UW Control was the last deck into the field, and even if it wins the nightmare of Tron looms in the round of 32. Griselbrand would have a much better chance to take down whatever version of Tron shows up. Winner get either Jund or Living End in the Sweet 16.

Mox Opal Region

#1 Affinity Vs. Winner of #8 Boggles/ #9 Amulet Titan
I cant imagine the play in match being terribly interactive, but Amulet would atleast have the hate to fight Bogles enchantments in the SB. I'm not sure I like either's chances in the round of 32 though, Affinity really is just nuts when it comes down to it. Winner faces the victor of Grixis Control and RW Prison.

#4 Grixis Vs. #5 RW Prison
MaRo may be able to kill prison in standard, but in modern the RW Lockdown deck has been hanging around for a while now. Blood Moon and a lack of enchantment removal on Grixis's part give it some serious advantages here, as well as a ton of great SB cards. This is a matchup I would really want to see with 2 competent pilots going at it.

#3 Abzan Company Vs. #6 Gifts Storm
There's no modern deck that has had more cards banned that storm, but the deck just refuses to die no matter how hard they try. It combos off faster than company will usually but company has a ton of SB hate and ways to tudor it up.

#2 EldraziTron Vs. Winner of #7 Esper Control/ #10 Cheeri0s

Unfortunately Cheri0s hasn't achieved the success some folk's hoped for with its new toys but it gets its chance to try and go off through Esper Draw-Go. It seems like it could potentially have game vs EldraziTron of it wins but consistency issues make it hard to imagine it going far.

Lightning Bolt Region

#1 Burn Vs. Winner of #8 Death and Taxes/ #9 Blue Moon
Of the #1 seed's Burn probably got the best region as far as matchups go. The problem is a possible nightmare game against Ad Nauseum in the sweet 16. That's basically the equivalent of the basketball team that starts 4 guards vs the team with 3 seven footers inside. Interestingly, D&T is classified as a separate deck from Eldrazi and Taxes. Winner gets Ad Nauseam or Bushwhacker Zoo.

#4 Ad Nauseam Vs. #5 Bushwhacker Zoo
one of the most interesting first round matchups in my opinion. Bush-Zoo is fast and against a deck that does not interact well it can fill up the board quickly. Ad Nauseam however refuses to die with stupid cards like Angel's Grace and Phyrexian Unlife. As a burn player, i would sell my soul to help Zoo win this.

#3 Merfolk Vs. #6 Lantern Control
Definitely not happy to see an Ensnaring Bridge deck if you're Fish here, but look at it this way, all that Affinity hate you carry works in this match too!

#2 RG Valakut Vs. Winner of #7 RG Ponza/ #10 Taking Turns
Ok, this is my upset pick if I were filling this thing out. Land destruction is bad enough against Turns, which really needs mana to get going, against a Valakut deck it seams just brutal. Ponza is the South Carolina of this tourney. Winner tangles with the Merfolk/Lantern winner in the sweet 16.

Noble Hierarch Region

#1 Bant Eldrazi Vs. Winner of #8 Mono-Green Devotion/ #9 Bant Knightfall
Tooth and Nail vs putting all your lands in the yard is a pretty odd match, no idea how the decks stack up. Whoever wins has to face the ghost of winters past. Winner of that match faces Infect or Elves.

#4 Infect Vs. #5 Elves
If Dick Vitale knew what Magic was, Infect would be the blue blood he insists was insulted by the committee. Thankfully Dick has no clue about any of this and please keep it that way. Do all Elves creatures make attacking problematic for infect? I have no idea myself as I haven't piloted either deck.

#3 Grixis Delver Vs. # 6 Eldrazi and Taxes
Another one I'm not super knowledgeable about, but Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Thought-Knot Seer seem horrifying to play against with Delver. Can Fatal Push even the odds?

#2 Abzan Vs Winner of #7 Bring to Light Scapeshift/ #10 Skred
Of all the decks in this tournament no one got shafted by seeding like Scapeshift. A control deck built around Blood Moon is not what they want to see and a clever player can use Koth of the Hammer's +1 to make his opponents lands into all to killable creatures or just apply pressure. Skred would also pose a cool matchup against Abzan as it packs tons of removal and can get free wins off of any 3 color deck. Winner faces Grixis Delver or Eldrazi and Taxes.

What do you guys think? I would definitely travel to go see this tournament over a weekend. Would anyone else like to see an event like this every year, possibly from SCG now that Wizards is cutting us loose to go frolic in the Forgotten Cave with Legacy and Vintage?

The gatewatch are, in my opinion, a childish and dumbed down magic story line trying to sell the game to children and other non gamer fantasy oriented folks and create brand's for expansion into other media such as movies and games (I actually really want a magic fighting game like Mortal Kombat if it was done right). Its all so basic and forced, these new walkers can't even be considered in the same league as the magic lore of old. Domineria, Old Ravnica, Old Miroden, THAT is magic lore to me.



Also, I bet we get to see the Gatewatch fail to defeat Bolas in Amonket block, and even if they do it will only be through super teamwork friendship power of diversity (insert childish PC crap here). A mere mortal, Umizawa, Killed Bolas. Pre-mending God like plane creating Elder Dragon Bolas. And he basically did it himself. Like most of the new cards they print these days, the Gatewatch are watered down and simplistic.

Quote from elconquistador1985 »

I haven't played against the new DS, but I played the old DS this way where I'd poke them initially and then wait for them to do work for me towards killing themselves. I believe it was rather effective. I would poke them a few times and then force them to cross 13 on their own and then avoid casting spells until I could just kill them. The best is when you cast Searing Blaze on DS just to get 3 damage in and they waste a pump spell trying to keep it alive.

Edit: The idea is that you want a situation where they cross 13 and you can then kill them over the course of the rest of their turn plus your next turn and they're dead before DS matters. It takes 4-5 cards to do it.

That's similar to how I would play, although with its Cats and become immense they were alot better at combing at high life than the new one seems to be.

Quote from IDoC »

Quote from Cyncro »

So is the strategy against DSJ literally to do nothing until they get low enough you can burn them out?

Pretty much. It actually works surprisingly well, since we almost completely strip them of their ability to do anything relevant.

The gameplan is basically to not let ourselves do their work for them. For the most part, they have two relevant threats: Deaths Shadow and Tarmogoyf. If we hit them with spells early, our hand will likely be empty once they get to around 6-8 life, which leaves us wide open to Shadow. On the other hand, if we just sit back and refuse to go after their life total, they never get to cast Shadow and the only threat they have left is Tarmogoyf, so the whole game centres around whether or not they can stick a goyf and kill us with it before we can assemble enough burn to finish them off. They also have no choice but to take some amount of damage from their lands, so by the time the games goes that far we should only need five or six spells. Use RiP or Relic to keep them off Delirium for Traverse and weaken goyf, and use paths and creature burn to clean up anything relevant they manage to get on board. Don`t let them scare you into casting burn spells to their face in response to discard spells. Pressure is the only defense the DSJ deck has against this plan, so if you can hold them off long enough and draw even reasonably well, their whole gameplan just folds.

I have yet to play the new builds of Suicide Zoo/Death Shadow, it sounds quite od but it seams like it makes sense. But should I be doing literally nothing but fetch lands (seems a bit absurd) or is it ok to play out goblin guide ect. To chump his goyf's?

Personally I think there's nothing better than Rakdos Charm against dredge. They pack tons of anti-hate for stuff like RIP and Cage but can't do anything against an instant speed grave whipe. It also has the added bonus of being a massive lava axe if they blow up quick and is a versitile answer for seveal other decks aswell. I know most people prefer Naya but I've never liked the Cat and I certainly don't fear dredge with 3 Charm in my board. Very impresed with Mardu overall given how good most decks are at blocking or killing creatures in the current meta. Going more spell heavy rather than focusing on creatures feels great.

Rakdos charm is fantastic in my experience vs dredge, bot the grave hate and damage modes are relevant and it has use in other matchups aswell. If your in black like me I think 2-3 in the SB is an absolute must.