MTG Salvation

At the spot where Cataracts rests, it's often acceptable to "pay" the extra 1 (6::5) since it is fixing any mana, including lumps of colourless mana, into any combination of mana you desire. Though if we were speaking of, say, Crystal Quarry, I'd agree with that being a more rigid combination of mana.

I meant that the problem is that I have to spend my mana in iterations of 5+ for it to do anything.

Would it be possible to reserve to keep our usernames if we go to the new site? It's not a big deal to me, but I can assume some of the well-known people would not like their usernames taken just because someone else got there a few hours faster.

Tectonic Reformation is awesome. Straight into Gisela it goes. Card draw in boros is always welcome, especially nice with Land Tax et al.

Personal Tutor is a card we should run

Quote from Sheriff-K »

Quote from 75chan »

I'd like Vexing Scuttler a lot more if it didn't require 12 mana and a way to get in for damage to go infinite with...

Isn't it 10 Mana (provided you have a Land drop for your 2nd Turn?) 2 to Ninjutsu, 5 to Warp (7 Mana).. next Turn: Land Drop, 4 to Emerge, 2 to Ninjutsu, 5 to Warp (11 Mana.)

You need to attack with Scutter, so you need to emerge the same turn. 2 (Yuriko) + 5 (Warp) + 4 (Scutter). I was still wrong though, haha.

If you have no Land drop for the Turn, you can Tap a Basic, use that Mana for Borderpost's Ability, return the Basic to Hand, and then play it from Hand as your Land drop for Turn. So.. it's effectively a Mox that enters Tapped?

More like a land that enters tapped and occasionally pings your opponents for 3, since you don't get the land drop. I think that's too weak, but I do hate taplands, the only one I'm running here is Darkslick Shores

Btw, I'm toying around with River of Tears, but it should probably just be another Island.. lol. (But it's SO PRETTY!)

I KNOW RIGHT??? I've had Rivers of Tears in so many decks where it shouldn't be.

Is Key to the City better than Thassa or Writ of Passage? I wouldn't think so.. I'd originally cut the Key for Thassa, but now I'm not sure.. The Scry isn't entirely useless though, since you can bottom expensive Cards you may not need.

I think both cards suffer from being outclassed by other cards rather than being bad cards by themselves.

Here's my current list btw (Sideboard is the flex Slots I can't decide on for the remaining 4 Cards:) https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/01-08-18-orb-ninjas/?cb=1533678118

Test around what you think fits or are happy to play, but I do think both Snapcaster, DTutor and TCruise are hard excludes in any UB deck [/quote]

Equilibrium costs colorless to activate, thankfully. I'm mostly worried it might be a dead card too often.

Snapcaster is forever staple, anyone who owns one should play one. Snapback tutors, counters, time warp, brainstorm, etc. It's one of the cards I just add to every blue deck I play without secnd guessing it. It's that good. Mana Drain as well, it's a ramp spell for our expensive cards moreso than a counterspell Foil is an okay-ish option for another free counterspell, especially if you run Gush (I might not run either, but I'll probably playtest them at some point at least).

I'd like Vexing Scuttler a lot more if it didn't require 12 mana and a way to get in for damage to go infinite with...

I'll be on 32 lands to start with, but my curve is lower than plushpenguins. I think running Borderpost is making the mistake of running subpoor cards in order to make more damage per attack, but I hate taplands with a passion. It's never a mox because it costs mana and won't make 2 mana turn 1, which is why I run my beloved Chrome Mox for.

Thassa got cut in brewing for me, I really don't want to pay 1U for unblockable, and I'll have to draw the card in my draw step anyways, so no Yuriko stacking. The forecast card that does pretty much the same effect is better if you want unblockable I think.

I'll make sure to pick up one then. I don't like Lotus here at all though, but Dowsing Dagger might do work.

YMMV but in my experience, Bloodchief Ascension is not a good defensive card because it draws too much hate for what you get out of it. It's cheap though, and if you don't get 3v1'd by playing it it's probably worth a slot.

Blinkmoth allows us to get in more ninja hits when everything's a ninja, or allows us to not take as much of a tempo loss after a boardwipe. I'm not running it as a ninjutsu enabler per say, and when I want to ninjutsu it the loss of a land drop shouldn't be that big of a deal. I don't think Rogue's Passage is good here, it costs too much mana to activate and we can only run that many colorless lands.

And you should run a Mana Drain, of course I prefer Counterspell over Pact though. 3UU is so expensive, even if you pay it next turn... I only like it in cases where there won't be a next turn after you cast it, whereas counterspell is good the whole game.

Quote from Singe »

So then would Cryptic Annelid be too costly to run for the deck in exchange for its ETB scry?

Yes, scry 6 seems kinda overkill, it also lacks evasion for re-usability, unlike, say, owls, which are also cheaper.

A bunch of cards I wished for in more preferred versions, a proxy Karakas, an unglued basic and 2 chocolate bars. Thanks, not-so-secret-santa Especially appreciate the Squee in all his glory

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Back in march we used one of our rare EDH weekends to play test the London Mulligan.
From friday evening to sunday evening we accumulated 33 hours of EDH and with the new version we had close to zero non-games. It was around the time i started working on my Grenzo, Dungeon Warden list and obviously that deck went nuts - but not to a point where it worked uncontrolably well and jumped a few tiers.
Overall the London Mulligan enhances already great decks by a tad but helps decks with lean land counts, high curves and shaky deck building a lot more. I think so called cEDH will adjust in some way and casual pods will be thankful to have it.
Given the play testing in march and the feedback in our playgroup since the statement i'm optimistic we'll make it our staple mulligan.

Quote from 75chan »

Would it be possible to reserve to keep our usernames if we go to the new site? It's not a big deal to me, but I can assume some of the well-known people would not like their usernames taken just because someone else got there a few hours faster.

I'll certainly ask.

Quote from Sharpened »

Yeah, Warp World is a massive resource denial card disguised as a wacky fun card. Play it if you want, but understand what it is and why it makes a lot of people miserable when it resolves.

Funny enough, the coolest use of Warp World I've seen was also the coolest use of Prossh, Skyraider of Kher I've ever seen. The green was had mana dorks galore, the black had tutors, the red had Warp World to tutor for, and Prossh added 7 extra permanents to jump start the permanent count. Then the rest of the deck was full of things like Siege-Gang Commander and Solemn Simulacrum that put out more than one permanent when they enter, so that Warp World would essentially always put more cards into play than were there to begin with. And then each cast of Warp World hoped to put out 8 mana worth of lands and some variation of Eternal Witness to cast the spell again, and after the second or 3rd cast, it was practically deterministic "pick everything up, shuffle it together, put it all down again" for infinite mana and etb triggers.

The objectively best way to win via Flash and Protean Hulk involves getting all the eleven 0-cost creatures (Crimson Kobolds, etc.), Veteran Armorer and Márton Stromgald. Untap and swing for 120+.

Quote from Ravy »

Really hate Lantern/Storm/Eggs and Tron. Its just not fun to play against decks that do not let you play magic

I've never quite understood statements like this. You are very literally playing a game of Magic. You both have Magic cards in hand and are both playing by the rules. I understand the whole "I didn't get to do what my deck was designed to do" feel bads, but you still played a game of Magic. That's what's so great about this game - such a huge variety of play styles and things to choose from.

Eidolon of the Great Revel: People who weren't on board with this card didn't have a clue what they were talking about. Pyrostatic Pillar was already an obviously strong card in Legacy, and this is just a better version of it. Congratulations for looking at Pyrostatic Pillar on a stick and saying "yeah, that's really good" just like every reasonable person would have.

I named a lot of cards that aren't worth playing because that's usually what happens. Cards that are obviously not worth playing always get slapped with "it's worth testing" and people who state that they're obviously not worth playing get dismissed with the laughably false statement "you don't know until you try it". It's much less frequent that a card is worth playing and dismissed as not worth playing. The more usual situation is that someone is drastically overvaluing the card.

One tier 1 creature deck got hit, Infect. Death's Shadow wasn't tier 1. You're sorely mistaken if you think losing Gitaxian Probe and the printing of Fatal Push is going to kill Infect. They'll just go more all in on the combo and bring back Apostle's Blessing to counter hate. Fatal Push isn't going to eliminate creature decks. Grixis and Jund already played a card(s) that killed much of what FP kills. Esper/Junk already played a card that killed much of what FP kills. What FP actually does is not tie people down to Red and White or RB and GB for 1CMC removal and it will open up BUG as viable colors.

I've yet to see real results from you testing Gonti's Machinations, just vague statements that don't really give any information.

They didn't know what to do with Gonti's Machinations.

This doesn't really mean anything. If your opponent chooses not to attack you because it charges your Rift Helix, they're either planning to run you over next turn so that your enchantment never has an opportunity to be sacrificed or they're making a grievous error (though they're likely making a grievous error either way). If you have to rely on your opponent making grievous errors in order to make your card good, your card isn't good. If your opponent is confused about what to blow up with Abrupt Decay when they have options other than using it to counter a Rift Helix, they're similarly making a grievous error. A GB deck doesn't actually care if you gain 3 life, because they're going to bash you with a 5/6 Tarmogoyf pretty soon.

1 Gonti's Machinations cast on turn 1 or 2 usually builds an adequate amount of energy to activate 2 Gonti's Machinations meaning it is usually more powerful in doubles.

It's obvious that you would let GM sit until you need to crack it, so there's nothing profound about doing so. The only reason you wouldn't is Krosan Grip, which you don't see very often. That said, if you have to depend on "but if you get multiples" in evaluating your card, your card isn't very good.

Outside of GM, you've made 3 grievous errors in your build and you've done so solely so you can play GM because otherwise there's no room for the card. Maindeck Skullcrack is a necessity. Maindeck Searing Blaze is a necessity. 19-20 lands is a necessity. If you haven't yet observed that those are grievous errors, you haven't played enough for any conclusions to be drawn and you're just sugarcoating Gonti's Machinations.

This esports style "nerfing" of decks and constant pandering to the loudest, crankiest, people on the internet will kill this format.

The banlist should only be for the most broken of things, things like Skullclamp. You don't want combo in your format? Play standard. You don't want fast aggro in your format? Play Standard. You don't want people to attack you from different angles? Play Standard.

I'm sick and tired of the banlist being used to "shake up" the format. Magic is not a game that needs shaking up. Magic needs to not have battlecruiser magic shoved down our throats. It's a terrible sad day when you think to yourself "Is Git Probe really as strong as Skullclamp? Artifact Lands? Jace?"

Naw, not buying it. This format has gotten exceptionally worse than it was when it was first brought into being. And every single one of you who whined and complained about Pod, about Twin, about Affinity, Storm, Infect, whatever, you are all at fault.

This has gone on for five years now. What was once an interesting format is being molded into a stale format under the guise of "supporting Modern." Pandering to midrange players or people who don't like losing to combo does not equate to Wizard's supporting a format. Every single unique and interesting and Modern exclusive kind of deck has been axed. We had a huge line up of Modern only decks, decks too bad for Legacy and too weak or unsupported in Standard taken from us, and they will continue to be, and that is a tragedy and a loss, even if you don't like those decks. But this has become a problem. And you know what?

They came for combo and you said nothing. They came for aggro and you said nothing. What will you say when they come for your Karns? You Primeval Titans? Your Thoughtseizes and Lilianas?

Nothing.

I'm clearly bias about Troll, so I wont defend it. The only thing I will say is legacy deals with a much more powerful version of dredge with the same hate we have here, and does perfectly fine, and the data has shown that prepared modern decks do the same.

I will make a more important note here, that isn't even about this banning, but how wizards has handled modern for sometime now. I've been here since the beginning of modern, and I feel like someone beat down year after year. I want to defend my favorite format in magic, but I have a hard time doing it when wizards bans decks instead of fixing the meta (one might argue this is something akin to cutting off your hand when you break a finger.)

Now more people have to either enjoy losing all the time as their deck is still playable, but bad, or cash out their deck to retirement, salvage their mana base, and pay more money than they lost to make a different deck. Modern is where players seek to avoid rotation, not surgically extracted force deck changes.

The last time they unbanned things worth mentioning is 2012 when they unbanned valakut, 2014 (2 years between) when they unbanned nacatl admitting that ban was a mistake, 2015 (a year later) where they unbanned troll, which they banned again one year later in 2016 and unbanning a blue card worth mentioning, after killing a huge protion of blue decks.

When is this going to stop? When will they see people are already looking at a "new modern format" because they screwed up standard and modern so bad people are just looking for ways to play magic. I mean... why are they just constantly banning cards because there isnt enough answers to threats. You cant keep banning threats as an excuse to not have a control deck in the format.

I probably can't articulate my thoughts without getting banned, so I'll leave that as my comment.