Just to be clear, the end goal is two separate decks, one for angels and one for dragons. I am NOT trying to mix the two.
I'm exploring some of the older, (ie. Modern), sets and in particular I'm looking for sets good for getting angels and dragons. The ones that immediately catch my eye are Avacyn Restored for angels, (specifically I'd like to get the Avacyn Angel of Hope from that set, but I realize the chances of me pulling one from a bulk set are pretty low), and Dragons of Tarkir obviously for dragons.
Judging from the high prices for a lot of Avacyn Restored products, it would seem to be a good set. On the flipside I have been told that Dragons of Tarkir wasn't that great, though I personally got some good things from the few DoT boosters I found. Is it really that bad?
Hate to break it to you, but Leeches have never been legal in Modern. The best way to not die to infect is to just take care of the creature that's trying to give them to you in the first place.
Creature removal also works against a large portion of decks, so it's generally going to be a better strategy to deal with Infect that Melira or casting Chord of Calling for Melira, unless your deck is already built to make use of Chord of Calling.
A semi-competitive Infect can usually kill you in a single attack phase. Diabolic Tutor is rather slow in trying to counter that. Are you playing casually?
I'm usually playing official matches at FNM
I actually played someone else with an infect deck today, though in casual play. I kept the infect creatures mostly at bay with black cartouches. (I also put Blessed Alliances in the deck, 2 in the main deck and 2 on sideboard incase I encounter an infect deck.) I won the first game, then lost the following two games. My deck focuses on aggressively leeching life from my opponent and healing myself. I also have a few bloodbond vampires in there that get buffed rapidly due to how much life gain I get. There's also a couple Felidar Sovereigns in there to win the game when I hit 40 life. I managed to go over 40 today, but didn't draw the Sovereign.
Leeches was mentioned in the older thread I found.
My deck is a black/white lifelink deck. I'll just splash some green to use Melira & Chord. I already have the necessary dual lands. I have a bunch of diabolic tutors as well to really ramp up the draw power.
The only card that’s gotten banned from Modern that really did anything to infect is Punishing Fire, so any of the cards listed in that previous thread that you mentioned are probably still fair game to deal with infect.
Infect isn’t played much these days, but as stated by Melkor, Fatal Push and Path to Exile are the cleanest answers to Infect. They tend to struggle with a high density of targeted removal spells. It’s often best to cast your removal on your own turn, or on their turn, after they’ve already attacked, since it forces them to waste Vines of Vastwood and Blossoming defense purely as defensive and they lose the added damage from those spells.
Otherwise, any instant speed removal work. Abrupt Decay, Terminate, etc. Pick your poison.
Discard spells like Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek can also be particularly effective in tearing apart their hand. Chalice of the Void X=1 gives them a pretty rough time as well.
One of the best cards was Leeches, but that is not modern legal anymore. So I'm not sure what other cards can remove infect counters. I thought there was a card that made you immune to infect.
This question was asked a few years ago in another thread, but some of the cards mentioned in that thread are no longer legal for modern, and there's been a lot more cards since. So, in 2017 what are the best cards for stopping infect?
I am aware that the rotation eliminates all cards/blocks older than Kaladesh. However, I have the Kaladesh deck builder's toolkit, and I remember that the toolkit included boosters from pre-Kaladesh sets. To quote a review from Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Kaladesh-Builders-Toolkit/dp/B01LDESLBG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506446358&sr=8-1
"Bought this for a present. They got a few good cards out of it. Came with 2 packs of Kaladesh, 1 pack of Eldritch Moon and 1 pack of Shadows over Innistrad. The other packs had some decent cards as well."
So how are we excluding cards that were included in a Kaladesh product??
The problem is your deck has to many single copies and very inconstant. Icatian posted a good budget deck, but I would put in copies of Blessed Alliance over Reprisal and Essence Extraction.
Agreed, The Duels in game poole for this deck is very limited. Constructing a real deck will definitely feature far less singles.
Coming off the heels of my experiments with W/K cards leeching/raising HP, when I got my first look at the newest offerings in Hour of Devastation, I noticed a certain trend healing in a number of the new green cards. I decided to try to make a new Lifelink-esque deck using these features with my white cards from before. I decided to attempt a 3 colour deck for the first time since I wanted to splash in some dual K/W creatures with VERY useful abilities.
The result is a deck with a fair amount of draw power and pretty good resilience. I've played the deck and it tended to extend matches, giving me time to find that KO blow, even though I couldn't always deliver said blow. The deck certainly needs work, but it's got a good start:
I definitely agree with the planeswalkers. I have that Ob Nixilis, but I've generally been against playing him due to the negative affects towards the caster. In this case all the life gaining of this deck tend to make up for it.
With my IRL cards I built a standard legal deck that employs the same strategy. Take this as more cards for the poole towards the ultimate goal of this thread--that's what this deck was meant to be anyway:
Of course, first thing is that I'd switch in b/w dual lands that can come in untapped, (which I do have now), plus I'd add in the two Planeswalkers discussed above.
I built this deck in Magic Duels and it proved fairly competitive. However, Magic Duels doesn't differentiate between modern and standard, thus this deck exists as a hodgepodge of cards that are standard legal and cards that are not.
I'll post thus deck in the modern forum as well, but here the focus is to convert this deck to being standard legal. I did make a standard legal deck that operates similarly to this one, but that deck has some issues. I think it's better to start with this deck before bringing the other into this discussion.
The deck, which I call LifeSucker:
Anything that has been printed from Battle for Zendikar on up to Hour of Devastation, outside of any Expedition lands that aren't part of the regular set for BfZ.
I've had trouble even finding the list of dual lands in those expansions!
I have tried doing online searches, by I've had a very difficult time finding a proper list.
What are all the dual colour lands that are currently standard legal? (As of the launch of Hour of Devastation July 2017)
Apologies if this is the wrong forum for this.
I'm a bit new to deck building, and there's one aspect I can't pin down quite right; On average how many cards per mana cost should one have in a 60 card deck?
I realize the type of deck one is building makes the answer vary quite a bit, but I'm looking for a good starting point for an average deck before I shift into the nuances. Fwiw, I aim to build Angel & Dragon (separate decks, not the two combined) centred decks, and one with Sphynx related stuff as well. At present I don't quite have enough of the cards for those, but I think I can manage some form of aggro deck, and I also seem to have plenty of "ferocious" cards to do something with.
I'm partial to white, (not so much black), but I'll put whatever I have to use. I also like to make sure I have flying creatures, enchantments, or at least cards that can counter flying. (My biggest gripe with the Ajani AR pre made deck was a lack of these.)
I'm exploring some of the older, (ie. Modern), sets and in particular I'm looking for sets good for getting angels and dragons. The ones that immediately catch my eye are Avacyn Restored for angels, (specifically I'd like to get the Avacyn Angel of Hope from that set, but I realize the chances of me pulling one from a bulk set are pretty low), and Dragons of Tarkir obviously for dragons.
Judging from the high prices for a lot of Avacyn Restored products, it would seem to be a good set. On the flipside I have been told that Dragons of Tarkir wasn't that great, though I personally got some good things from the few DoT boosters I found. Is it really that bad?
So what are good sets for angels and dragons?
I'm usually playing official matches at FNM
I actually played someone else with an infect deck today, though in casual play. I kept the infect creatures mostly at bay with black cartouches. (I also put Blessed Alliances in the deck, 2 in the main deck and 2 on sideboard incase I encounter an infect deck.) I won the first game, then lost the following two games. My deck focuses on aggressively leeching life from my opponent and healing myself. I also have a few bloodbond vampires in there that get buffed rapidly due to how much life gain I get. There's also a couple Felidar Sovereigns in there to win the game when I hit 40 life. I managed to go over 40 today, but didn't draw the Sovereign.
Leeches was mentioned in the older thread I found.
One of the best cards was Leeches, but that is not modern legal anymore. So I'm not sure what other cards can remove infect counters. I thought there was a card that made you immune to infect.
https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Kaladesh-Builders-Toolkit/dp/B01LDESLBG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506446358&sr=8-1
"Bought this for a present. They got a few good cards out of it. Came with 2 packs of Kaladesh, 1 pack of Eldritch Moon and 1 pack of Shadows over Innistrad. The other packs had some decent cards as well."
So how are we excluding cards that were included in a Kaladesh product??
Agreed, The Duels in game poole for this deck is very limited. Constructing a real deck will definitely feature far less singles.
The result is a deck with a fair amount of draw power and pretty good resilience. I've played the deck and it tended to extend matches, giving me time to find that KO blow, even though I couldn't always deliver said blow. The deck certainly needs work, but it's got a good start:
2 Sacred Cat
2 Grilled Sandwalla
2 Feral Prowler
1 Adorned Pounced
2 Anointed Priest
1 Sunscourge Champion
2 Prowling Serpopard
1 Rhonas the Indomitable
2 Drana's Emissary
2 Cliffhaven Vampire
2 Angel of Invention
2 Aegis Angel
1 Gideon, Martial Paragon
1 Nissa, Nature's Artisan
2 Renewed Faith
1 Rhona's Monument
1 Okhetra's Monument
1 Beneath the Sands
2 Gift of Paradise
2 Life Goes On
2 Sixth Sense
1 Appeal Authority
1 Driven Despair
1 Mouth Feed
2 Concealed Courtyard
2 Blooming Marsh
2 Fortified Village
2 Canopy Vista
4 Swamps
6 Plains
6 Forests
With my IRL cards I built a standard legal deck that employs the same strategy. Take this as more cards for the poole towards the ultimate goal of this thread--that's what this deck was meant to be anyway:
1 Sanitarium Skeleton
2 Indulgent Aristocrat
2 Vampire Envoy
2 Malakir Familiar
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
2 Drana's Emissary
2 Cliffhaven Vampire
2 Angel of Invention
2 Baleful Ammit
1 Oketra's Monument
1 Bontu's Monument
1 Renewed Faith
2 Tresspasser's Curse
2 Cartouche of Ambition
2 Cartouche of Solidarity
2 Final Reward
1 Murder
1 Murderous Compulsion
2 Diabolic Tutor
2 Daring Demolition
2 Retreat to Hagra
2 Blighted Fen
4 Forsaken Sanctuary
9 Plains
9 Swamps
Of course, first thing is that I'd switch in b/w dual lands that can come in untapped, (which I do have now), plus I'd add in the two Planeswalkers discussed above.
I'll post thus deck in the modern forum as well, but here the focus is to convert this deck to being standard legal. I did make a standard legal deck that operates similarly to this one, but that deck has some issues. I think it's better to start with this deck before bringing the other into this discussion.
The deck, which I call LifeSucker:
1 Cliffside Lookout
1 Dread Wanderer
3 Indulgent Aristocrat
1 Ruthless Sniper
1 Festering Mummy
1 Cartouche of Solidarity
1 Battle At The Bridge
1 Lone Rider
1 Binding Mummy
3 Child of Night
1 Doomed Dissenter
1 Wayward Servant
1 Grasp of Hieromancer
4 Nimbus Wings
1 Shadows of the Past
1 Reprisal
1 Bontu the Glorified
1 Drana's Emissary
1 Tainted Remedy
1 Renewed Faith
1 Essence Extraction
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Gideon of the Trials
1 Champion of Arashin
1 Grim Strider
1 Angel of Invention
1 Gilt-Leaf Winnower
1 Horror of the Broken Lands
2 Isolated Chapel
2 Forsaken Sanctuary
9 Plains
10 Swamps
I've had trouble even finding the list of dual lands in those expansions!
What are all the dual colour lands that are currently standard legal? (As of the launch of Hour of Devastation July 2017)
I'm a bit new to deck building, and there's one aspect I can't pin down quite right; On average how many cards per mana cost should one have in a 60 card deck?
I realize the type of deck one is building makes the answer vary quite a bit, but I'm looking for a good starting point for an average deck before I shift into the nuances. Fwiw, I aim to build Angel & Dragon (separate decks, not the two combined) centred decks, and one with Sphynx related stuff as well. At present I don't quite have enough of the cards for those, but I think I can manage some form of aggro deck, and I also seem to have plenty of "ferocious" cards to do something with.
I'm partial to white, (not so much black), but I'll put whatever I have to use. I also like to make sure I have flying creatures, enchantments, or at least cards that can counter flying. (My biggest gripe with the Ajani AR pre made deck was a lack of these.)
Thanks in advance for any comments!