I transitioned from normal highlander into EDH. Most of the highlanders got torn apart in the process, including a non-subtle Esper control that earned its fame in multiplayer by regularily Stasis-locking the table. The sole survivor, although gone through dozens of rebuilds, was originally a Grixis 1 on 1 resource denial deck (plenty of LD, some artifact destruction, countermagic and a Mind Twist thrown in the mix). It eventually transitioned into a copy-hungry Riku spellslinger.
Maga, Traitor to Mortals was probably my first deck that was an EDH from the beginning. I fell in love with those black X drain spells, so the deck is all about generating mana aplenty, ripping the lifeforce from my opponents (and their creatures) and converting them into juicy cards.
Atalya, Samite Master was number two. I wanted someone to command a pile of lifegain spells, all while gaining some life on her own, and eventually winning with Test of Endurance. Play experience has since had an impact on the deck and pushed it slightly away from pure life-gaining and more into a mono-white control direction.
Pulling a foil Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund on the prerelease eventually made me build a Dragon tribal deck to give him a home.
Arcum Dagsson's combo pile began as the idea of a 'technomancer deck' for my Shadowrun character. Attempting to translate him into Magic, I came up with the creature type 'Artificer' as most fitting. Arcum's the only legendary artificer in my collection.
Numot, the Devastator was designed to be a EDH Two-Headed Giant deck. Starting from the thought of 'if I hit each player for X, I hit every team for 2*X', the deck is stuffed with area-damage burn spells and creatures that survive them. The commander was mainly picked for its colors. The other two just didn't fit as good.
Karona, False God seized command of the ruins of an old Enchantress deck. I rebuilt it, including the Vow enchantments to keep my commander in check. It's notoriously low on winning conditions and occasionally locks up everyone, including itself.
Ghave, Guru of Spores is the result of me building something more creature-based. Most of my decks only use a select few creatures. Dredging Ghave gives me the opportunity to shovel my guys into and out of the grave.
Damia, Sage of Stone is my newest deck. In an attempt to create a lower-power deck, I decided to center it around a mechanic that shouldn't be too overwhelming in EDH, provided I didn't use infinites: Storm. I failed miserably. The storm-pile has proven to be surprisingly strong and consistent.
1. Figure out what I intend to build in broad strokes
2. Find a commander that supports the plan
3. Rummage through collection, gather fitting cards into piles
4. Eliminate the least fitting cards until a core of 60-65 cards remains
5. Add manabase
6. Clean up
7. Unleash deck on friends
8. Keep on tuning the deck, based on playing experiences
Played a mono black variant on Games Day. I actually don't really play T2 and threw the deck together on Saturday evening (with all the stuff I just had at hand), just because I was entirely magic-starved and desperately needed to play. To my surprise, I had an absolute blast playing it, and I actually consider to attend the one or other T2 tournament with it (or a re-build into other colors) before all those juicy sacrifice targets rotate out.
Veronika's thoughts start to wander as she walks along Route 1. To her younger brother Michael, who had almost died of envy as she set off for her journey. His greatest dream - as the one of many kids his age - was to become world's greatest pokemon trainer. Her own goal is a bit less ambitious: to learn as much as she could of water pokemon. Perhaps, she could even find one of those ancient fish pokemon everyone had thought they were extinct until someone in the Hoenn Seas had fished one up!
As the road passes along a lush forest, Veronika pulls herself from her reverie. She leaves the road towards north and keeps her eyes open for wild pokemon.
[dice]100[/dice]
OOC:
Woohoo! Overtime! Hope I'll get to post a little more often.
The isle is pretty cool with Doomsday.
On second thought, I shouldn't be thinking about playing Doomsday in EDH, as it would only make my 'combo player' reputation worse. But, if I were to play Hive Mind, then Doomsday ...
I use old-frame basic lands in my decks whenever possible. In addition, I tend to go for a single set when selecting the lands for a deck. Rifter taps Mirage plains and mountains, Spiral Tide prefers Ice Age islands (no surprise it occasionally causes Brain Freeze!) and the new, artifact heavy mono-B control deck received Urza's Saga swamps - yay for scrap metal!
If you want to win with the aria, you could use Primordial Hydra. With the additional counters (and probably a few other ways to feed it counters), it grows massive enough quickly to win the game.
I don't really see the problem. In my area, such sleeves are rarely used, and no-one uses playmats anyway. When I actually run into people using them, they might earn a few sarcastic comments from my side, and it's definitely more satisfying to see them fall to my dull black or blue sleeved pile of cards.
Veronika happily accepts both pokedex and pokeball and immediately releases Leo.
'Hello, Leo! Are you ready for our adventure trip?'
The baby seal pokemon joyfully bounces up and down, and claps in excitement.
'I take this as a yes! Let's head out of town and go explore!'
Gratuitous Violence gives your fighters double the punch. Furnace of Rath might also work, especially if you decide to pummel poor Stuffy Doll. Tahngarth punches doll for 4, gets doubled to 8. Doll punches opponent for 8, gets doubled to 16. Ow.
We shouldn't confuse the combo itself with the deck built around it.
To me, a combo is two or multiple cards interacting with each other in a way that the result is massively more powerful than the individual cards on their own.
A combo deck is tailored towards assembling and protecting one or multiple combos.
Of course, non-combo-type decks may occasionally utilize a combo to achieve victory, but they're not all about piecing it together.
About people being annoyed about losing to a combo: most people don't really hold a grudge if they get combo-killed in a creative way, although 'creative' has a very broad definition. Yes, I have to admit I once sicced my Arcum combo pile on a group of newer EDH players. When I pieced Forge/Lattice/Disk together and blew up the board in response to someone Pathing my general, I caused honest shock and awe. In my normal playgroup, people would already have started to yawn when I went for Lattice (or would have bounced the forge in response to me firing the Disk ...).
Family: Parents own a ship and transport passengers between Snowpoint City and Fighting Area. In summer, they also do Wailord watching tours. Younger brother (8).
Appearance: Dark blond hair, usually bound into a ponytail, light blue eyes. Skin tanned from spending much time on the sea. Usually wears white shirts with sea-related motifs and comfortable blue jeans. She feels a strong tie to water and is an excellent swimmer.
Goal: explore the lakes and streams of the region to observe and befriend water-loving pokemon
Backstory: Veronika spent most of her childhood on her parents' ship, out on the sea. For her 17th birthday, her parents offered her to undertake a journey to explore the world on her own, which she gladly accepted.
Planning to join some friends at GP Lyon this autumn (can't pass on the opportunity to attend a GP that's almost on my doorstep!), but I'm not really into Modern yet.
Favorite playstyle: I love to blow out my opponent in a single, spectacular turn.
How competitive: Will be played on the GP. While I don't really expect great results, I wouldn't mind to win the one or other game.
Budget: Decent. Can also easily borrow missing cards from friends.
Favorite cards/colors: 'untap my lands' effects are awesome (I play Spiral Tide in Legacy). Big love for blue and red for spell-slinging fun.
Staples: big pile of Legacy Storm stuff, 4 Snapcaster Mage
I assume going with Storm would work out well, although I'd like to know if there are decks that are more in the style of Spiral Tide. Is there, for example, a Modern take on Heartbeat Combo?
Maga, Traitor to Mortals was probably my first deck that was an EDH from the beginning. I fell in love with those black X drain spells, so the deck is all about generating mana aplenty, ripping the lifeforce from my opponents (and their creatures) and converting them into juicy cards.
Atalya, Samite Master was number two. I wanted someone to command a pile of lifegain spells, all while gaining some life on her own, and eventually winning with Test of Endurance. Play experience has since had an impact on the deck and pushed it slightly away from pure life-gaining and more into a mono-white control direction.
Pulling a foil Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund on the prerelease eventually made me build a Dragon tribal deck to give him a home.
Arcum Dagsson's combo pile began as the idea of a 'technomancer deck' for my Shadowrun character. Attempting to translate him into Magic, I came up with the creature type 'Artificer' as most fitting. Arcum's the only legendary artificer in my collection.
Numot, the Devastator was designed to be a EDH Two-Headed Giant deck. Starting from the thought of 'if I hit each player for X, I hit every team for 2*X', the deck is stuffed with area-damage burn spells and creatures that survive them. The commander was mainly picked for its colors. The other two just didn't fit as good.
Karona, False God seized command of the ruins of an old Enchantress deck. I rebuilt it, including the Vow enchantments to keep my commander in check. It's notoriously low on winning conditions and occasionally locks up everyone, including itself.
Ghave, Guru of Spores is the result of me building something more creature-based. Most of my decks only use a select few creatures. Dredging Ghave gives me the opportunity to shovel my guys into and out of the grave.
Damia, Sage of Stone is my newest deck. In an attempt to create a lower-power deck, I decided to center it around a mechanic that shouldn't be too overwhelming in EDH, provided I didn't use infinites: Storm. I failed miserably. The storm-pile has proven to be surprisingly strong and consistent.
2. Find a commander that supports the plan
3. Rummage through collection, gather fitting cards into piles
4. Eliminate the least fitting cards until a core of 60-65 cards remains
5. Add manabase
6. Clean up
7. Unleash deck on friends
8. Keep on tuning the deck, based on playing experiences
As the road passes along a lush forest, Veronika pulls herself from her reverie. She leaves the road towards north and keeps her eyes open for wild pokemon.
[dice]100[/dice]
OOC:
The isle is pretty cool with Doomsday.
On second thought, I shouldn't be thinking about playing Doomsday in EDH, as it would only make my 'combo player' reputation worse. But, if I were to play Hive Mind, then Doomsday ...
...
gone deckbuilding
is a Menger sponge.
- If you want them to attack, your colors of choice are white and blue. White walls can be awakened by enchantment (Rolling Stones, Animate Wall), or get aggressive once they block (Ageless Sentinels, Woolly Razorback); certain blue walls can start to walk around and punch people on their own (Wall of Wonder, Dark Maze, Wall of Deceit). Also, animated Illusionary Wall is fun.
- If you want mana (Vine Trellis, Overgrown Battlement) or cards (Wall of Blossoms, Carven Caryatid) off your walls, you'll want green.
- Red walls can reach high power (Wall of Opposition, Wall of Razors). Vent Sentinel draws firepower off other walls.
'Hello, Leo! Are you ready for our adventure trip?'
The baby seal pokemon joyfully bounces up and down, and claps in excitement.
'I take this as a yes! Let's head out of town and go explore!'
The duo heads west, towards Route 1.
To me, a combo is two or multiple cards interacting with each other in a way that the result is massively more powerful than the individual cards on their own.
A combo deck is tailored towards assembling and protecting one or multiple combos.
Of course, non-combo-type decks may occasionally utilize a combo to achieve victory, but they're not all about piecing it together.
About people being annoyed about losing to a combo: most people don't really hold a grudge if they get combo-killed in a creative way, although 'creative' has a very broad definition. Yes, I have to admit I once sicced my Arcum combo pile on a group of newer EDH players. When I pieced Forge/Lattice/Disk together and blew up the board in response to someone Pathing my general, I caused honest shock and awe. In my normal playgroup, people would already have started to yawn when I went for Lattice (or would have bounced the forge in response to me firing the Disk ...).
Gender: Female
Starter Pokemon: male Spheal, named Leo
Age: 17
Origin: Snowpoint City, Sinnoh
Family: Parents own a ship and transport passengers between Snowpoint City and Fighting Area. In summer, they also do Wailord watching tours. Younger brother (8).
Appearance: Dark blond hair, usually bound into a ponytail, light blue eyes. Skin tanned from spending much time on the sea. Usually wears white shirts with sea-related motifs and comfortable blue jeans. She feels a strong tie to water and is an excellent swimmer.
Goal: explore the lakes and streams of the region to observe and befriend water-loving pokemon
Backstory: Veronika spent most of her childhood on her parents' ship, out on the sea. For her 17th birthday, her parents offered her to undertake a journey to explore the world on her own, which she gladly accepted.
Favorite playstyle: I love to blow out my opponent in a single, spectacular turn.
How competitive: Will be played on the GP. While I don't really expect great results, I wouldn't mind to win the one or other game.
Budget: Decent. Can also easily borrow missing cards from friends.
Favorite cards/colors: 'untap my lands' effects are awesome (I play Spiral Tide in Legacy). Big love for blue and red for spell-slinging fun.
Staples: big pile of Legacy Storm stuff, 4 Snapcaster Mage
I assume going with Storm would work out well, although I'd like to know if there are decks that are more in the style of Spiral Tide. Is there, for example, a Modern take on Heartbeat Combo?