I'm still processing that this is happening. Thank you, everyone, who helped get the forums on it's feet; who has kept them afloat since then; who has used or frequented the forums and added to or been part of the community here. It's been almost 15 years ago now, and it's crazy to think Sally has been around this long.
I'm glad that the staff are working on something to continue the community - unfortunately I don't have a phpBB2 forum hosted on a random friend's server to pull out of my pocket, this time
- Kelzam
- Registered User
-
Member for 19 years, 9 months, and 8 days
Last active Tue, Feb, 27 2024 20:02:49
- 14 Followers
- 7,182 Total Posts
- 923 Thanks
-
Dec 29, 2017Kelzam posted a message on MTGSalvation's Deckbuilder is Here!A few things I feel need to be introduced to make this worth using over other similar resources, that I currently find a little frustrating:Posted in: Articles
- The ability to re-position each section. Right now, no matter what, any section I add using the Add Section widget on the side appears below the Early/Mid/Late Game section. There can be information that is better explained in sections before those. Before I get into the early game, it's probably better to tell them how to mulligan, which I want to be it's own section. Also, I feel like Quick Info makes more sense as a section above the deck list for people to have a quick read about the deck before they start pouring through the deck list to see if it sounds like something they even want to read on about.
- The same ability to add card images to the pre-made text sections that you can add to the sections made with the Add Section feature; as well as the ability to create card links in the input text that appears in the text boxes, like we are able to do on the forums in our existing deck threads.
- Sorting capabilities for the deck list. Custom categories like those on TappedOut and the ability to tag cards with another tag other than it's default type. For example, I might want to use add the tag "Mana Acceleration" to Sol Ring instead of Artifacts, and have the capability of viewing the deck listed using custom tags to make it easier for readers to understand.
-
Feb 3, 2014Kelzam posted a message on Launch Giveaway!My favorite card is easily Arcbound Ravager. I've always loved Artifact-based decks, so when Mirrodin block was releasing I was in heaven. The deck it was part of was definitely too powerful for Standard (thanks in no part to Disciple of the Vault and the cycle of Artifact lands). But, now I play Affinity in Modern and get the same enjoyment as I did in Standard. The reason Arcbound Ravager is my favorite about all the rest though is that he let's you play both in proactive and reactive manners. The versatility is just amazing, letting you prepare an Etched Champion for an alpha strike or respond to removal of him by pouring all his counters on your Inkmoth Nexus. He's also a centerpiece in one of the few decks that aren't tri-color goodstuff.decs. There's an unfortunate lack of focus in most decks and many are simply piles of good cards that happen to fit into a guild or wedge combinations.Posted in: Announcements
-
Jan 26, 2011Kelzam posted a message on Project thoughtsIt's always good to see someone getting enjoyment out of their work or projects While I don't have any suggestions for it personally, I thought I'd post to thank you for essentially doing the forum community a service in the process.Posted in: Nis Blog
-
Jun 23, 2009Kelzam posted a message on The Moldy, Rusty GoodbyeBasically, after deciding I really want to start playing Magic again, I found that my 8 years worth of collecting cards were victim to a basement flooding, and only 3 cards survived.Posted in: Xenphire Blog
I decided to add a TL;DR summary -
Jun 8, 2009Kelzam posted a message on Selective ReadingI'll quote the posts I was referring to for clarity:Posted in: Xenphire Blog
Quote from The RiddlerI cannot see the Angel art being a Threaten-like spell, because whatever is threatening the angel into being evil, somehow also gave the angel the dark crown and glowing eyes, and whoever is controlling it isn't even present in the picture. Like the original art, I'd expect the person(s) threatening the victim to actually be present. I would also expect the background to be more in line with the soldier she's beating than the bloody palette selected (If the background were blue or white for example, she'd stick out showing something isn't right, for example).
Judging by the the glow, she's either been possessed by an evil force or she's just evil to begin with. The guy has clearly been beaten, he looks worn down and like he's struggling to get away - just look at his posture. The angle of his legs suggest he's nearly crawling.
While she wouldn't be the typical Fallen Angel what with lacking the black wings, the art tries too hard to make her look evil for it to be used on something like Threaten, IMO. I would have to doubt it's any form of control Magic, because while red might cause rage, she's clearly being driven by magic or has been possessed. The only other color possibility would be blue and blue wouldn't have an effect like that on a creature. Black doesn't do control Magic.
Re: the Sphinx: Oh god my eyes.
Quote from Ash316It would be funny then if this turned out to be Ritual of the Machine.;) I don't think it is, but there have been control cards in black. It's just doesn't go along with what they would want to do with a Core set. But as others have said, because of the background it does look more like a Red card. I just think it will be Threaten.
To answer your question, I'm not saying someone can't disagree with someone else, what I'm saying is it'd be nice if people that post in the Rumor Mill weren't so terrible about selective reading. The Riddler made several good points against the already lacking-in-reasoning assumption most of the sheep have made that the artwork has to be Threaten. The one guy who quoted him clearly didn't even bother reading his posts or didn't even try to understand his points. You have one guy posting something logical, breaking away from the mindless masses that make up the Rumor Mill posters and shining a light of intelligence on a thread, and it goes by practically unnoticed. I just find it frustrating, because it's like people there are a bunch of zombies.
You might disagree because of how you feel about reading longer posts, but I personally would rather read some posts with content that are actually logical, than the posts of hundreds of mouthbreathers repeating "Cool card" "This must be X" ad infinitum who don't even think about what they're posting. I do realize the moderators do their best to curb the spam, but I find the very nature of the average Rumor Mill poster to be quite frustrating. Different from person to person I suppose, but I think the quality of poster should be higher in the 'Mill. The Rumor Mill for a lot of new users will be the first impression of MTGS because early spoilers have been an attention-getter that has brought a good chunk of the user base to MTGNews, and now here. You come on as a new user and see a bunch of sheep, you're inclined to register and start the same sort of habits you see.
And yeah I have seen the *** vs. Damnation thread. It's another example of sheep posting the same thing over and over despite any amount of evidence to prove one way or another. Reading people's response to Charlequin's last few posts has been nervewracking at most. -
Jun 8, 2009Kelzam posted a message on Emotional rollercoasterLife is what you make of it, but ending is never the answer. In a lot of ways, suicide is a selfish thing - you probably know or have heard of many people that have lived much more painful lives, but they've endured it and it made them better people. Love is all around you, and when you end your own life, you hurt those around you.Posted in: Archon Kamigawa Blog
Let me relate your personal life to mine:
I was bullied from my pre-teen years until I graduated because I was gay, I became depressed and went from 150lbs. to 215lbs in a matter of a year and a half before graduating. I finally got accepted to a good college, got in a bad relationship, shot up to 250 lbs., and failed out of college and got terminated. Now, things like a suspension from school or the illnesses I've had seem like nothing compared to the $30,000 of debt over my head.
That is a lot to deal with. But you know why I don't kill myself? Because I'm only human, and I can endure it. We all make mistakes, we go through bad times, but we can learn from our mistakes and endure our tough times and be stronger people for it. I have family and friends that love me, and you probably do too. You haven't even begun your life yet, you're still in school - you have many years ahead of you for things to get better, to be happy and shape your life as you see fit.
Life is a gift, don't throw it away. Taking your own life is only running away from your problems, and should there be a God in the afterlife your karma will follow you. You can endure, and see that maybe things really aren't that bad, and that there's more to life than the negative side of things. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
1.) They interest me personally,
2.) They're an archetype I care about.
or
3.) I'm looking for ideas and curious.
I don't really go fishing around the forums to give feedback on decks that I don't have much interest in. I think it would be disingenuous of me to offer feedback, really. You can look at most threads here on the forums and you'll find that it's the same handful of users interested in that particular deck, plus some that come and go. My Ayli thread is certainly that way; DementedKirby's Sidisi thread the same, etc. That's kind of the culture here.
There's nothing wrong with your decks or Commanders, I just really scrolled past because those Commanders aren't my cup of tea Though, hoping for compliments on a deck or kudos for playing obscure cards probably shouldn't be a priority. That seems... hrmmm...
Anyway, I do still prefer the low volume here compared to the various Facebook groups, or Reddit subs as others have mentioned above. Quality of discussion and topics still feel above the grade of social media and other places discussion has centered around, now. I enjoy that a lot of the deck ideas and construction I find here when it's something that piques my interest ends up having some off-the-wall stuff or original ideas that isn't semi-competitive players regurgitating the same staples/suggestions/"tier list" and asking you why you aren't playing X instead of Y, every time (
-Most Planeswalkers are one-time iterations based on the story/setting; no reason to reprint them again and they won't be.
-Only a small handful of competitive staples (JTMS, LOTV, Karn, occasional Lorwyn 5) see reprints, and not even regularly.
-Planeswalkers have been Mythic rarity post-Lorwyn, making their supply much lower compared to other cards.
-The supply would not meet the demand, making a rule change for PWers ripe for market manipulation/buyouts.
-Even less commonly used Planeswalkers settle around $5-10 over time, unless they're just really really bad (but - may be amazing as an on-demand cast from the Command Zone).
-The speculator response to a rule change would lead to a great many PWers landing in the $20-50 range.
-Speculators are safe on flipping these/cornering the market, because PWers are very, very rarely reprinted, low supply, existing greater casual demand, pre-CMDR PW change if it happened.
-Because they are safe speculation, they can sit on these without the market budging much. They would not settle very far from where they land.
-Not only would speculators jump on this, but with a mass amount of people buying into PWers, the supply and market would strain.
-A whole section of the market would become quickly out of reach for casual people, PWer collectors and Commander players alike.
-One argument I've seen is that PWers are the face of the game and should be available (it's a shallow argument not worth considering tbh)
-This wave would put most PWers out of reach of kitchen table players and newer players getting into the game. Commander has become HUGE and WILL have that kind of impact.
-If you have any doubt about any of this, look at The Command Zone and SaffronOlive Effect, Protean Hulk when it was unbanned (before the M25 reprint), etc.
-This isn't fair to kitchen table players or the rest of the game.
All of this is a secondary effect of allowing PWers and it's guaranteed. This is before considering how many cards have to end up being banned over time that people are already playing. Superfriends is a popular archetype that uses a specific subset of cards that could easily have a case for being banned, and we'd probably at least see a few more bans post-change announcement as we see exactly what ripples this will cause. All of this is theorycraft. But the result? Potentially more bans in the format than we've seen in the last 8 years, just so people can play Planeswalkers, and the waves through the secondary market putting a good chunk out of them out of reach or at least a stretch away from the accessibility needed with such a change.
Or just cast Mana Severance
Rakdos, Lord of Riots is actually really fun no matter the budget and can be effective.
Selvala, Explorer Returned can get out of control easily without being too optimized. My build started as a budget deck, ended up this weird Elf-Ball/Selesnya Goodstuff hybrid. But when you're generating 5-7 mana on Turn 3 every game and playing in colors with good removal, recovery and ramp options it's just really easy to add fun stuff and go nuts.
There's a double standard in how you're viewing Commanders here to make your case. How does one assume that Narset at casual tables is not extra turns and no extra combats? That this isn't how Narset is played at casual tables? Who says a Commander with her power and protection in colors that easily grant Haste isn't problematic in some metas? And then, why is Vannifar not treated with the same benefit of the doubt? A Commander who has no protection, requires somewhat of a board state and help to go off? Why can we assume that at the same table, the Narset player is more fair than the Vannifar player? Why do we assume they're trying to do a pod chain to win as soon as she hits the table? That's a pretty big inconsistency in that argument.
In a super competitive meta or "cEDH" this may be a concern, but that's not how the vast majority of people play this format. If anything, I welcome this mulligan rule because ultimately it allows people a bit more consistency in the opening game, which means less people get left in the dust because they may be able to hit lands/rocks that gives them their colors, at a price. Which each mulligan you still have to choose between how much land, mana rocks, removal, and early game presence you want. That noose becomes tighter the more you try to mulligan this way. You also know that the cards you toss back won't be coming back any time soon without shuffling.
FYI, We still use Partial Paris at one of the stores I play at because there's an agreed power level that we hover around to keep the game fun but interesting. My other store does Vancouver because it's more cutthroat and combo players would be able to dig for combo pieces with partials. However, I'm not really worried about the London because again, everyone gets to do the same mulligan. Everyone only gets to keep X cards. Explosive starts are possible. Turn 1 Sol Ring doesn't do much if you don't have much left in your hand to do with it.
I have, and the deck fell apart without Vannifar. Much like many decks centered so specifically on the Commander, when players wise up to it, the problem solves itself. I'd rather play against Vannifar than Narset, Enlightened Master or several other decks that are harder to deal with.
As an aside, to be frank: The bar by which one can measure the Commander Clash players compared to other players one may play with is pretty dang low. In other words, Vannifar dominating is less to do with Vannifar, and more to do with the people who play on Commander Clash. There is no reason to ban her. At all. And these people are very poor examples to go by.
For what it's worth, I play at 3 different stores in the greater Houston area and Paradox Engine is not all that common. At two of my stores, I'm the only one who plays it (I only play it in Jhoira, because she's basically a Storm deck), and at the third store one or two other people play it. They're not easy to find around here, and the price is getting more prohibitive by the month. I'd say the meta at two of these stores is 75% at most (I really hate this metric but since everyone insists...), and between 75-90% at the third store. Having discussed the banlist and joked amongst a lot of them about the vocal minorities people online and the silly stuff people want banned/unbanned, most stated they feel it's too niche to just jam in most decks, and requires a fragile board state to try to build to abuse it. Someone once stated it pretty well: It's like Ashnod's Altar, because both are dead on an empty board; both enable you to go infinite with 2 or 3 other cards; except Paradox Engine is actually less ubiquitous than Ashnod's Altar because people jam ETB/Death triggers and Creature-centric strategies in Commander more than anything. Yes, the two are actually comparable, which doesn't so much show how powerful Ashnod's Altar is as much as that how Paradox Engine doesn't need the torches and pitchforks.
I'm interjecting here and I apologize, but on this particular note:
Something else about Dack is how easy it is to get him out on Turn 2 and steal another player's Sol Ring or Mana Crypt, etc early in the game and give yourself a huge advantage. Even if Dack dies before your next turn, you're likely up another 2 mana after casting him - you effectively have a Fabricate in your Command Zone for most of the common early game mana rocks. Sure it's not common for an Artifact deck to take off with a lot of mana, but adding the consistency of often having the ability to not only steal more mana for yourself, but putting an opponent even further behind by doing so, seems way too powerful for 3 mana.
But these kind of things are why I'm personally not a fan of Planeswalkers as Commanders. This kind of scenario can allow one player to run away with the game early on. I'm definitely not a fan of the idea of seeing Liliana of the Veil in the Command Zone or her out on Turn 1 or 2 for similar but different reasons to my concern with the example of Dack, above. Many of the better low CC Planeswalkers create too much of an advantage early on, and the difference between using them immediately versus normal Creature-based Commanders where you have to set them up to have Haste is a really large advantage.
Thing is, even when you find it, you have to have a certain board presence with enablers intact in a small niche of decks. Outside of fringe cases this will most of the time be winning in the mid to late game at a point where ending the game is fine and the table should have a keen eye on everyone's board states for combos and other shenanigans to appear. The easiest way to win with it is obviously Ezuri, Claw of Progress, but frankly if you're getting to a point where you can win off of this then the Ezuri player was probably going to win another way somehow soon, because Ezuri was left on the table for too long or that player was just left to run amok. If you're playing against the one deck that can really abuse this, you should probably already be aware of cards that can win out of nowhere with Ezuri on the board and non-significant number of Experience counters accumulated. A better way to put it is to just say that I haven't heard anyone demand Sage of Hours be banned, and it's easier to tutor up with Ezuri and win with, being that it doesn't require you to wait for your next upkeep and takes significantly less build up. Why don't people ask for it to be banned? Because like Simic Ascendancy, Sage of Hours is as effective as it is in a very, very small niche and already demands two colors, cornering it into the decks we know will play it and it narrows the scope of concern for that reason alone.
For the interaction between Doubling Season and Simic Ascendancy, it works about as well as any other counter-based card with Doubling Season and is no surprise. If you manage to make infinite mana to pump into it, that's not even an argument for why it should be banned because at that point you could win any other number of ways and no one is complaining about Helix Pinnacle.
The fact that you have to find Simic Ascendancy, put it on the battlefield, protect it, play enough Proliferate or other effects to build the counters up and have it survive with those 20 counters until your next upkeep is telling that it needs enough work put into it that it is fine and not worthy of talk about being banned. The biggest danger is Ezuri and Atraxa, which if your group is leaving Ezuri, Claw of Progress or Atraxa, Praetors' Voice on the battlefield long enough for this to be a danger when it comes down, your group needs to have a talk about threat assessment and removal in those decks. Even if non-Ezuri/Atraxa decks in Simmic start running more Proliferate effects to help achieve this, that means they're sacrificing other ways that their decks could run better to force this, because very few Proliferate effects are worth it outside of dedicated decks. But, with the prerequisite of playing Simic, I don't expect that to happen much.
I've mostly focused on discussing Ezuri and Atraxa here, because the fact that you're cornered into playing Simic to even play this very much narrows the decks it will see play in, and these two are the most likely and any other appearances are going to be, again, extremely fringe cases. Frankly, Prime Speaker Vannifar and and having Birthing Pod Chains right out of the Command Zone worries me more than this, and that's not saying much because of how fragile Vannifar is.
Just continuing Red's long history of expensive, useless Enchantments like Haphazard Bombardment But yes, this is a very sweet design!