I run 4 of Grey Merchant of Asphodel in my standard deck.
I have no non-black creatures in the deck besides clone, and so my opponents are dead pretty quickly after he comes out.
It needs a little tweaking to better handle early creature swarms but I think it has some potential. I might end up changing some of the numbers in the non-creatures and subbing out the Pharika's Cures for Doom Blades and Ultimate Prices but I think it works pretty good.
@Thought Criminal:
You are correct, but your post is misleading. Let's say you have an Obzedat, Ghost Council in the graveyard. Let's say you use Whip of Erebos to put it into play. Then let's say you target it with oblivion ring, and the rings ability resolves. You are right that it will not come back into play during your next upkeep becuase you didn't exile it with Obzedat's own ability. However, if the Oblivion Ring then leaves the battlefield, Obzedat WILL come back into play, because whip's replacement doesn't doesn't interfere with the whipped going to the exile zone. Then the Ring's abilities will take over and put it back into play if the ring leaves the battlefield.
When I have an ordeal on my creature and my opponent destroys that creature, when the ordeal goes to the graveyard is that considered a "sacrifice" for the purpose of the triggered ability?
What about if my opponent destroys my creature in response, is that a sacrifice?
If going to the graveyard is not a sacrifice, what is the correct terminology for it going to the graveyard?
You know, many questions like this would be more easily answered if WOTC made it more clear what the phases and steps of a turn actually are. There are a ton of steps where you typically do nothing so a lot of people don't know they actually exist.
I only know that the combat phase has a step after damage because during Kamigawa block, it was sometimes more mana advantageous to ninjitsu a ninja on your unblocked attacker AFTER damage provided the cost of recasting the unblocked creature plus the ninjitsu ability was less then hardcasting the ninja. And of course the ninjutsu creature's saboteur ability wasn't particularly relevant at the time.
Yeah dude. That guy cheated. Mana doesn't float between steps and phases any more. And just because either player has nothing to during the different steps, doesn't mean they don't happen. Although this is kind of confusing because in paper magic it seems like you skip right past the phases of the turn where nothing happens, that's not actually how it works, and post m 10 rules you can't float mana from somebodies pre combat main phase to their end step anyway. Mana pools should have been emptied before the beginning of the combat step.
Um... I don't know if y’all know this but there was an exploit in duels 2013 where you and a friend could unlock all the cards by fighting with a friend and then having him/her immediately concede over and over. I think they got wind of this because in my experience, fighting other players online no longer unlocks cards.
So today I had the misfortune of playing sealed on XBox live in Duels 2014. Two people in a row had 3 (!) rune-scarred demon[/CARD]s in their decks along with 3 or more copies of both murder and assassinate. Is this just anomaly of the programming or are people hacking into the system to make broken decks?
I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this or not (I only read pages 1,2, and 4) but if they are attacking with mana dorks to avoid Celestial Flare you're getting a ton of value from the flare anyway. First off this mean they're not using the mana dorks for mana, which is probably bad for them as that's why they run mana dorks. Secondly, you probably have a blocker that can kill a mana dork, so attacking with it just to save the real attacker will lose them the dork, and you still have the flare for next turn (also; is it possible to cast flare after combat damage and hit anything or will their creatures no longer be attackers? I don't know).
Yes. You have a chance to cast instants and use activated abilities after damage but still in combat. It's a great time to Ninjutzu or, like you said, use other spells or abilities that mess with "attacking" "blocking" or "blocked" creatures but after you already know how the combat went.
DFCs are inelegant because they require opaque sleeves or a proxy to be played. Plus, you dont get to see the entire card on one side, you have to flip them everytime to see what's on the other side.
I like flip cards slightly more, but the art is so ugly and the card becomes confusing once tapped.
For me the best implementation is level up cards. There are the obvious limitation but it is the cleanest of all.
Possibe new variants are Tuk-tuk style cards - where a legendary token is played, another possibility is an ability to search for a specific Legend from outside the game and replace the card.
I agree about level up cards. This is weird card face mechanic done right; readable, normal sized art, none of the issues about proxies and tapping that sometimes hamstrung the others.
Why not both! Let's have Double faced flip cards! That way you get ugly cards with two text boxes that you have to play with proxies to use! On both sides of the cards! EVERYBODY WINS!
But seriously, I'd wager that most of the hate from Kamigawa flip cards is from people who never actually played with them in limited during Kamigawa's original run. The flip cards where fine, never really bothered or confused anybody unlike Innistrad transform cards witch caused rampant game losses, but I will concede they were (a little) ugly and would have been better off as two different regular cards in most cases.
Personally I would rather have neither mechanic ever return again. I don't like weird stuff happening to the card face, I would much rather have just been able to play the flipped versions of cards like Erayo's Essence, Stabwisker the Odious or Kenzo the Hardhearted by just paying mana like any other card rather then jumping through hoops and I REALLY REALLY didn't like using proxies or seeing marked cards on my opponent's side or constantly damaging my cards by taking them in and out of dragon shields in Innistrad.
Maybe they could do something like split cards having two differant modes of a creature spell on one card, but I am sure that a judge could tell me that the currant rules make that impossible.
I don't think gimmicks (Whee! Now a Mechanic where you cut your cards into peices for fun and profit!) like this that mess with the tools you use to play the game (i.e. alternate backs of cards or having a bunch of extra text boxes, making them hard to read) are particularly great for the game anyway so I would be most happy if they just knocked it off and never did it again.
Money draft the archbound ravager, obviously.
But if I wasn't keeping the cards, I would first pick the eternal witness, always a solid card, one of my favourites ever, instant value every game.
Edit: Ignore money considerations; Eternal Witness
And I heavily agree with Altjira: Some people*** payed as much as 300 bucks for their boxes; if you draft this product and make your picks without regards to the secondary market you are and idiot. Most stores that do have modern masters drafting events are going to charge at least upwards of $30PLUS WHATEVER PRIZE SUPPORT IS to draft this. At that cost, you'd better get your money's worth.
***Thank God my local card store had some of the lowest box prices in the country, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to afford a box at all.
If blood moon and chromatic lantern are both in play does time stamp matter or do lands just get the ability to add mana of any colour regardless of the order of who played what?
Yes but it can be really depressing when your cards are literally worth nothing to you as soon as the evening is over. If they are not even pauper or EDH playable that means that they are basically a waste of paper and storage space. As soon as the tournament is over, you may as well rip this card up or give it back to the store.
I have no non-black creatures in the deck besides clone, and so my opponents are dead pretty quickly after he comes out.
Creatures: 19
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
4 Clone
4 Crypt Ghast
4 Nightveil Specter
3 Obzedat, Ghost Council
Noncreatures: 18
4 Chromatic Lantern
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Debt to the Deathless
3 Whip of Erebos
2 Pharika's Cure
2 Nixthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Watery Grave
4 Godless Shrine
1 Temple of Silence
2 Temple of Deceit
1 Azorious Guildgate
9 Swamp
My other option is to go green instead of white I would lose
Obzedat, Ghost Council
Sphinx’s Revelation
and
Debt to the Deathless
but it would allow me to put in 4 Sylvan Caryatid and sub out some number of the Clones for Progenitor Mimics. Progeniter Mimic + Gray Merchant is basically the most powerful thing a deck like this can do.
You are correct, but your post is misleading. Let's say you have an Obzedat, Ghost Council in the graveyard. Let's say you use Whip of Erebos to put it into play. Then let's say you target it with oblivion ring, and the rings ability resolves. You are right that it will not come back into play during your next upkeep becuase you didn't exile it with Obzedat's own ability. However, if the Oblivion Ring then leaves the battlefield, Obzedat WILL come back into play, because whip's replacement doesn't doesn't interfere with the whipped going to the exile zone. Then the Ring's abilities will take over and put it back into play if the ring leaves the battlefield.
What about if my opponent destroys my creature in response, is that a sacrifice?
If going to the graveyard is not a sacrifice, what is the correct terminology for it going to the graveyard?
I only know that the combat phase has a step after damage because during Kamigawa block, it was sometimes more mana advantageous to ninjitsu a ninja on your unblocked attacker AFTER damage provided the cost of recasting the unblocked creature plus the ninjitsu ability was less then hardcasting the ninja. And of course the ninjutsu creature's saboteur ability wasn't particularly relevant at the time.
Because counterspells are annoying. And even more annoying is that they are necessary for the overall health of the game, because instants and sorceries exist. Does any other colour get to interact with the stack? No. That's pretty much a part of the colour pie that is exclusively blue. If someone is going to try to win with only sorceries and instants, you either play the very very narrow hosers that the other colours occasionally get or you try to out race your opponent (always a bad plan but often the only one) or you play blue or you lose. If everything was a permanent, it would be for the most part think, an overall much more healthy and interactive game, but it's too late for that because it's been twenty years of magic blue cards.
I also hate the love that blue gets from Design and Development and Pro tour players and everyone. Don't know what part of the colour pie a unique new ability should go in? Make it blue! Not sure what the chase mythic for a new set should be? BLUE! Want to design a duelist invational card but don't know what colour? BLUEBLUEBLUEBLUEBLUE! Not sure if a new card's balanced or not but-
I'M REALLY HAPPY FOR YOU AND IM'MA LET YOU FINISH BUT BLUE IS THE BEST MAGIC COLOUR OF ALL TIME!
But-
ALL TIME.
Yes. You have a chance to cast instants and use activated abilities after damage but still in combat. It's a great time to Ninjutzu or, like you said, use other spells or abilities that mess with "attacking" "blocking" or "blocked" creatures but after you already know how the combat went.
I agree about level up cards. This is weird card face mechanic done right; readable, normal sized art, none of the issues about proxies and tapping that sometimes hamstrung the others.
But seriously, I'd wager that most of the hate from Kamigawa flip cards is from people who never actually played with them in limited during Kamigawa's original run. The flip cards where fine, never really bothered or confused anybody unlike Innistrad transform cards witch caused rampant game losses, but I will concede they were (a little) ugly and would have been better off as two different regular cards in most cases.
Personally I would rather have neither mechanic ever return again. I don't like weird stuff happening to the card face, I would much rather have just been able to play the flipped versions of cards like Erayo's Essence, Stabwisker the Odious or Kenzo the Hardhearted by just paying mana like any other card rather then jumping through hoops and I REALLY REALLY didn't like using proxies or seeing marked cards on my opponent's side or constantly damaging my cards by taking them in and out of dragon shields in Innistrad.
Maybe they could do something like split cards having two differant modes of a creature spell on one card, but I am sure that a judge could tell me that the currant rules make that impossible.
I don't think gimmicks (Whee! Now a Mechanic where you cut your cards into peices for fun and profit!) like this that mess with the tools you use to play the game (i.e. alternate backs of cards or having a bunch of extra text boxes, making them hard to read) are particularly great for the game anyway so I would be most happy if they just knocked it off and never did it again.
Morph is cool though. Let's do morph again.
But if I wasn't keeping the cards, I would first pick the eternal witness, always a solid card, one of my favourites ever, instant value every game.
Edit: Ignore money considerations; Eternal Witness
And I heavily agree with Altjira: Some people*** payed as much as 300 bucks for their boxes; if you draft this product and make your picks without regards to the secondary market you are and idiot. Most stores that do have modern masters drafting events are going to charge at least upwards of $30 PLUS WHATEVER PRIZE SUPPORT IS to draft this. At that cost, you'd better get your money's worth.
***Thank God my local card store had some of the lowest box prices in the country, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to afford a box at all.
Yes but it can be really depressing when your cards are literally worth nothing to you as soon as the evening is over. If they are not even pauper or EDH playable that means that they are basically a waste of paper and storage space. As soon as the tournament is over, you may as well rip this card up or give it back to the store.