Magic: The Gathering: The Megathread: Tenth Edition

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Magic: The Gathering: The Megathread: Tenth Edition

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

He was fun in limited and he's a fun card to build around for janky combo decks. Really like that he can swing for absurd amounts of damage sometimes.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2014 16:31

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 19:15

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

PleasantDirge posted:

This is the main source of my current frustrations with U/W/x. Control decks are always going to be a thing but when anyone who can fog a mirror can run one (deck construction and playing in this case) you get a rather stifling environment, or at least one that is very repetitive. My biggest question about RTR block control decks is why we never really saw an uptick in Sphinxes revelation's evil twin: Rakdos's Return. Is it really just U/W's natural inclination to go into the long game vs. R/B's inclination to run so few lands and its explosive but low volume of gas?

I think it's the latter: there simply hasn't been a B/R deck that wants to run Rakdos's Return. The Br devotion deck Eric Froehlich is playing in GP Cincinnati looks pretty sweet though and I think he is running several.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2014 17:34

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

I enjoyed drafting Dimir in GTC a lot. Most people thought it was terrible because people tended to draft Dimir as a tempo deck with cards like Hands of Binding and those decks were pure garbage. Boros and Orzhov were the best guilds by quite a lot of course but a good Dimir control deck could easily win a draft. If you didn't get the right cards for the deck it was very bad(several people fighting over Dimir cards was an ugly thing) but cards like Death's Approach or Psychic Strike ended up going quite late and those cards were very good in the Dimir deck.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2014 14:54

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

I'm glad that they gave us some sort of ending in the actual set this time. RtR block was a complete disaster in that regard: lots of buildup with no actual payoff, forcing you to read their (not very good, from what I've heard) novel if you want to know how the storyline ended.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2014 17:29

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

Went 4-1 with a solid WB controlish deck. Deckbuilding was pretty straightforward because Black was obviously the best color and Blue and Red were completely unplayable. Rares included Hundred-Handed One, King Macar and Athreos (who was kind of bad in my deck but I was short on playables). King Macar was absolutely disgusting in my deck thanks to two Akroan Mastiffs and a Dreadbringer Lampads to get the Inspired trigger. Having an active King Macar when the opponent has an empty board is a pretty nice feeling. :v:

Opened Godsend and Ajani in my prize packs and a girl opened a god pack.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2014 18:43

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

AlternateNu posted:

Its definitely better than Hoplite because by its very nature Hoplite needs other stuff to be good. Spray is arguable, but I don't think anyone considered Shock the best red common in M14.

M14 and Theros are very, very different formats. Spray can take out most heroic creatures before they can get big for one mana, which is huge. I'd be surprised if Hoplite doesn't end up being better than Skink as well - it's the kind of card every R/x aggro deck wants. It needs help to get going but the same is true for every hero to some extent. Skink on the other hand will get in one scry before trading with their worst creature in most games.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2014 21:44

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

quote:

Added: A new Exile Zone (Can Be Played) for use with mechanics such as Suspend and many individual cards such as Daxos of Meletis or Psychic Intrusion to improve user interface for playing these cards.

Oh thank god. Now maybe it won't take 10 minutes to use those card's abilities.

# ¿ May 6, 2014 23:59

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

I'd accuse Theros limited of many things but slow gameplay is not one of them. The format isn't as fast as 3x THS (which had some crazy fast games) but it still seems fairly fast-paced.

# ¿ May 17, 2014 19:25

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

Neito posted:

Maybe it's just my FLGS, but it seems like every round, two or three games go to time.

Maybe it's because of slow players? Most of my Theros block games have been relatively fast, even when I played U/B Control. It's closer to Gatecrash than M14 in terms of speed.

# ¿ May 17, 2014 19:28

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

qbert posted:

I know it's impossible, but can the "thing they've never done that fans want" be printing Urza and Mishra as Planeswalkers?

Probably just the nostalgia talking.

They want dead characters to actually stay dead and Mishra never was a Planeswalker. So yeah, chances seem low. I'm still holding out for a proper Urza card in a supplemental product, though.

# ¿ May 18, 2014 21:06

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

qbert posted:

Does that mean that Elspeth is dead forever too?

I only read about the "dead stays dead" policy on Maro's Tumblr so maybe they will just bring back Elspeth back in a few blocks regardless. If they do decide to keep Elspeth dead, not showing her death on a card would be a very weird decision since they've appearently gone back to showing important story moments on cards.

# ¿ May 18, 2014 21:22

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

The Lord of Hats posted:

Man, forget Xenagos, Heliod's the real villain of this story. What a dick.

It's pretty impressive that the white god manages to be an even bigger rear end in a top hat than the "God of Lies and Deception". At least Phenax is pretty open about it.

# ¿ May 19, 2014 19:12

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

Went 4-1 at Game Day with a Mono U list that run 4x Nykthos and 4x Dictate of Kruphix. Dictate was a bit of a comedy option since I couldn't get Nightveil Specters in time but Dictate was surprisingly decent. 2 Devotion at instant speed that is hard to get rid of is really handy and I was able to go off with Dictate + Nykthos a few times. The annoying part was having to constantly remind people to draw their extra card.

# ¿ May 24, 2014 18:00

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

Best use for Cogwork Librarian is for a double money draft. Opened a pack with Deed and a foil Vedalken Orrery and couldn't decide what to take before I remembered that I still had a Librarian open. My deck was pretty sweet, too: 3 Vent Sentinels with 6 other defenders plus 4 Brimstome Volleys and a Heartless Hidetsugu. Also had 2 Compulsive Researches and a FoF to refill. The other players ignored me for most of the game because all I did was play Cinder Walls and Minamo Scrollkeepers until I started dropping Vent Sentinels (plus a 21/21 Ignition Team :v:

) and killed everyone in a few turns.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2014 18:26

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

The best thing M14 had going for it was the R/B sacrifice deck which was a ton of fun to draft and play. Otherwise, it was pretty boring and it looks like they didn't even bother trying to balance the colors. It's not a bad set to draft but you can only cast so many Seacoast Drakes and Divinations before you get sick of it.

M12 was mostly fine but Bloodthirst was kind of annoying in that it really, really enticed you into blocking when you wouldn't otherwise. I liked the Mage cycle though and Call to the Grave was a really fun card to build around.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2014 17:41

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

Entropic posted:

I forgot about the mage cycle, that was cool. Did M14 even have an uncommon cycle?

Only the Staff cycle, sadly. Pretty disappointing after both M12 and M13 had very interesting cycles at uncommon.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2014 17:49

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

Bugsy posted:

In Karn's grand tour of the multiverse with Jeska he left the phyrexian oil where they went. On Mirrodin the nature of the metal plane and the mycosynth greatly accelerated the process.

Eagerly waiting for a future storyline where Phyrexians from all over the multiverse join forces.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2014 18:48

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

Count Bleck posted:

Cuz we just can't LIVE without a new Jace in every standard!

Watch it be named "Jace, Guildpact"

Where's the Chandra, Pyromaster reprint.

According to MaRo he's the most popular Planeswalker so expect to see him a lot! I don't really get why people here hate him so much, is it because of JTMS or is it some lore thing I missed?

# ¿ Jun 16, 2014 21:21

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

I guess I can see why some people think Jace is insufferable but I find him kind of endearing. He's a huge dork who managed to luck into power and tries to be all mysterious. The whole Guildpact thing was dumb as hell but outside of that he didn't have much impact on the storylines (as far as I know).

# ¿ Jun 16, 2014 21:49

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

minusX posted:

I'd post this in the limited thread, but it seems more for current active formats and M15 still has a few weeks. Sol Malka is a local player and just posted this to the local facebook group about his opinion on M15. He's gone into Limited only for a while now, and I've only beat him once off the back of being a lucksac.
Hoping he's wrong, it looks fun to me.

We're going to find out who's right once we actually play the format but I can't really agree with him. Black seems pretty good but I have no idea why he thinks it's far and away the best color. The kill spells are nothing exciting this time around - not bad, but nothing exciting and depending on how fast the format is Ulcerate might actually be quite bad. Gravedigger is great but got moved up to uncommon, Sign of Blood is awkward unless you are heavy black and no one should ever get excited for Mind Rot. He says Black only has three clunkers, but Black Cat, Blood Host, Carrion Crow, Feast on the Fallen, Leeching Sliver, Shadowcloak Vampire and Wall of Limbs all range from very mediocre to bad in my opinion. I do agree with him that Blue seems very unexciting.

# ¿ Jul 4, 2014 20:24

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

Count Bleck posted:

Does anybody see Chasm Skulker being a potential wincon for UW Control in the superstandard just because it gets swole when you rev?

Not that UW Control needs another wincon, mind you. But still.

Seems very fragile for a wincon and if you rev enough to make the Skulker huge you are probably winning anyway. Looking forward to casting the card in Limited though.

# ¿ Jul 5, 2014 20:45

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

Alris posted:

Prerelease report: Ensoul Artifact is absurd, unbelievably absurd. An opening hand of that + Ornithopter will have a 5/5 flyer out swinging on turn 2.

Cool that it worked out for you but that combo seems horribly inconsistent.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2014 19:43

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

Lunsku posted:

I love Hornet Nest's flavour :3

Played against that card several times in the prerelease and it was the most annoying card to play against. Decking the first guy who played that card with Sign in Blood because he milled his win conditions with Satyr Wayfinder was satisfying as hell though.

Bread Set Jettison posted:

*casts hornets sting on hornets nest*

Nah, you need a Bee Sting so you actually kill it.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2014 18:47

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

UberJew posted:

My plays against Hornet's Nest in the prerelease were: 1) Ob Nixilis is a great card because a vanilla 4/4 flier for 6 gets the job done against green 2) Soul of Shandalar does 3 damage to up to one target creature after it does 3 to the face, so you can just hit nothing 3) Cone of Flaaaaaaame

Didn't have Soul of Shandalar, but Ob Nixilis and Cone of Flame are a disgusting combination. Kill three of your dudes and make my flier giant? Sure!

Don't look forward to playing against Cone of Flame in draft though, that card is stupid and I don't get why they reprinted that card. They learned that Mind Control and Overrun shouldn't be uncommons and I'd say Cone is about as strong as those cards in an average game.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2014 18:56

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

rabidsquid posted:

Mind Control was relentlessly stupid, Overrun can win you games out of nowhere. Cone of Flames can be a three for one if you set it up right but it does require setting up a proper board state for it more than the other two cards.

Yeah, Cone of Flame is probably a level below those two cards but it still steals games you would have never won otherwise. It's very hard to play around it without giving up too much tempo and it can really punish you for curving out. It's close enough to Mind Control and Overrun level of stupid that I wish it wasn't in M15.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2014 19:25

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

neetengie posted:

Oh man I wish that Perish gets printed in Khans, just to gently caress with the Green decks. Probably won't happen, but the thought of it makes me smile.

And to make things fair, they will also reprint Choke, Chill, Karma and Dread of Night.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2014 21:01

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 19:15

Retcon: Jun 23, 2010

Mortimer posted:

Oh hey a free MTGO prerelease

oh hey I got no good cards. I'd post a screenshot but no one cares about a pool full with 2 haunted plate mails and 2 aggressive minings

At least the Plate Mail is a good card in Limited. And you can even activate the two of them in the same turn if you have no other creatures!

# ¿ Jul 26, 2014 19:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Magic: The Gathering: The Megathread: Tenth Edition