Magic: the Gathering: Faithless Posting

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Magic: the Gathering: Faithless Posting

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Besides IRC, goons also have a Discord server and there's an MTG channel. Right now it's mostly just me talking about my inexplicable lust for Basic Lands. I feel lonely. https://discord.gg/Q2b4jJS

Siivola fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Apr 18, 2017

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 20:12

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 10:22

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

On the one hand, you're not wrong. On the other,

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 21:00

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Rinkles posted:

You're assuming everyone saw/remembered that?

Hence "you're not wrong". It's just, after two blocks of durdling around for a set before the plot gets going, doing exactly that again feels pretty unremarkable.

Admittedly, I too expected Bolas to get a card in this set instead of the next.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 21:13

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

TheChirurgeon posted:

When did they make her specist?

I've heard that way back when she was first introduced, she was all about Elves' Rights. They retconned that when they bought her back for Origins two years ago, where she planeswalks to Lorwyn and immediately goes :yikes:

when she realizes Lorwyn elves are massive dicks.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 21:18

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Very much agreed.

Did she get any spotlight after presumably getting dunked in the original Duels of the Planeswalkers? I know she got a card in M15 but, y'know, that's five years after Zendikar.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 21:30

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

She is having a character arc right now.

This is what Wizards' character arcs look like.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 21:38

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Speaking of planeswalkers, I bet a foil full-art that Samut doesn't get a planeswalker card in Hour and instead it's her battle buddy Djeru.

And they'll never get mentioned again after this block.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 21:42

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

As an interesting bit of trivia, Chris L'Etoile (easily my favouritest Magic story writer) wrote for Mass Effects one and two.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 21:54

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

YggdrasilTM posted:

A lot of people are complaining for the 2 Liliana, 2 gideon, 2 chandra and 3 nissa, but this is just an effect of the changed rotation, right? without that , we would have 2 Liliana, 1 Gideon, 1 Chandra and 2 Nissa. (No, I will NOT count the dumb "not really for play" intro deck planeswalkers).

Considering there's also two Lilianas alongside the two Nissas, I think much of this is legit down to WotC overestimating how popular these characters are.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 22:00

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

I'm pretty sure WotC and an actual publishing house are not actually comparable entities.

YggdrasilTM posted:

Nothing of new. I mean , in Innistrad-Ravinca we had 2 Liliana, 2 Garruk and 2 jaces.
In Theros-Ravnica we had 2 jaces and 2 ajani (briefly 3).

Fair point.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 22:07

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

I'm pretty sure Maro's said there are only five planeswalkers in the block, and one of them has to be Bolas.

Edit: Anyway, when I implied Wizards isn't a real publishing house, I entirely forgot they publish an entire line of D&D fiction that I can only imagine is still successful. Ha ha, how embarrassing!

Siivola fucked around with this message at 22:24 on Apr 18, 2017

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 22:19

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

As far as I can tell, this is the official unofficial "Standard sucks let's play literally anything else" thread. :v:

On that note, this is my first prerelease, any tips?

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 09:38

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Hellsau posted:

Open a masterpiece.

Can do!

Hellsau posted:

Listen to Limited Resources' latest episode to see what commons and uncommons are good, read LSV's written limited reviews for the rares and good jokes, and read Paulo's prerelease preview later this week if he writes an article again.

Oh thanks, I'll make sure to look into these!

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 10:20

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Dehtraen posted:

- not knowing what the creatures on the battlefield do. Read all the keywords and know what they mean / do on your opponents cards and yours. This sounds completely dumb but every prerelease people end not blocking something because they assume it has flying due to the art or miss things like first strike and get blown out in blocks

Yeah, I got a taste of this at the Open House event last weekend, when at 2 life I failed to notice that my Victory's Herald gave all attacking creatures flying and lifelink. The person playing with me was kind enough to point that out before I could skip combat. :shobon:

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 16:48

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Speaking as kind of a new player, the set also comes off as very approachable. I know I'm going to punt a million times with bad exerts, but things don't make me scratch my head and wonder how I'm supposed to use something.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 17:22

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

ShaneB posted:

I'm surprised to hear this, actually, I think this set has a LOOOOOOT of juggling of mechanics/cards/options.

Really? I might be a special case since I grew up reading D&D supplements, and like thinking about game design in general.

There's a lot of things you can do and decisions you can really gently caress up ("hey I'll put these -1s on Oketra she's indestructible :downs:

") so I agree there's a bunch of juggling, but I also feel like the mechanics are built from very basic and familiar pieces. Exert's effect is that thing blue does, but this time you can do it voluntarily. Embalm makes a zombie token once. Aftermaths are special sorceries you can cast only from your graveyard. Cycling is just discard to draw. -1/-1 counters are mechanically a wee bit more involved, but the concept (lingering debuff) is very straightforward. And they don't need a lot of setup to play which is great, you just put 'em in your deck and play like normal. You don't have to worry about having discard outlets for Madness or enough creature power to crew a vehicle.

Siivola fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Apr 19, 2017

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 17:59

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

With the PW decks, they can print the bad cards right into unsuspecting newbies' hands. :v:

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 18:08

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Tales of Woe posted:

Yeah I think this set looks above-average difficulty for current magic, especially coming off of Kaladesh which was one of the more simple blocks they've made. It doesn't have the keyword soup of BFZ or the 5-tribe/guild sets though so that probably helps approachability, but I'm reminded of original Innistrad which was a very challenging set despite only having a couple keyword mechanics.

I missed this earlier. I actually find Kaladesh kinda low-key complicated because of Vehicles, Energy and lots of ETB effects. It's not super-complex by any stretch, but it's got a few issues that kinda trip me up when I think about it.

The biggest offender is Vehicles only being creatures sometimes, because that is really confusing! You also need to pay attention to crew costs when building decks.
Energy's just a new resource to spend on familiar effects, so it's not too bad, but it adds a new economy you need to keep track of, and there's a bunch of different ways to gain and spend energy. (All energy spenders coming down with at least some is a very nice feature.) Energy also adds a large number of different activated abilites on the board to keep track of.
Finally, there's a whole lot of different triggers on things entering (or leaving, in Aether Revolt) the battlefield, as well as flicker effects, so board states change a lot in surprising ways.

It might be that I wasn't around to really learn Kaladesh, but it feels like lots of cards do similar synergistic things slightly differently, whereas Amonkhet's mechanics are much stricter pigeonholes that are easier to use and understand.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 18:59

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Chandra tries her best, okay?

Edit: Also this is really amazing:

Angry Grimace posted:

Sometimes I wish I had talent:

Howard Lyon paints Nissa, Steward of Elements in time-lapse

Each frame is 1 minute; the actual time lapse covers 42 hours.

Siivola fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Apr 19, 2017

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 19:31

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:

Combat Celebrant, Vizier of Remedies, and Initiate's Companion are the only X/1 it does anything to. The others fly, revive, or have exert or dies triggers that make blocking them with a 1/1 not work.

You have to exert as you declare attackers, so just having the cat on board forces Glory-Bound Initiate, Rhet-Crop Spearmaster and Nef-Crop Entangler to slow their roll.

It's also a really good -1/-1 counter victim, but I don't know if that's a compliment. :v:

# ¿ Apr 20, 2017 15:18

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Fuzzy Mammal posted:

Two $10 msrp masters sets in a year. These things must rake it in.

Well people keep saying they will not play Standard any more.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2017 16:19

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

It's actually just 248 bolts, and one Desert.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2017 16:54

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Barry Shitpeas posted:

Ironic Masters, featuring the return of white borders and 7th Edition art

With Unglued basic lands? :pray:

# ¿ Apr 20, 2017 17:05

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

...Why does a Masters set have a worldbuilding team? :tinfoil:

# ¿ Apr 20, 2017 17:34

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

TheChirurgeon posted:

Probably for the new art. One of the only good things about 7th edition was how it incorporated the 4 paladins into a bunch of stuff and told a little story that way

Oh right, good catch.

Well, I guess we are going back to Dominaria! :v:

# ¿ Apr 20, 2017 17:56

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

its me glenda posted:

It was an excuse to increase how often a card appeared in a set and to fill out card slots in any given set so they could advertise it as being say "266 cards" as opposed to really being 221 cards.

I only now realized that every basic land eats up one of the 269 card slots. :aaa:

Edit: But apparently BFZ full arts shared a collector's number with their regular frame versions? Huh.

Siivola fucked around with this message at 19:03 on Apr 20, 2017

# ¿ Apr 20, 2017 19:01

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

CompeAnansi posted:

Those decks don't seem particularly tribal.

There's also five decks, because that's the anthology reprint of the original 2011 Commander decks. Commander 2017 is due... November or something?

# ¿ Apr 20, 2017 22:28

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Gonna crack some packs tomorrow morning! :toot:

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 09:41

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

St0rmD posted:

That's only one of the original 2011 Commander Decks. Evasive Maneuvers was C13, Guided by Nature was C14, and Plunder the Graves was C15.

Wow, gently caress, I can't read. I was almost entirely full of poo poo there. Thanks for catching that.

Reprinting only one deck from each year seems like a weird call. Were these ones particularly good or something?

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 16:15

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

I for one am excited for the release of Literally Just Magic 2018: The Return of Lightning Bolt (to Standard).

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 17:38

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

St0rmD posted:

No, other than Heavenly Inferno, which I think was the 2nd-best (or at least 2nd most expensive on ebay right now, behind Mirror Mastery) C11 deck, they're basically the hot-garbage decks of their years. I wouldn't be surprised if they literally repacked their overstock of those decks into the new boxes for this release.

The ones you wanted from C13 were Mind Seize and Eternal Bargain, in C14 it was Forged in Stone and Built from Scratch. I have no idea what was good in C15.

Thanks. If the previous anthologies are any indicator, they're going to be entirely new prints with the M15 borders so this is kinda weird.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 19:24

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

I literally got one for free when I went to the Open House event a week ago. It's in the Welcome Deck. It's Standard-legal.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 20:10

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Neat. Archenemy or Hour?

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 20:27

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Maybe you should pick some of your unfavourites because I keep looking at cards and thinking "ooh pretty".

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 21:21

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Also, picking anything by Chase "Literally a 3D Model Artist" Stone is cheating.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 21:28

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

CompeAnansi posted:

EDIT: Hah! I was pre-empted by Siivola. I find it funny that the first objectional piece I come across is from the person they mentioned.

Here's another you'll probably dislike:

The joke here is, both Stone and Meehan literally work with 3D models. That's why the lighting is so stark and the shadows so sharp. This isn't the art director pushing a lame style, that's just how these people work. In this same set you'll find literal oil paintings by artists like Howard Lyon and Volkan Baga and hey, those look like oil paintings.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 21:48

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Went 1-2-2 with a durdly black-green midrange deck with no real bombs. Everyone was very nice. :shobon:

# ¿ Apr 22, 2017 14:32

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

Also I got to CAST MOUTH so I'll chalk this up as a win.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2017 15:21

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

This is what I eventually ended up at, after fiddling a lot between matches. I started out with a bad WB zombie deck, but started pivoting more and more into G after my first opponent kindly pointed out I didn't have a wincon. :v:

Deck: Durdle to the Max

//Main
1 Ahn-Crop Champion
2 Blighted Bat
1 Cartouche of Ambition
1 Channeler Initiate
1 Cursed Minotaur
1 Edifice of Authority
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Final Reward
6 Forest
1 Giant Spider
1 Hooded Brawler
1 Horror of the Broken Lands
1 Impeccable Timing
1 Lord of the Accursed
1 Mouth // Feed
1 Naga Vitalist
1 Painted Bluffs
1 Pitiless Vizier
2 Plains
1 Prepare // Fight
1 Scaled Behemoth
1 Scarab Feast
1 Stinging Shot
1 Stir the Sands
7 Swamp
1 Trial of Strength
1 Wasteland Scorpion

Display deck statistics

Anything particular you want to know about my pool? I'd rather not type it all out.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2017 16:44

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 10:22

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

I had almost zilch for removal, so I ended up going with the green-whites. In red I had a Magma Spray and a Trial, and in blue I had a pair of Essence Scatters, but neither had creatures I loved (that didn't have double coloured costs). In hindsight, the Shimmerscale Drake and the River Snake should've maybe caught my eye, but so it goes. I'm not too bummed since getting to say "okay, untap Scaled Behemoth with Prepare, block your Glory-Bound Initiate" felt pretty good.

My mana worked shockingly well so the Shimmering Grotto didn't really come up for good or ill, but I understand the objection. I ended up going for it because the mana dorks sort-of-not-really offset the extra cost.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2017 17:13

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