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Excellent OP, Toshimo. You're a wonderful, grumpy bastard and we are in your debt. 
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Dec 26, 2021 16:32
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Shroud isn't too hard to deal with off Greaves since the equip cost for those is 0. As long as you have more than one creature, then you can just have your creatures play musical chairs with the greaves until everyone is equipped as you want. It came up late in the previous thread, but I shied away from Lightning Greaves in my K'rrik deck because that deck is short on creatures and I need to be able to target my commander most of the time. A knight tribal deck is much more likely to have two or more creatures around to move the greaves around. As for Whispersilk cloak, the equip cost is more of an issue for that, but I usually find the unblockability is well worth having to work around shroud. I play in a more casual meta than a lot of the folks ITT, so attacking as part of a win con is more common for many of my decks.
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Dec 30, 2021 17:17
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I've gotten to the point that I won't run a 5+ CMC commander at all unless they give me at least three of the following: 1) Has built-in protection beyond just having more than 2 toughness (Uril, for example) 2) Can mitigate commander tax or be cheated out somehow (K'rrik or Liesa, for example) 3) Can win on the turn they drop or within a turn (Experiment Kraj or Narset, for example) 4) Does not need to be in play for me to win (Edgar Markov, for example) 5) Have green in their color identity (I just realized that this makes my Narset deck a bit shaky because she only checks two of these boxes, but I pijcked up this dumb game for idiots again back in the Khans block and she's cool as hell so she gets a pass.  )
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Dec 31, 2021 18:17
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Bust Rodd posted:It’s ok to have completely bottom of the barrel decks that you only break out for the specifically lowest power tables. I've taken apart two Voltron decks over the last couple years for exactly the same reason. Commander damage kills feel great when a game is down to 1v1, but an early turn KO on one player before anyone else has taken significant damage just feels...gross. It's also strategically bad because it rightly puts a target on your rear end. My best Voltron decks play control for a bit, hang back, and then launch surgical strikes at the player who has emerged as the threat. I have a Bruna, Light of Alabaster deck that does this pretty well. That way, you look like the good guy who has saved the table for that mean ol' archenemy, rather than becoming the archenemy yourself.
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Dec 31, 2021 18:22
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Heath posted:I built a Pako and Haldan deck and my first time playing them was in a five player game. I attacked with Pako and he was instantly a 7/7, then on the next turn I cast Seize the Day and then flashed it back to just murder someone with my huge dog. It was fun but it wasn't fun, you know? I haven't played it since. I still need to build Pako and Hadlan. This sounds fun to me because you're getting weird, random poo poo from your opponents too. Doggo gets out of hand in terms of commander damage for sure, but the deck is doing a lot more than just "Hatred for 21. You die."
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Dec 31, 2021 18:35
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Heath posted:Given that Hatred is not available to the deck, yeah Hatred was more about Bust Rodd's Grevan deck as an example that touched off the voltron conversation, not about P/H specifically.
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Dec 31, 2021 19:41
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Heath posted:I see, sorry NP
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Dec 31, 2021 20:17
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"No interaction" isn't a constructive comment to someone who has interaction in their deck. It's just confusing, and lazy. It's fair enough to say "not enough interaction" or "suboptimal interaction" or "interaction I wouldn't be using" or straight up "bad interaction," but don't say there's no interaction when there plainly is. As for ramp: Bust Rodd is right about mana rocks. 2 CMC mana rocks are the current norm for ramp in colors that aren't green. The idea is, in non-cEDH metas, most players are usually spending the first two turns just playing lands and ramping. Turn three (if not sooner) is when more interesting stuff starts happening. There's more than enough 2 CMC rocks across all colors that you never have to run a 3+ CMC rock ever again. Even better, for those of us on a budget, most of them are plentiful enough to be affordable. Here's the 2 CMC rocks in a nutshell: ***Arcane Signet*** ***Fellwar Stone*** ***Signets (two color cycle)*** ***Talismans (two color cycle)*** ***Mind Stone*** ***Thought Vessel*** Liquidmetal Torque Diamonds (one color cycle) Coldsteel Heart Prismatic Lens Star Compass Sphere of the Suns Fractured Powerstone There's also a cycle of Myr mana dorks for 2 CMC. Even a monocolored deck has enough mana rocks to run 10+ including Sol Ring. 3+ CMC rocks are generally too slow to be worthwhile unless you can cheat extra value/recursion of out of something like Commander Sphere's sacrifice ability.
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Jan 2, 2022 18:49
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Heath posted:Good to note that Felisa triggers off of any counters. I run Icatian Moneychanger in my deck and my friends laughed at it until I got him out turn 1 and Mentored him and then sacked him at my upkeep, gained a ton of life and he exploded into a thousand (tapped Hahaha holy poo poo
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Jan 3, 2022 20:55
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) Inklings
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Yeah. I play on a "budget," but that has gone from "about 50 bux" six years ago to "ehhhhhh a couple hundo? 500?!" in 2022. That said, I'm never paying retail for any of that because I flip money cards on Cardsphere for moderately priced staples. (Flipping a foil fetchland for 2-3 shocklands/fastlands/painlands, for example). I'm a fan of playable jank as much as the next Filthy Casual, but even I can't build a fun, competitive deck for under 50 bux. You could have barely done that six years ago, and the market has blown that idea apart since then. There's plenty of ways to wheel and deal this dumb game for idiots, and there's enough formats to make several differentiated markets, that you can *spend* 50 bucks and add some old poo poo you might have lying around and make a decent non-cEDH deck. But the retail *value* of the deck is going to be $200+.
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Jan 8, 2022 20:23
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I brought my Drake posted:I stopped playing for about ten years and recently got back into it and I've run into this and it really stings. Several of the powerhouse decks that I had built when Wizards hadn't officially recognized the format are just too slow for Commander now. The only way I've been able to get the broken cards that are now considered color or format staples is to trade out of the collections I inherited from other people. (And while the classic money cards are long gone from those collections, I've been able to capitalize on the nouveau riche money cards.) I played from 1994-2001, sold off my collection no regrets; it helped pay for college), and got back in on the cheap back in 2015. I got back in with the help of a friend's collection that he gave to me as thanks for helping him with some poo poo. It wasn't a great collection, which is why he gave it away, but it had scores of Unglued lands. Because people who play this game are often insane, I was able to flip those lands alone for enough to float a substantial collection of EDH staples, just as/before the format was blowing up and prices were somewhat reasonable. Since then I spend modestly (maybe 50-100 bucks a year) getting new stuff to broaden the collection and flip money cards. I almost always get singles through Cardsphere, but I could easily see someone spending ten times what I do per year on this dumb game for idiots if they bought them. There's a reason a lot of folks ITT proxy heavily. Anyone playing cEDH would be daft not to, with the prices of cEDH staples being what they are.
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Jan 8, 2022 21:48
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Party Miser posted:lightly played can be almost indiscernible from near mint, but then i ordered a near mind that had a big ol dent in the middle. gotten some really good moderately played but also really bad. I got a great deal on an Ice Age MP Necropotence that I expected to look terrible but when I arrived it was pretty alright! Always be slumming it in LP/MP, especially if you're using one of the card trade sites. Lots of folks just default all of their want lists to NM without thinking to change it, so if you request LP or MP you can get hooked up in a hurry.
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Jan 8, 2022 22:49
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That's about what my Necropotence looks like. A+++ would by broken cardboard again
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Jan 8, 2022 22:59
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Toph Bei Fong posted:https://twitter.com/PleasantKenobi/status/1479052151435534343 I love Anarchronism and still have a bunch of sets and about eight decks sleeved. You know, I should go eBay the rest of the sets just have to have them. But I digress... Speaking of non-cEDH decks going aggro before turn 1,000, I have once again fallen victim to the siren song of Zada, Hedron Grinder. This is the third time I've built the deck, fourth if I include the *~secret commander~* WUBRG version fronted by General Tazri. It's the first time I've built the deck since Fists of Flame came out. YIKES is that card a loving all-star in this deck.
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Jan 15, 2022 02:40
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I just read it. Here's my take: So much of what Sheldon says is vague or broad to the point of being meaningless. For example: "It’s time to redefine Commander’s target demographic as 'people who want to have fun together.' " Yeah, no kidding my dude. It's a game for us, not a job. Even the spikiest spikes in Standard are still having fun by their own definition. A lot of the article falls along those lines. They're rudderless platitudes without a lot of concrete solutions. He itemizes a few areas he thinks went well last year, and some areas of future concern. He has very few actionable prescriptions for any of them. As usual, it's the typical "talk is cheap" kind of stuff from him. For example, he focuses on homogeneity as a growing concern, but elsewhere he praises Wizards pushing good EDH products last year (which have increasingly exacerbated homogeneity). I agree with some of his points, like that homogeneity is boring and bad for the format, but he offers nothing as a guy who can influence product design to do anything about it. There is also an underlying distain for competitive players of all stripes, be they cEDH or even tuned casual players like myself. This paragraph near the start of the article sets the tone: quote:A statement on the health of the format is a useful opportunity to point out that in the continued upswing of people joining our community, some folks will bring the “optimize for winning” mindset. What we see there is that that mindset becomes risky for the ability of other people to play casually—which is not an indictment of that mindset. In the abstract, there are no red flags. We only get into trouble when that mindset prioritizes itself over the group (whether that’s your best buds or three strangers at a CommandFest). gently caress off with this condescending poo poo. Play to win, or go jerk off for three hours. It's a card game that is meant to be won. It's not frizbee or Chinlone or something like that. God drat, Sheldon. I am increasingly an EDH anarchist, and I mean that in the philosophical/political sense. If we take Sheldon as "the state," then maybe we all just play our own way (i.e., to win) and "the state" will become increasingly irrelevant and maybe someday cease to exist like a bad dream. No gods or kings (or pillowfort losers making GBS threads up the format).
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Jan 17, 2022 19:04
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Batterypowered7 posted:* glances nervously at a 5C Enchantress list with a bunch of pillowfort poo poo in it * Y-yeah, gently caress those guys. Listen, as long as you have win cons and actually try to win, then fine. But your pillowfort is probably downright aggro compared to whatever disgusting, unholy poo poo Sheldon's playgroup does with pillowforts.
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Jan 17, 2022 19:13
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Infinite Karma posted:The thing I saw that resonated with me is "Playing at a particular level or style isn’t a negative. An individual insisting that everyone else adapt to their style is what becomes problematic," and directly calling out the fun police. I don't know what his 'true intentions' are or whatever, but telling people to chill out and have fun slinging cards (even if the game doesn't go as planned because someone cast Armageddon) is good. This would resonate with me if it wasn't coming straight out of the Fun Police's mouth. All Sheldon does is tell people how to play, or that playing too fast or too competitively is wrong. It's disingenuous as hell.
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Jan 17, 2022 20:18
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 WTF is this tweet? Social =\= casual. God drat
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Jan 17, 2022 21:53
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Me, sitting at VTES nationals in 2006: "Yes. This is casual. Look at us, there are five players at the table. Casual as hell."
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Jan 17, 2022 21:56
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Gynovore posted:The big difference here is that VTES was designed from the ground up with multiplayer in mind. There's no bullshit about pretending be the least threat at the table until you can bust out your combo. There absolutely is. You sit and bide your time and plan/wait for an opportune time to strike. In the meantime, you try to manipulate the rest of the table into doing your dirty work for you. There's way more of that in VTES than EDH because of the pace of the game. The players that jumps out first usually gets hammered. It's a multiplayer game so there's going to be table politics. My point is that the Shivam tweet that literally said EDH is casual because it is multiplayer is utter horseshit. It doesn't matter what game it is, my joke about competitive VTES notwithstanding.
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Jan 17, 2022 22:33
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Gynovore posted:I'm not sure how it is at the competitive level but that totally wasn't the case when I was playing. People pretty much just pounded on their prey and tried to survive. VTES is less combo driven, and the meta changed as much as any CCG. There were periods where things were more linear toward ousting prey, but there were more periods that were more inclined toward optimizing play by cutting deals across the table and/or patient, opportunistic plays. Truly degenerate sneak/bleed fell out of fashion early and tournament meta post-3E was much more diverse and dependent on table politics. Toshimo posted:Painting multiplayer as "more casual" to me illustrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how games work. This 100%. It can't be stated enough that anyone, at any level of a game or format's development, who doesn't play to win above most other considerations literally doesn't understand how games work. Conversely, if someone gets feel bads over being on the losing end of someone trying to win then they're spoiled sore losers and my 7yo daughter has better developed sportsmanship. What I'm saying is that Sheldon is a spoiled man child and we should all be EDH anarchists.
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Jan 18, 2022 02:32
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Toph Bei Fong posted:The Prey/Predator mechanic is one of the better designed I've seen in a multiplayer game. Each player has a designated set of enemies (person to the left you want to kill, person on your right wants to kill you) and they get rewarded for anyone taking out their prey. Taking out the person trying to kill me just results in their predator getting rewarded, not me. And once that person is dead, then the new person on my left is my prey. The game bakes in different priorities, and makes you weigh "optimal" attacks versus potentially rewarding your enemies.  Two of the guys I play EDH with regularly are two of my old VTES pals. We'll sometimes play an EDH variant like Star Commander when we miss the interesting dynamics of the old predator/prey relationships of VTES. If I had a good way to play VTES online, I'd offer to play with you. I know there is some support for it in things like Tabletop Simulator, but it's just not something I've gotten into. I just have six tournament decks and a "VTES cube" that I designed before selling off the rest of my collection a few years back. I guess you can PM me if you want to chat about VTES. More on topic: I need ideas for a RB commander. It is my everlasting shame as someone who usually played red Sligh and suicide black back in standard and extended in the 90's that I haven't found a RB commander that clicks with me yet. I guess it doesn't need to be aggro, but that would just be a bonus. Anything interesting would do. I recently tried Strefan Maurer but found it underwhelming compared to Edgar Markov. I also tried a Kardur artifact deck that just isn't working. I might be overthinking that one and should just try it some more, but I'm also shopping for a RB commander that really pops. So, goons of the EDH thread, any recommendations?
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Jan 19, 2022 01:21
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Batterypowered7 posted:Vial Smasher + Sakashima? Hahahah holy poo poo ummmmmmmm This might be it, but I'm going to keep listening. pseudanonymous posted:Prosper is pretty boss Oh dang. Look at this lil' guy. Built-in card advantage and ramp outside of green or blue? Hmm The Shortest Path posted:Grenzo is one of my all-time faves. Gives some otherwise terrible cards a great place to shine, and it plays like no other deck. This one might also go on the short list. I like how the deck can be calibrated differently depending on how much power you plan to put on Grenzo. I also love an excuse to abuse stupid jank that won't go into any other deck. That's why I'll never have a reason to take apart my Hallar deck: there is absolutely nothing above uncommon in that deck that I need for anything else.
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Jan 19, 2022 02:21
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Dizz posted:cheers. also holy poo poo poppet stitcher is busted as gently caress. i guess i should get Ashnod's altar as well. Ashnod's Altar is a card that's hard to have too many copies of. It's good even in decks that don't make it their business to kill their own creatures.
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Jan 20, 2022 00:40
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Toshimo posted:Insert my annual rant about how irreplaceable Phyrexian Altar is, how it is starved for reprints, and how it gets more expensive every month. Preach, brother. I treated myself to two singles from my LGS when I got a gift card a couple birthdays ago: this, and Necropotence. The thing is crazy expensive for what it is. I don't mean to minimize its value but holy poo poo does it need a reprint or four.
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Jan 20, 2022 01:04
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So I've set out to build Vial Smasher / Sakashima, not as my RB deck but at a true URB deck. I'm looking at using Affinity to cheat out big, dumb CMCs, and splashing some of the more OP Delve poo poo like Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, and Temporal Trespass, as well as some instant speed jank from both abilities to flex Vial Smasher's triggers on as many turns as possible. The recent printing of that cycle of dual artifact lands sealed the deal for me, as that gives me three more easy Affinity looks at essentially no cost to the deck's functionality. Does that sound viable, or should I look elsewhere for budget bullshit for Vial Smasher to smash? In any case I'm going to throw in Spark Double and a few other dirty tricks for more Vial Smasher shenanigans. Thanks again to Batterypowered7 for the fun idea.
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Jan 23, 2022 22:50
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Batterypowered7 posted:You can clone your commanders more, since Sakashima makes it so the legend rule doesn't apply to you (in addition to playing the original Sakashima, for when you don't have the commander one out) to get even more triggers. Yep. I like Spark Double in case Sakashima gets got, but I'm also running silly bullcrap like Rite of Replication for sure.
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Jan 23, 2022 23:31
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One of my favorite things to do in Magic in 2022 CE is describe in excruciating detail the rules for Banding to players who weren't playing or born in the 1990's. It's not so much its complexity that's stupid. It's the uselessness-to-complexity ratio that hurts the brain. But a fun game is to make up fake rules for it that are more believable than the actual rules.
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Feb 6, 2022 15:53
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Heath posted:Banded creatures must attack together and block together. It's not that complicated. Basically the way it is now blocking creatures can just band at will, it just doesn't have a name besides "I will block attacker X with blockers Y and Z" Right. It affects how blockers can assign damage. Like I said, it isn't that complicated, but the actual rules for it are written in a mind-crushingly dumb way and so many words were dedicated to such little effect on the game.
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Feb 6, 2022 16:48
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I already advocated being EDH anarchists. Just ignore the RC and they will disappear like a bad dream. If you want Dockside Extortionist banned just ban him.
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Feb 8, 2022 12:57
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As long as my Invoke Prejudice playmat isn't problematic, then this is all fine. I know it is. I am joking and nothing is fine.
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Feb 9, 2022 13:09
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Dizz posted:yeah I got Ashnod's and Dementia, but not Phyrexian sadly. too rich for my blood Nope. Companions need to match your commander(s)' color identities, like a card in the 99.
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Feb 19, 2022 11:56
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Batterypowered7 posted:Let's see what Format Founder, Savior, and Thread Favorite Sheldon Menery has been up to: https://articles.starcitygames.com/select/the-great-kamigawa-neon-dynasty-commander-deck-update/ He used the word "amazeballs" in the second line and I stopped reading.
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Feb 26, 2022 01:50
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NEO is a great set tho I pulled a Jin Gitaxias and a ton of other cool poo poo. I'm looking at making a mono-B ninja deck, but I haven't had much time to really roll any ideas around very much. I might brew this weekend.
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Feb 26, 2022 01:52
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My K&T landfall kings deck is long overdue for its own box and it uses a ton of tokens and dice and bullshit. That, and I like to encourage non-lovely MTG people, so I'm in for one of the Prof's boxes. I eagerly await learning how magnets work.  Also, re: sleeve chat: I almost exclusively use Ultra Pro Pro-Matte sleeves. They shuffle really well and resist wear better than any others I've tried. Also also: gently caress Michael Lynch.
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Mar 19, 2022 20:32
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I made my daughter a Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist deck for Yule. She had an idea for a deckbox for it, so we sat down to make it this morning. She's big into paper crafting: origami, collages, etc. I also suck at drawing, so this worked out alright.  The background is just a solid sheet of paper cut to fit the top of this generic, unfinished wood box we got at a craft store. She picked out all the colors. I had to put the head together because the eyes and nose and ears had too many tiny pieces that were hard for a seven-year-old to cut and glue.  It's hard to tell in the photos, but Mirri's armor is made of a shiny paper that isn't as shiny as the blade (see below) but definitely reflects light. I was going to go with a light brown for leather armor, but my daughter wanted more shiny poo poo.   I was going to take my chances with using aluminum foil for the blade, but my daughter had some origami paper that had a silvery metallic backing. We used that and it worked way better than aluminum foil probably would have. I left the sails of the Weatherlight in the background out because I figured it would crowd the composition. But that left us with some open space up in the corner. My daughter had a good idea for filing that in:  The mana symbols are just cut out from two basic lands. My daughter is going to paint the sides and bottom a solid green color, and then we'll hit the whole thing with a clear coat to seal it.
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Mar 20, 2022 20:10
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The Mirri deck isn't cEDH because I don't use enough proxies and/or spend enough money to do that. It's "focused casual" and doesn't durdle around. My decks tend to threaten winning or at least eliminating one opponent around turn 4-6. Mirri is no different and I made sure some choice cards ended up in there.
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Mar 21, 2022 22:39
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lol Joking aside, I wouldn't call it optimized. She wanted a cat based deck, hence Mirri, but some of her choices in the 99 are suspect. I tried to guide her in have a good amount of ramp, card draw, removal, etc., but a few of the choices within those blocs were based on the kinds of things a seven-year-old thinks about. It's mostly decent, but there's a few that stand out as in there because they "look cute" or "look cool."
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Mar 22, 2022 03:07
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Bugsy posted:Cool card but how is a Brass Dragon or any of the metallic dragons a black card? Conversely, why was there a chromatic dragon in white in TFR? I think it's just stretching the color themes a bit for the sake of balancing a cycle. 
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Mar 25, 2022 01:24
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Framboise posted:"What is my purpose?" lol
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Apr 3, 2022 12:36
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