Magic: The Gathering C/D

Stormchaser is a middle of the pack card. The stats aren't very good on their own so it relies on getting the ability off to make it good, but like Roberto said, it's too expensive. And even then the ability can miss - how bad does it suck to skip your turn expecting to trade this for Borderland Minotaur, only to scry land into land? This format is too tempo-oriented for it to shine. Plus it's gold which always drops cards in the pick order in this block IMO. Mortal Obstinacy seems spread too thin - not a very strong card for the heroic decks, nor a good enchantment removal card. Every once in a while, it'll be great, but getting full value is too situational. But Feast of Dreams is the real deal for limited, I think. Better than Ray because of the CC, and Journey looks to make enchantments more played.

well if more enchantments are going to be played, then wouldn't Ray be better? I think killing the Bestow is often better than killing the Bestowed creature (especially mid-combat) and Journey looks like its going to add to the number of enchantments but decrease the # of enchantment creatures, at least at common.

I think you're right about Stormchaser, I guess I wouldn't first-pick that - obviously they're trying to shoehorn in some kind of spell-based scry deck for U/R and stuff like Spite of Mogis really helps that, but the key cards like this dude, the Scry-Shock encantment, and Mnemonic Wall are just too expensive/inefficient on their own, and also they don't exactly combo off as well as the G/B graveyard stuff does; I don't see any strong commons to support this strategy outside of the bounce or burn that everyone else wants.

Sorry my last sentence was two separate thoughts. I think Feast is better only because of the lower casting cost, and Ray and Feast both become better because of more enchantments overall. You may be right that Ray is better due to the ability to blow out Bestow mid-combat. On that note, isn't it bizarre that Feast can hit an enchantment creature, an enchanted creature, but not an enchantment creature that is enchanting a creature? This block does my head in.

This block definitely is strange in that way - a dude who was newer to the game asked me why you could cast Ray of Dissolution on a Nimbus Naiad when it's a creature but you can't Sip of Hemlock it when it's an Aura. Never quite thought of it that way because I'm used to the odd tapestry that is the M:TG rules but I couldn't come up with an easy explanation. Either way I feel like both are going to be playable though I fear that Feast is the sort of card that could stick in your hand for most of the game the way the current enchantment removal does.

Another one for the crazy file: recently learned that if you pre-combat destroy your opponent's creature that has a Bestow guy on it, that Bestow creature can attack that turn as long as it wasn't played just that turn. Same principle that allows Mutavault to attack even though it wasn't a creature at the start of the turn.

Yeah this is the first block where the rules of 'control' of an Aura really begin to make a difference. Another good example is taking control of a creature with an Ordeal on it (say, with Portent of Betrayal) - if you do it to get the Ordeal's effect, it'll actually backfire. Nor will you get the Bestow if the creature dies (which'll be relevant now that there's incentive to Bestow your opponent's creatures). And Bestow creatures as an Aura don't 'tap' with the creature even though most people in paper Magic at least play it that way.

yeah i have been on a steep learning curve about auras and control. i did get suckered by stealing an enemy creature with an ordeal that was about to go off, and i also lost a race to someone who put his ordeal of heliod on my heroic creature

i also lost a race to someone who put his ordeal of heliod on my heroic creature

Holy cow, this never occurred to me. I've definitely been in the situation holding an Ordeal without a creature I can trigger it with.

Another one for the crazy file: recently learned that if you pre-combat destroy your opponent's creature that has a Bestow guy on it, that Bestow creature can attack that turn as long as it wasn't played just that turn. Same principle that allows Mutavault to attack even though it wasn't a creature at the start of the turn.

yeah people mess this up all the time - i actually won a game at gp toronto because my opponent killed my bestowed creature at the beginning of combat instead of during, allowing me to attack for lethal with my previously bestowed creature

i am really, inordinately excited for this prerelease and im not sure why

so looks like there are magical 15 god packs

elf-like edh player ears are perking up as we speak

In a kind of repeat of the BNG prerelease, I ended up with a pool today that didn't have any crazy money cards but did allow me to build a really consistent deck with a low curve and lots of tricks. I managed not to lose a single game, which is an extremely rare occurrence for me. Here's my deck:

Loyal Pegasus
Hopeful Eidolon
Favored Hoplite
Pharika's Chosen
Gnarled Scarhide
Triton Shorestalker
Spirit of the Labyrinth
Bloodcrazed Hoplite
Oreskos Swiftclaw
Eagle of the Watch (foil)
Master of the Feast x 2 - I ended up with a third copy after prizes, don't know if it will see action in standard, but it was a backbreaker today
Doomwake Giant
Sentry of the Underworld

Traveler's Amulet
Gods Willing
Aerial Formation
Ordeal of Heliod
Voyage's End
Pharika's Cure
Banishing Light
Nightmarish End
Sudden Storm
Dictate of Heliod

Temple of Deceit
Unknown Shores
Swamp x6
Plains x6
Island x2

I had a sweet Orzhov control deck with Athreos, Underworld Coinsmith, Grim Guardian, white Promo, Hopeful Eidelon, Sun-Guide. Felt like Extort all over again. Scholar of Athreos would have been insane, but I didn't drop a game all day anyway. Traded off my Athreos because it's like $30 right now and I don't think it's gonna get a lot of Standard play. Even the deck that wants it probably wants 1-2.

btw Athreos was useless in my control deck and I knew he would be but I felt compelled to play him anyway because I could. I did make him active one game but my opponent had a 6 toughness blocker.

we all knew this day was coming - MTGO v3 is going to be shut off for good in July, so the Beta Client is going to be the norm

i did a few more drafts on it to see if it felt any less clumsy but holy cow, it's still terrible, disorienting, really laggy, and unweildy in ways that such a complex card game need not be.

my new pc only has beta installed so far since i've been taking a break but i wanted to check my collection without waiting on a lengthy install (beta installs in like 10 seconds somehow), i think i'm just gonna roll with it since i might as well get used to it

after the big stability update they did a few months back, beta actually runs faster for me now than v3 which is at least a small upside

i think the main issue remaining is that the interface is too cluttered & disorienting (especially on the collection screen; i think the play scene is not too bad anymore on a big monitor) and it's shipping without the customization options to hide interface elements that would relieve this

I'm not gonna say it's the worst thing ever but it really doesn't feel "months away" - there are tons of little things that should be done, and not just subtle things to make the gameplay more intuitive, but like, big, glaring flaws, indicative of a company that's not Beta testing at all or just not listening to the people who are.

i do kind of wish they'd retained some of the look&feel of 90s PC RPGs that v3 kind of has going on as a stylistic choice, it was always pretty endearing & nostalgic

Cast into Darkness is the 6th lowest-ranked card in Journey on Gatherer - it is just me or is that one of the 10 best commons?

is that the -2/-0 cant block enchantment? cuz i agree that card is really solid

i just went through a very big move and bought a new computer and found out i can only run mtgo beta (v4?) on it so i havent really bothered installing it again. ive also had a tonne of non-magic stuff to do but was suddenly struck with the urge at work today to play, it was... potent

yeah. I did my first full block draft and went 4-0 thanks to that card (though more thanks to the 3 Gray Merchants I got) I had a difficult time convincing anyone else it was good but every time I played it it would up being more or less straight removal.

I had one of those in my king macar + 2 mastiffs, pain seer, eidelon of countless battles, herald of torment deck tonight

so Khans of Tarkir, a Mongol invasion block with lots of dragons? interesting...

I thought the deal was that dragons were extinct on the plane

that's true, but I suspect that you start out with lack of dragons leading right into a huge pile of dragons

it's basically edh

yeah you just know that 3rd set of the block is going to be 'AVR but for dragons instead of angels'

Or maybe Rise of the Eldrazi but for dragons instead of Eldrazi

The block structure for the Huey-Dewey-Louie block is confirmed to be large-small-large, with some sort of twist. Saw some people speculating that the draft format might be Triple Huey, then Dewey-Huey-Huey, then Louie-Louie-Dewey (or some permutation of that). I'm all in favor of shaking up the draft format more often.

I am very amused by this:
http://media-dominaria.cursecdn.com/avatars/58/49/635359304940832485.png

so...does the pack have to be Conspiracy? or can you just bring one with you?

all I know is that this set is gonna be a staple for the Crazy Drafts (where you can bring any 3 packs you want) - its kinda like fantasy Cube + new stuff that would only work in this format. can't wait to play it and kudos to WoTC for even trying something like this.

it doesn't have to be a pack of conspiracy, no.

though really this set works far enough outside the 'normal' rules of the game that you can just decide w/ the table how to interpret this stuff

I'm just hoping there are enough high-powered/money cards to make the set worth opening - without a decent amount of chase cards I can't see my LGS drafting this more than 2-3 times. Though I guess there's no real limit to what they can reprint here (Reserved List aside) so I would expect a few sought-after cards here.

Dack will be a chase card at the least

'conspiracy' will have foil swords to plowshares and foil brainstorms, so I imagine people will be pretty interested in opening boosters. curious to see what other vintage/legacy commons and uncommons they'll put in, foil bolts would also be nice and it would be sweet to have non-ftv foil hymns

feel like the ev will be pretty bad still w/ few to no standard/modern cards + no limits on the print run + lots of people who want to draft it but have little interest in the cards for legacy/commander

kinda just want to build a draft set (said everyone)

legacy and commander cards are a better pull than modern tbh, which (surprisingly) kinda feels like the most hardcore magic-nerd format going rn

although I didn't realize this would be an open printing, kinda figured they'd do it like mma but its nice to think they learned a lesson there

legacy players are willing to drop money for sure, but I think the supply will just overwhelm the demand by a good margin. like, how many people really need that new planeswalker?

is he even good? there are no viable legacy decks that could fit him in really, not that im an expert &c&c

like I said I think the big draw is reprints, particularly the existence of foil versions of duel deck/alternate art staples, they were pretty good about getting a lot of money uncommons into mma, i can easily imagine ponder, hymn, daze &c being in this set and that tends to make actually opening packs appealing to people

mostly though this just doesn't look like any fun to actually play, unlike mma

i've thought about building a recyclable draft set for innistrad but i'm not sure if it'd be more or less fun to have than just building a cube.

i haven't done the math on how many copies of each common or uncommon you need to make reasonably realistic packs. for rares you just need 2 of each regular rare and 1 of each mythic and you're fine, but uncommons are real important to get the ratios correct on so that stuff like burning vengeance shows up at the correct frequency for it to be draftable some % of the time.

haha it's not aimed at your demographic xp

cider do you know the breakdown of rarity for the dfc in innistrad? tbh if you have all the rares and mythics it shouldn't be that hard to get a playset of uncommons and a double playset of commons from isd (i don't know if those are the right numbers either, i think its probably more like 3/6 but) to round out the set

in some ways getting to do 'throwback' drafts is actually more appealing than cubing to me

somebody should start packaging draft sets and put them on ebay or something, I bet they would sell

then they should give me one for having the good idea

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ISD-Innistrad-Complete-Set-Factory-Sealed-W-Mythics-/271488035661?pt=Trading_Card_Games_US&hash=item3f35f2ab4d

jeez you could build a draft set for not much more than a box itself

I would imagine those foil prices would be insane. Foil Daze is still something like $120 even though it's a freakin' common. I'm positive I used to have a few too.

man i should redeem some of my full sets from wizards before they stop honoring them

damn m13 sets are pretty cheap maybe I should build one of those