Magic: The Gathering C/D

full sets of all 3 from what i have seen recently

the issue is you have a lot of etb tapped lands in that deck, warden is really awkward if you don't have a llanowar wastes turn 1

Reality Shift may be the missing card my Temur deck has been looking for, amazing Abzan hoser

Obviously it's not quite as good as Swords/Path but it's really not too far off is it?

with an opponent's courser in play, I'll be able to see exactly what they'll manifest, but really there are very few cards that I would feel bad about them manifesting, forcing manifest on any of the nightmare ETB creatures in Abzan and whip decks is perfectly acceptable.

its a slight downgrade from rapid hybridization imo, but that card saw some standard play

http://mythicspoiler.com/frf/cards/ghastlyconscription.jpg

FUN CARD

surely not at all constructed playable but a fun draft challenge, a finisher for that rakshasa's secret control archetype that ppl are trying to make be a thing

i cast rise of the dark realms a few times in m14 limited, this one's cheaper by 2 so sure

just to be clear, this doesn't allow you to exile your opponent's graveyard and then get an army of 2/2s under your control, right? The phrase "then manifest those cards" means "then target player manifests those cards".

if target player manifested the cards i think it would explicitly say that? 'manifest' means you put on the battlefield as a facedown 2/2

http://mythicspoiler.com/frf/cards/marduscout.html

has red ever gotten a no-drawback 3-power creature for two mana?

xpost

ok, then that's stronger than I thought on first look, not bad!

of course it will be extra amusing when your opponent casts Dig Through Time in response...

xp i don't think so, but it's gotten lots of ones with minor drawbacks or preconditions

mardu scout art on some poochie shit

lol so otm

& the ghastly conscription art looks like grimdark mario galaxy

lol lamp

the green dark confidant dude @ uncommon seems kinda insane in limited

full set is up on the wotc site

no october surprises this time really

had a quick scan thru at lunch, seemed like slight improvement in removal? more warriors, less reasons to care about warriors. and surely the worst delve card to date - peel from reality except 4U delve instead of 1U!

this one does any nonland permanent, if that matters

I think that ones better than the 4uu frost breath

And yeah its non delve version actually costs 2u (aether tradewinds iirc) so it's one of the smallest delve penalties

pretty okay w/ pod being banned, it's either than or it stays the best deck indefinitely

cruise maybe less shocking tho I really didn't feel like it was broken in modern, people were playing thought scours just to turn it on, it's not like legacy where your graveyard just magically ends up w/ 10 cards in it. dig seemed scarier long-term.

I might play storm again in modern, it just lost two of its terrible matchups

either that*

i am giving up on modern.

Bleh, there goes all the effort I sunk into Pod. I get the rationale and even agree with it, but it's annoying to have spent all that time and money. At least I still have Affinity

i don't mind modern as banlist-curated format though it does suck when your deck is the one that gets hit. this felt like a long time coming though, imo melira pod was the best deck in the format for the full 3 years since the punishing fire ban

i would expect GBx midrange decks to be the most popular choice again going forward. i think these decks mostly suck without bloodbraid elf and you should pick up one of the ramp decks if you want a lot of free wins (valakut, tron, amulet)

anyone have prerelease tales to share?

i had 3 of the rare dragons in my pool so i played them all and crushed people

despite the format being really heavy on the small set (i think it was like 4.5 packs of the new set and 1.5 of khans?) it seemed to play well

played 2 prereleases. the first was Temur, which I struggled with as I had way too many 5 drops slowing down my curve, ended up 2-2-1. The second, at a different store, went Jeskai and had a much more consistent deck, went 3-0 without dropping a game along the way. Really loved the manifest auras, especially hexproof flyer. Had a fun blowout where my opponent tried to Arcbond me and wipe my board, so I sacked my targeted creature in response for Collateral Damage.

Overall, I pulled 4 fetchlands, so I guess they are being fairly generous with them at least in the initial print run. Otherwise, didn't pick up much that was notable besides a copy of the new phoenix.

also saw a guy open an alternative art Ugin in one of those little Ugin packs. Didn't even realize these existed.

another one I really like is Frost Walker. Thinking of jamming a couple copies in my temur deck instead of Elvish Mystic.

That "when (x) becomes targeted, sacrifice" mechanic seems so terrible at first but it's really not much of a downside on a creature like this is it?

if it can get 1 or 2 hits in, it's great, if it can trade with a creature or eat a piece of removal, it's still pretty good. I love playing creatures like this or Heir of the Wilds because opponents often are loathe to spend a card on them when Knuckleblade, Ashcloud Phoenix, and Stormbreath Dragon are waiting in the wings, so you get to sneak in some free damage.

one funny thing about that ability is that Bile Blight can only kill one at a time, Drown in Sorrow on the other hand...

not being able to put runemarks on it is a pretty big downside imo

there are definitely many more random things that could target it in limited than in standard

yeah but how many of those would kill it anyway?

like, that was my main argument for playing the Phantom dudes in limited, just cuz cards that target creatures but don't kill them generally aren't so good. though I do concede they have a number of random ability dudes these days

it dies to abilities too, so for example, I lost a Frost Walker to a dashed Goblin Heelcutter attack

ah yeah, that's the sort of thing I'm thinking of

bannings really contributed to 'format diversity' huh?

pretty depressing. there already is a format for junk midrange siege rhino battles.

I wonder how much of it is 'top players are really risk-averse'?

im sure thats part of it - probably a reason for the high % of burn decks in the field too tbh

its hard to argue that the bannings dindt just kill two decks w/o adding anything new to the format though

yep. more than that no more t1 delver means no real tempo presence...and control builds, which weren't even prominent before the ban, also lost their only toy they've been given since sphinx's rev. so we're left with midrange vs burn vs combo?

that said I have been testing grixis delver for a bit recently and it actually feels pretty strong. I think it's too soon to totally discount the deck, like delve is a powerful mechanic and ur cantripy decks have the deepest graveyards.

i think 'top players are really risk-averse' is an important point here, i've long been of the opinion that GBx rock decks are bad for most players because they have absolutely no upside, they are always going to be 45-50% vs any field and you need to rely on being a lot better (or luckier) than the field to get your equity up high enough to win an event.

but on the flipside you're never going to lose to a hate card which seems to outweigh any negatives for a large amount of players

i want to get into this again but like w/ cards not on a computer

is there a pt somewhere in this or another thread where re-entry into the game is discussed
btw i havent played since ~1995

idk if we've discussed that in here

best way is obviously if you have a friend who's played more recently and can field yr questions about new cards/sets/rules etc. i started playing again because i had a roommate who played and i started going to the game store with him and got hooked again.

if you want to play in actual events, like at your local game shop or w/e, booster draft is probably the best format for new/re-entering players since you don't need to own any cards beforehand and if you do it regularly you'll build up a collection over time just from the cards you draft. plus its just the most fun way to play the game in general if you can afford to drop the $10-15 entry per draft.

if you just want to play casual w/ friends they make a bunch of prefab products that are good for that, like there's duel decks which are a set of 2 themed preconstructed decks that are designed to play against each other, and there's commander which is a multiplayer format w/ 100-card decks and some special rules, etc etc.