Magic: The Gathering C/D

+1/+1 counters for everyone

xp

yeah as weird as it sounds, the deck kinda plays like jund! you one for one their best things and get incremental value from your power cards (snap, live tasigur, pyro). unlike previous modern delver builds it isn't totally dependent on an aggro start, in fact it keeps up really well in any attrition game cause you're drawing cuts instead of vapor snags and tasigur instead of swiftspear. the bad matchups are basically jund's bad matchups for the same reason (murderous cut is bad against lingering souls) / you do a lot of damage to yourself so you can get burned out.

nu-sidisi seems quite broken

http://media.wizards.com/2015/dftyuvbd564776rvf/en_hbwolfCGV6.png

kinda surprising she's not mythic

right?

idk i feel like its probably a worse card than the one from dark ascension? i guess it beats all the other b/g big stuff creatures.

wonder if we can get to a place were the legends artifact from journey (or born?) is playable...

http://media.wizards.com/2015/dftyuvbd564776rvf/en_Q21slVTGSa.png

seems like a really nice control piece mostly for the first two abilities. then i guess any kind of mirror becomes a race to the ultimate.

This is going to be pretty nuts. Rebounding Treasure Cruise or Dig is basically game over.

so I'm going to the SCG Standard Open in Dallas the weekend after next. This is my first large, competitive event. What should my expectations be? Any particular tips?

scg opens are pretty chill in my experience, just have fun & always call a judge if you're unsure about something since the rules get a bit stricter at competitive REL

i like carrying a small notebook and taking quick notes about my opponents decks, how i won/lost each game, etc so that i have a sort of record of the tournament afterwards & it helps me remember better what i did well and poorly so that i can learn for next time

also always pack in healthy food & water for big events, if you do well you'll be there for 8+ hours and there's generally no breaks unless you finish a round fast

i think at competitive rel you're required to use pen + paper to keep track of your (and your ops) life totals. dont check your phone during matches.

cider v otm about the snacks - at the gps ive been too eating is kind of rushed and options are usually limited and unhealthy. having an apple and some trail mix is really vital.

its kind of corny but i always try to bring some music that i can zone out to btw matches. its nice to talk to friends and check in on them but its also fraught and kind of exhausting? theres a high possibility that i take magic too seriously tho

also i've never had a good experience with trading at big events so between that and the risk of theft being higher i don't bring any cards except for the deck i'm playing in the event

sweet, thanks!

Here's a more technical question - From what I understand, if I'm in my first main phase and I declare "move to combat step", I'm basically signaling to my opponent that I'm ready to pass priority at the end of the Beginning of Combat step before declaring attackers. My deck runs Flamewake Phoenix, whose ability triggers during the beginning of combat. What is the correct competitive language I should use if I want to move into the the beginning of combat step and maintain priority so that I can bring back my phoenix?

i just say 'beginning of combat?' before i move to declare attackers. this is partly because i mostly play limited and thats the step where people most want to play spells like icy blast or w/e. if you're playing standard i can see saying something like 'go to combat?' as way of acknowledging that you are passing priority.

as for being able to play phoenix as the active player you have priority first. just acknowledge somehow that you're in beginning of combat phase, declare the phoenix trigger and you're good. same w/rabblemaster or w/e. just dont declare attacks and you cant miss anything.

I would say "move to beginning of combat?" to make it extra clear we're not in the beginning of combat step already. Kind of a strange phrase to use but the timing on Flamewake Phoenix is unusual, so it makes sense. "Move to combat?" could lead to problems like you think, Moodles.

http://mythicspoiler.com/ori/cards/lilianahereticalhealer.jpg http://mythicspoiler.com/ori/cards/lilianadefiantnecromancer.jpg

origins obv

also next block is Battle For Zendikar

i kinda hate return blocks in general but zendikar is one of the 2 post-timespiral settings i've particularly liked so this is ok

crazy. I guess their trying to push Temur with the new Sarkhan

Thought we'd get the enemy fetches in Dragons, but with a third of the set spoiled and a return to Zendikar, it's looking like we might need to wait a few more months. Also Evolving Wilds would be strange to print with the fetches

I woulda put money on the next block being zendikar

fetches in a small set woulda been bad - fairly few would be opened

Dragons is a big set, but you're right it won't get opened as much as battle for zendikar, since there's no triple drafting and it's only for three months

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/twin-convicted-of-killing-man-over-fantasy-cards-worth-100k/

i watched an investigation discovery murder porn on this, the da called mtg "cardboard crack"

Brother was quoted as saying "I know know just the person for that job"

the new commands seem pretty roundly meh, maybe with the exception of the gruul one if constructed can take advantage of the ramp. GW one i am sure will be lifegain, a +1/+1 counter, destroy enchantment, plus something underwhelming. depends how it is costed.

note that the GR one is also a skullcrack if there's a deck that wants that effect and runs green

i was hoping that some of them would be more tightly designed like primal command from the original cycle where there were internal synergies between pairs of the abilities but so far other than the aforementioned skullcrack mode these are all just Here Are 4 Things These Colors Can Do

but it should go without saying that all of them are better than they look because they are 6 different spells on one card

gw one will obviously make a token since that's the one thing that none of the other 9 do at this point. this will probably also make it one of the strongest

makes sense

damn, red is getting some cards in this set

http://mythicspoiler.com/dtk/cards/communewithlava.jpg

Now this is interesting, maybe the most "pushed" version of this red draw effect yet. For Modern I would guess Epic Experiment is better but I do think someone will find a home for this, even as just a 2-of or whatever

i was in the ballpark for the GW command i guess but i really didn't think they would put a fight on it. and with the low cmc the card seems pretty pushed. the no damage from a spell instead of lifegain option is pretty interesting, more narrow but more powerful.

just like the RG one, getting a 6-mode spell for 2 mana is insane regardless of how low-impact each mode is. these will be strong cards

full spoiler is up, a lot of cool artwork in this set

this set actually looks really fun to me on first glance. lots of good commons.

Megamorph is a bit strange to me. Maybe because I'm so used to 5 mana being the key point for powerful morphs. In this set, there are a lot of ones for over 5 that just seem too costly for the effect, while the under 5s seem really good.

Also, the Rebound effects look really powerful.

the exploit cards look really strong for limited to me, they let you draft a tighter curve without getting punished for it since you can cash in your early drops for more cards as they become irrelevant. the effects on the common ones are better than i was expecting.

hey iatee what's the status of that tasigur delver deck? you still happy with it? i'm looking to re-enter modern in the near future and i need to lock in on a deck

yeah very happy. it has a good game against every t1 deck and there are a lot of angles of attack - you can be the t1 delver deck or you can be the grindy snapcaster control deck, depending on what your opening hand looks like. I think the sb has yet to be 'solved' but the maindeck seems like it more or less has been (play deprives).

yeah i definitely like the deprives. do you run 18 land or 19?

or more? i think more is probably bad though

18. w/ 12 cantrips you still end up flooding more often than losing from screw ime.

(plus 3 electrolyze)

i kind of want 2 get into this but it seems deeply complicated in an unfun way?

― THE BATHYPELAGIC ZONE (Lamp), Thursday, 11 June 2009 01:03 (5 years ago) Permalink

haha

deej, have you been able to get some games in so far?

i went w/ iatee to a draft last night and got murdered, lol

i have no conception of what the valuable cards are at this point

i mean valuable in the functional sense not $$ sense

Not sure how much you want to nerd out on this, but there are tons of helpful videos online.

These aired at from the Dragons of Tarkir pro tour yesterday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRcVIifqERg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9NQL6uGGto

ChannelFireball does a lot of magic online draft videos where they walk you through their picks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0LK_wiB6j4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dlUKRXZ2v0

If you really want to go deep, Limited Resources and The Magic Show do full set reviews where the discuss every last card in the most recent set to determine which are more or less valuable in draft.

xp the classic mnemonic for developing drafting priorities is BREAD

B = bombs, meaning cards that can win the game on their own like big flying creatures etc
R = removal, cards that kill creatures, the less restrictive the better
E = evasion, creatures with flying or unblockable or other abilities that let them get through blockers
A = aggressive cards; creatures with good stats and good pump spells/tricks
D = defensive cards; creatures that block well but don't attack well, counterspells, etc tend to be available late and aren't as important

obviously the lines get blurred when applying this to actual cards, like flying creatures with low power relative to their mana cost probably aren't actually that good compared to an efficient 3/3 or 4/4 ground creature but its a good place to start

MTGO just replaced all the Swiss and 4-3-2-2 drafts with Swiss 6-2-2-2 queues. I'm a fan.