Magic: The Gathering C/D

http://magiccards.info/chk/en/277.html

so this card randomly shot up to $10 from bulk rare price in the past day or 2 for no apparent reason

mtg secondary market is very strange sometimes

some people were playing it in their modern decks at the pt iirc

there was no modern pt, not since october. no modern GP lately either

no, i meant the modern pt last fall. it was featured on camera and none of the commentators knew what the card did.

Sometime between now and tomorrow, I need to at least memorize all the dang Bloodrush tricks.

i think the only really scary ones are at rare or uncommon - the rampager is g/r for +4/+4 and trample, the +3+/+3 and double strike for 3rr and the +9/+9 and trample for... i think 4gg.

also general theory qn: how willing are you to play into bloodrush? i feel like if im willing to trade in the first place im almost always willing to trade for a potentially better creature in hand, esp in the early turns of a game. there are times when i haven't been able to recover a board presence but more often you can get people to play out their hand killing your 2/3 drops and then not have anything left after turn 5.

I'm sorely tempted to start drafting on MTGO, but I'm worried that it will end up bankrupting me.

i put $50 in at the beginning of each new set and have earned enough during the release queues to draft and play standard for the rest of that season. the release sealed events in particular are both excellent practice and tend to be easier than the regular events. i was also lucky enough to win one of the 64-man events so i'm way up on packs for gtc.

i try to play around the 2/1 goblin since it's usually a worse creature than whatever i'm blocking with, but otherwise i'm fine playing into bloodrush if i have a blocker that's not too important to my board state.

I almost always play into bloodrush w/ the assumption that I'm trading for the midsize creature in their hand

i do too. even the 2/1 goblin. if you get hit with it, at least you know they have the crappy 2/1 goblin in their deck

sadly that card isn't even crappy in this format, or at least it's better than i thought it was going to be

yeah i feel like slaughterhorn and skineater golbin are the ones i least like to play into partly because they only cast one mana so your opponent isnt losing as much tempo to kill yr 2/3 .

i really want the ruination wurm deck to be good but there's just no good ways for gruul to protect its large creatures from smite etc. which is such a blowout on a 6 mana creature even if it's a 1 for 1 trade

alpha authority is the only card i see that does this but it feels too narrow since you can only run a few of the types of creature it's good on

yeah iatee and i were trying to come up with viable niche/corner draft strategies and RUG ramp was the only thing that really came to mind, and even that seems really bad because you just aren't doing enough turns 1-3 to stop half the decks in the format. and then you can still get blown out by a single grisly spectacle or smite

i am going to make contaminated ground work though, i swear to god

what about alpha authority in a cipher deck?

it's not worth a card just for the hexproof if that's what you mean

yeah I just meant as a nichey strategy, let's say you got two and had strong evasion and some of the more powerful cipher stuff?

I want to discover a viable BUG deck

shadow slice on drakewing krasis

crackling perimeter is probably my favorite gimmick card in the set

so
unblockable rogues
drakewing
raptor
shadow slice
call of the nightwing
nimbus swimmer
the 2/2 flying artifact

+ removal / crocs / walls

that seems viable. is it draftable?

sure, you just draft simic and scoop up some of the splashable dimir cards that slip through due to underdrafting. simic cards are less splashable so i wouldn't do it the other way around

that makes sense

i've really had no luck splashing anything in this set. RTR was so much different.

it's more dangerous since the format's like half a turn faster but it's still doable

lamp, contaminated ground has a distinct and useful place, and that is versus the verdant haven deck. i will happily pick it when the unplayable piles start coming around, and will happy side all of mine in against those decks.

isn't the card generally stronger if you drop it turn one or two tho vs 'making two mana more expensive'

the card is always good. always

i would rather play the frenzied tilling/structural collapse deck

i want frenzied tilling to be better than it is. i still like it tho. land destruction is by far one of my favorite magic strategies and i really wish i could've played when sinkhole was legal. i actually traded for judge foil sinkhole cuz i really just like that card so much

also general thread qn: do any of you collect magic cards, apart from playing them?

i keep a 'collection' of all my old cards from mirage/tempest/urza's blocks because i love that era of the game a lot, but it's all commons/uncommons/junk rares. i never had many money cards and the ones i did got traded away for standard stuff a couple years ago when i started playing more competetively.

i don't think legacy has a bright future as a format and i don't enjoy it as much as modern, so if i ever buy/trade for old cards it's for nostalgia value and not utilitarian value.

cider are you planning on going to gp providence?

yeah that's the team one in june right? i live in boston so i'm almost definitely going.

yeah its team limited

actually wait i'm gonna be in europe that weekend, so not going, damn

:(

Went 1-0-2 tonight with a real silly orzhov deck that was really good at stalling, but not very good at winning.

Beckon apparition
2x shadow alley denizen
2x dutiful thrill
Syndic of tithes
Blind obedience foil
Contaminated ground
Gutter skulk
Vizkopa guildmage
Cartel aristocrat
Orzhov charm
2x executioner's swing
Orzhov keyrune
2x corpse blockade
Basilica guards
Boros reckoner
Millennial gargoyle
Zarichi tiger
Grisly spectacle
Vizkopa confessor
Merciless eviction
Orzhov Guildgate
6 swamps
9 plains

Reckoner was a pure hate draft but it ended up being quite a powerhouse in this deck

reckoner shoulda been a pure money draft!

I first picked aurelia but also ended up in orzhov last night. I had a pretty sweet deck but lost to a dimir deck in the finals, as cosmic retribution for all my dimir shit talk itt. someone ended up third due to other ppls stupid ties.

3 kingpin's pet
high priest of penance
syndic
guildmage
screecher
basilica guards
2 dutiful thrull
keyrune
assault griffin
zarichi tiger
guardian of the gateless
2 smite
2 angelic edict
grisly spectacle
executioner's swing
orz charm
shadow slice
merciless eviction

I really wish I had seen some copies of kingpin's pet. I was sorely lacking good evasive guys to hit with.

yeah that's usually how I won, but the dimir deck could stop me w/ those stupid 2/3 spies

someone ended up in third = somehow ended up in third

someone = me

so 7th pick Soul Ransom and 8th pick Dinrova Horror means Dimir is pretty open huh?

yeah I grabbed like a 10th pick dinrova horror last draft just in case dimir was open but it didn't end up being the case

I've seen bane alley brokers go like 12th pick

thinking about running this. but i'm not sure if i'm too ambitious on running 4 Deaths Approach or the high end stuff. I don't have much Cipher at all so I feel like I kind need some finishers.

http://i.imgur.com/B0ijkCG.jpg

shadow slice is a must

think its a better finisher than mind grind or the lord?

absolutely

mind grind is always ambitious tho your deck really does have enough graveyard stuff that you could imagine it being useful as a not-win-condition

lord a little too ambitious

I'd also consider keymaster over one of the 4 death's approaches...they do work better in batches but they also work worse in batches. you might end up w/ 2 in an opening hand and never have a chance to get something graveyarded.

maybe even the sprite. you have a cool deck but def leave yourself open if you don't have a fast start.

thats what i was thinking w/ mind grind. you don't really need to win with it. but then again Paranoid Delusions may be a better card in that spot. I'll probably side out Lord for the Faerie, at least.

Keymaster I'm not too sure of...don't really reliably have much to return with it. Plus without Cipher its upside is not really worth it.