Magic: The Gathering C/D

http://is100.imagesocket.com/images/2013/05/11/2609775-u8z2.jpg

also looking back at my RTR limited decks, somehow every single one had desecration demon in it. i think i had 10 on my account at one point

yeah I found that card way more annoying than pack rat

i actually beat it somewhat often with decks where i could spam bird tokens and keep it locked down, but it was nuts against everything else

haha i opened so many desecration demons - i actually own 5+ of them in paper in addition to like half a dozen online. i dont think it was unbeatable by any means. i also opened (and got passed) so many chaos imps, that ended up being my favorite bomb in rtr draft

demon gave you enough time to draw removal all you had to do was sacrifice 5 creatures first, maybe take 12 damage. unlike pack rat you could kill it, it just required losing the game along the way.

I think that's why I found it more unpleasant to play against. it really drags out the inevitable.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was in more draft winning decks than pack - at least that was my experience

it also fits better in rakdos aggro which was the best black deck in the format and is a bomb on t4 and also t13

yeah i have at least a playset of demons in paper from drafting too

in related news there's a standard BG control deck that's been making the rounds on MTGO that plays 4 of them

i played against that at the ptq last month, or at least something along those lines. i imagine its a least a bit better given putrefy but it didnt seem that well set-up against aggro

yeah it seems like its designed to beat up on other midrange decks or something - i haven't lost to it yet with my RG domri deck and it seems even worse against faster aggro decks like blitz.

as far as i can tell though the list comes from reigning MOCS champion Butakov who's a very good player so there must be something worthwhile to it

its basically jund with the red removal swapped out for Mutilate and the rest of the deck adjusted accordingly - the problem is you lose Olivia which was one of the best cards in jund vs midrange decks and also lose Huntmaster and Bonfire, the best cards in jund vs aggro. so yeah i don't really know why/how it's better.

it's crazy to be playing in an era where a 6/6 flyer for 4 just can't cut it

creature stats matter so much less than creature abilities - but hasnt that always been true? like creatures are so much better now than in 1997 in part because they're more efficient but mostly because they're also just now spells

yeah I mean nothing like snapcaster or stoneforge existed but creature stats matter less than creature abilities is still ultimately dependent on creature stats being 'fair' - if a vanilla 7/7 for 3 appears one day creature stats won't matter less. I guess that's a less interesting card than snapcaster despite not really being a worse one, which is why it's unlikely to happen.

also fucks up limited. but so does a 6/6 flying for 4.

it's incredible how much the value of the MOCS promo cards fluctuate. some months it's a Force of Will or a dual land, this next one it's gonna be a Cryptborn Horror, a card which nobody even plays in Limited!

hey i played a 16/16 cryptborn horror at the boston ptq last fall...

at least next month has an interesting format, modern masters sealed

how much is that gonna cost? like $40??

haha i think they make the ones that coincide with set releases purposefully crappy cuz they know people will be playing anyway, and they don't need a particularly sweet promo as an incentive. i mean it can't just be coincidence that a typically slow month like january gets an awesome promo like force of will imo

is mind's eye worth much? i had an awesome day today and could reasonably make 15 before wed. but figured its not worth the effort

iatee what do you mean? the MOCS won't cost anything because it's phantom but i think modern masters packs are priced at like 6 or 7

mind's eye is a 1 ticket card in its normal version so i can't imagine the promo will be worth much. i'm at 14 points right now though so i'm obviously going for it anyway with DGR events going up soon

gotcha didn't know it was phantom xp

or that it was mocs

yeah i was talking about next month's MOCS since frogbs brought up the bad MOCS promo cards

if theres anything i've learned about full block draft yet it's that it's impossible to cut the person on your left off of your colors - i think i've gotten an average of like 5 playables out of my gatecrash packs

also people seem to be drafting with gatecrash logic i.e. take 2-drops and 3-drops over everything - there's always an overabundance of really powerful 5s and 6s in my drafts and i end up with way too high a curve

yeah i always either have a terrible pack w/ gtc or rtr

but people still misjudging dgm cards enough that I end up w/ like 12 dgm cards in my deck

here's my first 3-0 DGR draft deck:
http://i.imgur.com/Lcwy1kF.jpg

nothing too exciting, extort is still an absurd mechanic in full block. i wanted to try lyev decree and it was okay and even won me a game that nothing else would have, but i boarded it out for shielded passage a lot.

were you close to playing bane alley?

i drafted it with the intention of playing it but there were almost no good blue cards or controlling cards for the rest of the draft so it was an easy cut

this draft format is hard imo

:DDDD My card (Soulfeaster's Rising) made it to the voting phase of You Make the Card 4! http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/247b

oh sweet, i think i voted for that one

my favorite is Consuming Contract, though i'm not sure how fun it would be as a constructed playable card, i just think it's the most novel/innovative of the batch

Well I voted for it. Many of those are quite interesting. Double Down and Eldritch Rites seem downright broken.

Awesome Vinnie! I voted for your card.

Thanks, dudes. My favorite is probably the Mummy one, that's exactly the kind of weird, flavorful card I like them to print.

except it's really dumb with Vampire Hexmage

Consuming Contract seems like the most interesting though it seems really abusable with bounce - I'd think it would need a "if this leaves play, you lose" clause plus indestructible

Make that hexproof

i think its fine to let you bounce it! 2 card combo to generate delayed card advantage does not seem overpowered compared to even a wrath of god effect let alone sphinx's revelation

i guess it's all dependant on what the third ability is

i dunno, as much as I like the design, I'd like it more if people actually wound up losing to it from time to time

Yeah the concept is great, and I guess they picked it despite thinking one mode was problematic. The thing about it being an enchantment is that the deck that plays this card probably won't run too many ways to save themselves from it. Bounce isn't that useful. So I could see a timely counterspell making someone lose the game - I think the card is fine as is.

would be even more interesting with like 3 positive modes and 2 negative ones (you lose the game and like 'discard a card' or something)

anyway - I had always wondered what the Vraska tokens looked like. every time I've gotten close to getting it to work my opponent has conceded (as a result of them being so far behind that the charged Lux Cannon functionality wasn't even that useful). BUT in a sealed I got it. Behold:

http://i.imgur.com/ZDb6Nn2.jpg

I pulled one irl

I really wish you could play Vraska and Doubling Season together!

wait a sec. you can do that in Modern can't you

lol @ your 2/2 Assassins