Magic the Gathering, There has to be others who play :D

I picked up the novel Agents of Artifice by Ari Marmell yesterday for $3 USD for Kindle version.  Being a lore nut, I always gravitate towards the fiction and backstory part.  This one focuses on Jace and Liliana and is very well written; a bit back i read Purifying Fire which was about Chandra, not as well written but still a fun read.  I think my strong pull to the lore aspect of a franchise is what keeps me squarely as a casual player as far as digging into the super deep mechanics (not to say I won't dig deeper because Imwish to).  I will sometimes browse the card lists reading flavor text for further insights and checking out the artwork, and am more apt to build to theme and lore over mechanics.  I never knew, but it turns out there is a sizeable segment of magic players who do just that and they even use the name Vorthus (can't remember) to self describe that approach to the game.

EDiT
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mc18
That's the article I read, the term is Vorthos.

http://www.mtgdeckbuilder.net/Decks/ViewDeck/258988


Advice? I still need to cut 7 cards, and then create a side deck.


I lean towards the johnny profile. My decks are built around ideas. Anyone can build and play a caw blade they saw on the web, its only worth noting if it was the players idea and not a copy. (even if its been done before)

I'm working on a red/white lockdown EDH deck with bassandra as the general for example. I wasn't even sure red white lockdown was possible when I started.

I would for sure cut Blood Pet and Disciple of Griselbrand, as the one is a worthless monster and the other will only be getting you +1 health per turn.

Like Emergence, i really love the MTG lore and i've read a couple of MTG books. Thats why i tend to build "tribal" decks or lorewise ones. Im now building a type2 deck for the FNM, but i usually play casual with my friends.

I have some alpha/beta cards :3

Anyone remember this card?



One of the reasons I stopped spending my money on MTG, people at local tourneys would just spend a hundred or so quid on a deck full of mana ramp and land draws, to cheese you away 3 hp at a time with this crap, I died a little inside whenever I saw it drawn "Oh, another of THESE decks..."

But who the hell wants to see that CASUL-TY?!


In this way, MTG is alot like dark souls...

You CAN cheese your way through a tourney with a red rush deck, spamming your little goblins and first / second turn wins...

In the way that you CAN cheese your way through pvp dressed as a housewife, spamming gold tracer and black flame...

But theres nothing like a nice themed deck, with great art work that works in a style that suits you =)

For example, giving up that super efficient Vampire Nighthawk for a slightly worse zombie for the same mana cost, just to stay with the zombie theme. Or choosing a planeswalker that ISNT the current meta, because you like the art work and backstory...

Now can I get a HOO-RAH?

Slarg232 wrote:I would for sure cut Blood Pet and Disciple of Griselbrand, as the one is a worthless monster and the other will only be getting you +1 health per turn.

desciple+gleancrawler+rune-scarred demon= +6 life and fetch every turn late game, I hope I don't have to explain the benifit of that. Its just another sacrifice engine otherwise, it makes me pay 1 mana but 2 or 3 life gained per turn adds up quickly in edh and if its on the field I'll always have something to do with my tokens.

blood pet+mortuary+fecundity (the enchantments are useful anyways) +golgari germination, or blood artist, or falkenwrath noble or essence warden or tablet of the guilds or leyline of vitality is infinite tokens and/or infinite life and/or instant victory. All of those things are useful anyways, i just noticed that the combo with blood pet well enough to warrant it being in.




@rosie I prefer themed decks, but i won't give up efficency to do so.

The thing is, in my experience well built themed decks are amoung the scariest to be had. A bitter blossom (which is now banned) fairy deck slaughtered extended for a while as a quick example. And goblins, I really hope I don't need to explain how a goblin themed red or red/black deck can wreck your day.

Ah, didn't see those combos, sorry about that XD Seeing that deck makes me want to do a Spore/Fungus deck myself, though.


HOO RAH!

While I agree with Forum Pirate about efficiancy, I must say that Themed Decks rule. However, what kind of theme are we talking about?

My Tribal Elemental deck, or my Black Knight themed Deck, using mostly one creature type for maximum buff benefit? Or are we talking about my Bl/Bk Mill Deck which uses anything with "Put the top X cards of your library into your graveyard"? My Simic deck which uses Evolve cards exclusively? My White Deck that has anything and everything that's white?

There are just too many ways to look at "Theme". I believe a more appropriate term for what you hate, Rosie, is "WAAC". Or what we Wargamer's call "Win At All Cost".

It actually wasn't origionally intended to be a fungus deck, hence the non-fungus creatures, fungus just fit the "life through death through life" theme of the text/picture for this, which was my inspiration for the deck

Fair enough. Golgori has always been one of my favorite guilds, and I have to give you respect points for it


Thinking of making a New Keldon Deck, with a bunch of Old Keldons mixed in with one of the guilds. Not sure if I should use Gruul as the base, or Rakdos. Gruul for Bloodrush, or Rakdos for Unleash and Blood Reckoning:

@Rosie(too lazy to quote): Yeah, I absolutely hate cookie cutter decks in every single TCG. Everyone doing the same things to try to get the same results and hope to one up the other. Don't get me wrong, I love lockdowns, and OTK/FTK is also fun in some situations(when I want to cackle ), but I do prefer going themed more often than not.

You know, there is no reason a themed deck cannot be just as scarry as any other type, excluding the turn 1 or 2 wins that people like to pull in legacy (with their $2000 decks.)

In fact, some of the best EDH decks I've seen (again, excluding the turn 3 or 4 infinite mana victory decks) are built around the flavor text of the general (the grand arbiter and sharoom come to mind)

Does a "Copied" spell from a source like Dual Casting:



Count as two spells for the abilities of cards like Nivix Cyclops?

If my understanding of it is correct, then everytime you cast a spell or sorcery Nivix Cyclops gets +3/+0, that includes your copied spell as it's considered to be an identical spell played at no mana cost. I'm not sure though if Nivix Cyclops' ability can only be activated once.

Im just talking about the horribly efficient ones that have no taste

Valakut mana ramp deck where you cheese the opponent away with an unstoppable 3 damage with each land = Spamming dark bead and wotg against a fat roller

1st and 2nd turn wins = Invading with a one shot build and BS fishing 

Spending hundreds on the current meta just to keep up = using the flip ring before the weight thing was patched

All viable options, and I couldn't fault people playing for money or prizes.... But those decks in friendly games just make me sick lol

No disagreement here.

Slarg232 wrote:Does a "Copied" spell from a source like Dual Casting:



Count as two spells for the abilities of cards like Nivix Cyclops?

No. Its not cast, its coppied. They're different. I get this from the rules on the storm mechanic. If you use dual cast to copy a spell only dual cast counts, and only if dual cast was played that turn.

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370537 click rulings to confirm, I think its the top rule (there are 4)

Red Rosie wrote:Im just talking about the horribly efficient ones that have no taste

Valakut mana ramp deck where you cheese the opponent away with an unstoppable 3 damage with each land = Spamming dark bead and wotg against a fat roller

1st and 2nd turn wins = Invading with a one shot build and BS fishing 

Spending hundreds on the current meta just to keep up = using the flip ring before the weight thing was patched

All viable options, and I couldn't fault people playing for money or prizes.... But those decks in friendly games just make me sick lol

I have a strategy for beating those people.

Draw it out.

The average duel is 7 turns (in standard/modern) so most well built decks, in my experience, are not built to handle attrition and if you can stop the initial charge (blue white and black, in any combination, are best for this) they lose momentum and fall behind quickly. I have a blue/white ally deck built to do just that.

I used to play quite a bit but no one i know has played for a while the last time i played was like right when scars of mirrodin came out I think. I still have my decks though and tons of extra cards. EDH is my favorite I have a five color deck where I was trying to use every planeswalker never finished it completely(couldn't get all the pw) but it was really fun to play I also have a bunch more decks I might even still have my standard tourny deck from alara/ zendikar I don't remember though.

Aaaaand I'm here to complain.

I recently discovered how awesome Azorius is (I AM THE LAW!), and asked my brother if he had any good Blue White cards.

He has two Sphinx's Revelations:



They are widely regarded as the best card in the current set.

He requires Snap Caster Mages as tribute for them:



I don't have any Snapcaster Mages. Both cards run for $25, so while I can understand his not wanting to part with a card that expensive....

Doesn't mean I can't resent him for not trading them to me

Yeah. My strategy at preasent is to wait untill just after any given block falls from standard, because this usually accompanies a price drop (which may or may not be temporary) and then buy the expensive cards from the block before they have a chance to go back up in price. (with the release of new cards potentially putting them in higher demand for modern and edh.)

Forum Pirate wrote:Yeah. My strategy at preasent is to wait untill just after any given block falls from standard, because this usually accompanies a price drop (which may or may not be temporary) and then buy the expensive cards from the block before they have a chance to go back up in price. (with the release of new cards potentially putting them in higher demand for modern and edh.)

Does that work?


By the way, does anyone know for sure which blocks are going out of rotation when they release M14?

You know its getting really hard to keep playing this with my friends.

They always pull some undying hexproof first strike vigilant flying blah blah etc etc within the first turn or the likes.

They have hardcore ridiculous unbeatable decks that just take all the fun out of playing.