Magic: The Gathering -- Vampires, zombies and werewolves! (Oh My!)

[illisid]

vintage, legacy, and extended!

I think

[kickan]

Dang, got it in one.

[illisid]

BAH

so the magic club at school (which I will probably be heading next quarter so a mess like today doesn't happen again) had a draft today. Split a box between 11 people so there were only 3 prize packs. I start drafting an incredibly aggressive RB deck, which ended up great. Pick 2 I end up taking a brimstone volley over stromkirk noble, because it's a better pick and I didn't even know if I was going red. Meh just a $5 card, no big.

Pack 3 my deck starts looking great. Pick 3 has some great stuff for my deck and I agonize between 4 different cards. I grab one, pass to my friend, he looks through the pack and goes

what the fuck how did I get a 4th pick snapcaster mage?

I feel SO retarded

[illisid]

So I went to the PTQ yesterday! And did meh. Went 4-5 came in 82nd out of 300 people (300 exactly, the TO made an announcement about it). My pool was absolutely nutty, I just played like a moron. At one point I played my mayor of avabruck with a geistflame in his graveyard. I think I need to slow down and think a little more.

But the trades! the trades were nuts.

I got 3 sun titans one friend was looking for, 3 seachrome coasts and 2 sword of war and peace for another friend's puresteel deck, 1 lord of atlantis for his merfolk deck making a full playset, a 4th jace (finally), a total of 6 marsh flats and 4 arid mesas which I eventually had to trade away by the end (fetch lands trade like water), the last figure of destiny for another friend's legacy burn deck, a vindicate and flooded strand for my legacy dream deck, a playset of aether vials, a playset of cabal therapy, 2 ichorid, 3 city of brass for dredge, a playset of white sun's zenith, and at some point in the day I owned an umezawa's jitte. Pretty nice haul!

[Miff]

Also referencing an old opinion I talked about here that got some flake: Mark Rosewater apparently has the same opinion about exiled cards as I do.

[kickan]

I'm still personally okay with it. I get why you and Mark don't like it, but I just don't feel that way myself.

[Hanky Panky]

When I played, there was no way to return things that were removed from the game. There were cards like this:

But returning cards that have been removed from the game is preposterous. Unless it's a Synod Sanctum or something.

If it's removed from the game, it's gone. That's my opinion.

[kickan]

I'm fine with letting things like Runic Repetition exist when the card's effect is interesting or flavorful enough to justify it. RR does something mechanically interesting: it lets you get two more uses out of a spell with flasback. Flavorfully, it makes sense to me: it lets you call a repeated spell back into the forefront of your memory to be cast again, and again. The feeling of obsessive repetition shines through. I don't feel like the "sanctity" of the exile zone should prevent effects like that from existing. I'm happy to use it as a "second graveyard" from time to time if that lets you do fun and interesting things that you can't otherwise. I don't want that to be the norm, but it is something that shouldn't be taboo to such a high degree.

[illisid]

yeah I have no idea where I stand on that. I definitely think exile should be a one-way zone, but... I just love runic repetition. It's just so cool.

[Hanky Panky]

I'm fine with letting things like Runic Repetition exist when the card's effect is interesting or flavorful enough to justify it. RR does something mechanically interesting: it lets you get two more uses out of a spell with flasback. Flavorfully, it makes sense to me: it lets you call a repeated spell back into the forefront of your memory to be cast again, and again. The feeling of obsessive repetition shines through. I don't feel like the "sanctity" of the exile zone should prevent effects like that from existing. I'm happy to use it as a "second graveyard" from time to time if that lets you do fun and interesting things that you can't otherwise. I don't want that to be the norm, but it is something that shouldn't be taboo to such a high degree.

I just looked up that RR card, and I agree that it's okay to use. It works on the original idea of flashback from way back in Odyssey -- that your spells come back from beyond. Don't forget, Odyssey brought using the graveyard to the front of playing Magic. There were some cards that used the graveyard before it, yeah, but Odyssey brought a shit-ton of stuff.

I just miss Threshold. :<

[illisid]

(its a link)

[Bobster]

Looks like the Innistrad block is going to have a happy ending (?)

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazin...ily/arcana/864

[illisid]

thank GOD they aren't pulling a NPH on us. I wasn't a fan.

[kickan]

Haha, what would that have been, "Avacyn Restored vs Griselbrand Returns"? The second one doesn't really roll off the tongue quite as well.

I'm really, really, really curious to see what they're doing with another large-sized, drafted-alone third set. Rise of the Eldrazi was pretty incredible so I'm excited to see what they're keeping from that model and how it'll be different. I'm guessing it probably won't be completely cut off from ISD and DKA mechanically; if they did that, then you couldn't have any double-sided cards, which means that all the werewolves would disappear for some reason.

[Kollaps]

Yeah... that would be very weird.

Meanwhile, I got hold of the new DLC for Duels 2012 and am so far liking the W/B deck, albeit not as much as either of the two decks in the previous DLC (the R/W and zombies). My friend and I are unlocking them together via two-headed giant games since I bought her D12 and the DLC to pay her back for the Sam & Max pack (back when it was on sale on Steam for about $12.50). So far, she likes the trees deck a lot. She plays mostly defensively, though, which is good, since I get pretty rash sometimes.

[kickan]

Just looking at the decks, it seems that the WB deck would favor defense as well. It has a few walls and high-toughness creatures, has a good amount of attrition going on in the early game, and can finish with a suite of big flying angels and demons.

I believe the next two DLC decks are supposed to be mono-white Knights and a kind of weird, aggressive URG deck.

[Kollaps]

Just looking at the decks, it seems that the WB deck would favor defense as well. It has a few walls and high-toughness creatures, has a good amount of attrition going on in the early game, and can finish with a suite of big flying angels and demons.

Very true. it sets up some more defensive things for later in the game. I'm finding myself very partial to the enchantment that creates spirit tokens when your creatures die. And Basilisk Collar. That would be nice, if kind of game-stealing, in Ral's deck.

I believe the next two DLC decks are supposed to be mono-white Knights and a kind of weird, aggressive URG deck.

Interesting. I expected, for some reason, something with BG since that's teh only enemy color pair not yet represented in the game (then again, allied pairs in general seem a bit underrepresented in D12).

[Loreweaver]

ALL RIGHT DECK EDITING TIME

CREATURES:
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 Gladecover Scout
2 Mesa Enchantress
4 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
3 Verduran Enchantress

ENCHANTMENTS:
4 Ancestral Mask
3 Enchanted Evening
4 Rancor
3 Sylvan Library
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Wild Growth

LANDS:
8 ASSORTED GREEN FETCHLANDS
4 Savannah
4 Serra's Sanctum
4 Temple Garden
1 Tropical Island

[kickan]

Hmmm. So Avacyn Restored really won't have any double-faced cards. It will be carrying over themes from ISD and DKA to bridge the sets together, but DFCs don't fit what is happening in the third set (whatever that is).

[Bobster]

Hmmm. So Avacyn Restored really won't have any double-faced cards. It will be carrying over themes from ISD and DKA to bridge the sets together, but DFCs don't fit what is happening in the third set (whatever that is).

Interesting that they'd just drop off a big mechanic like that in the middle of a block. They could have just used it in different ways, like redeeming something? But then I guess the day/night thing wouldn't make sense, although it was never really relevant...

[Miff]

thank GOD they aren't pulling a NPH on us. I wasn't a fan.

Indeed. Glad Wizards' design doesn't seem to be "oh no, the conflux!", "on no, the eldrazi!", "oh no, phyrexia!" all the time.

[illisid]

Hmmm. So Avacyn Restored really won't have any double-faced cards. It will be carrying over themes from ISD and DKA to bridge the sets together, but DFCs don't fit what is happening in the third set (whatever that is).

Where did you get this information? no more DFCs seems really weird to me...

[kickan]

Rosewater was tweeting a little bit earlier in the evening. Here's the same question answered on his tumblr blog: http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post...vacyn-restored

[illisid]

Holy shit!

I don't know if any of you have been following what's gone on with Alex Bertoncini and the SCG invitational but this is pretty nuts.

long story short: alex is a HUGE CHEATER (see above post of two explore) and ended up winning that invitational and player of the year title and $10k and a power 9. All while under investigation by the DCI for cheating. Community was outraged, and afterwards the investigation concluded, suspending him for 18 months. But he'd already won the prizes, hence this policy change.

[Loreweaver]

Pulled one pack of M12 and one pack of Innistrad

Got a Bloodline Keeper, Champion of the Parish, Sorin's Vengeance, and a foil Adaptive Automaton.

FUK YEH