451 Reply by elpablo

(4 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

How are you playing your deck?  Casually with friends?  Planning on going to events at the local game shop?  Do you plan to keep the deck in a standard format (see link below)? That can change people's advice a lot. 

In general there's nothing "wrong" with your strategy. You need to shore it up some and get a more focused strategy, by obtaining more copies of important cards.  Also, you need to decide what kind of deck you want to play.  You have a little aggro a little control (see descriptions below).  Blue and white have the ability to completely control the game and you can decide to win with whatever win condition you want.  For tokens and taking advantage of your humans/spirits/etc, I believe that black and white provide more here.  Cards like Xathrid necromancer, blood artist, cartel aristocrat combo so well, with cards like champion of the parish and doomed Traveler it's ridiculous.

magic formats
http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/resour … sanctioned

As far as basic deckbuilding strategy goes.

Archetypes – There are more specific strategies for building decks associate with one of the 3 main archetypes.

Aggro – typically 26-30 creatures, a hand full of removal or burn spells and just enough lands to make sure you can cast your most expensive spells, usually a 4 or 5 cost creature will be the most expensive you’ll play in these decks.  These decks build on a pyramid of creatures with 1 drops making up the base, then 2s, 3s, and the top of the mana curve being 4 and maybe… maybe a 5 cost creature or 2.  Typical load outs will be as follows. 
a.    1 drops – 8-12
b.    2 drops – 8-10
c.    3 drops – 6 - 8
d.    4,5 drops – 4 - 6
e.    Lands – 20-22
f.    Spells – 6 – 8
Typically no spells with X in the cost you won’t have enough to cast them to any great effect.
Midrange – most mid-range decks run between 12 and 20 creatures with some typically being mana ramping creatures.  The creatures that are played usually provide “value” they do more than one thing or are ability packed, provide some kind of combo or provide a measure of control in addition to being threatening on the battlefield. These decks will usually have lots of removal or stall, 12-15 spells, removal or life gain cards with x in the cost, and spells that help them draw or get them card advantage.

Control decks – the only reason you’re allowed to play cards against a control deck is because they let you.  That’s the goal.  They pack cards that wipe the board and let them search their decks for the cards they need to defeat you.  The main goal here is to have the card they need when they need it to stop you from doing what you need to do to win. These are high level decks and require a lot of experience and thought to play.



Mana Base – As a rule of thumb you want a 1/3rd or more of your deck to be mana at a minimum.  See some basic guidelines below. Notes these are lands not count other mana sources.
20-22 - Low cost aggro decks, usually topping out at a 4 cost card.
23-25 – typical midrange setup with ramp, fetch, or mana dorks. This will support larger cost creatures and spells and fuel cards with X casting costs.
25-26 – Some control decks will run this amount of mana to make sure they can consistently play their spells without mana fetching or mana ramp.
Less or More – running less lands or more lands than what’s listed here isn’t recommended unless you have a fine tuned and perfected strategy for what you’re trying to do


Resources to expand your knowledge .
gatherer.wizards.com/
•    Rules on specific cards and just a general good tool for searching through all the different cards magic has to offer.
www.reddit.com/r/spikes/
www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/
www.reddit.com/r/magicdeckbuilding
•    Spikes provides discussion on the competitive environment in magic
•    Deckbuilding is pretty obvious, just another resource for people looking for help building decks.
•    Magictcg is just a general discussion forum about all kinds of magic topics.
wiki.mtgsalvation.com/
•    Rules database and general knowledge about the game.
www.draftmagic.com/
•    Videos and articles about drafting and limited formats.
www.starcitygames.com/
www.tcgplayer.com/
www.channelfireball.com/
•    Online stores for magic as well as some of the best written articles concerning magic topics.

Go to forum: Decks and Deckbuilding

452 Reply by elpablo

(14 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Dakkon4444 wrote:

Elpablo I completely agree with you on what you are saying, but my baseline point was that in 1 weekend a single card went from being 'Meh' to OMG ITS THE GREATEST EVER.... without a single person playing it but Reid Duke.

Drivers may not work on their cars that much, but they know car mechanics enough to know when a tire has too much wear, when their fuel/air mixture isn't providing enough combustion, and when the downforce angle in each turn needs adjustment. You would never hear them say 'Earnhardt did it, so i do it too" (they would be dead or badly injured for not wearing their seatbelt). Most drivers know their limits which is why they do or don't do things behind the wheel. The process of this takes failing and the understanding of a cars mechanics so they can understand how not to crash, where to shave seconds, where to drive fast and take chances while conserving fuel.

Reid Duke (the driver) understands that adding a fuel enhancer (horizon canopy) works (for him).  I guarantee you. NO ONE used the card in that deck type. Because of the life loss. Now the card draw outweighs the life loss? I doubt it. Many top players can tell you and explain why something works and does not. Even when the answer is clear, they research so that they can explain themselves fully not "well Reid Duke did it, it must be good." Did you ever think he used the canopy because going against a line of thinking was the advantage?

Again, my argument is that there's not a full understanding of the process. It is what it is, but as I said its sad, not something I condemn people for. As an FNM warrior myself I can tell you that I 100% agree with your time argument. However, I am going to say you are smart enough to pick up Woo's deck and tell me why things do and don't work, why you made changes, and why these changes lead you to the checkered flag at any FNM. Most people can not. In the end this is where I'm coming from.

Fair enough, I always think it deserves a discussion when someone says "boo" to copying a professional players behavior.  It's true some people will follow blindly, but in general I try to give people more credit than that. Card values do go up and down based on what's popular.  That's true of anything though.

I've been playing a long time so i hope I have a grasp on the game by this point, but I've seen a lot of new players recently.  I feel like I'm doing a lot of teaching and explaining lately.

Go to forum: General Discussion

453 Reply by elpablo

(14 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Dakkon4444 wrote:
elpablo wrote:

Also, if you look at the the decklists that play dark confidant you have a top CMC of like 4 in the deck and only a few of those.  Most are 1-2-3 and provide substantial value when they hit the board.

Do you think that the confidant from Gatecrash will see any type of play? Not the Duskmantle


You're talking about blood Scrivener?  You know it looked good.  It's cheap draws cards, but it just didn't have what it took.  I tried to make it work a little when sire of insanity was a little more popular.  The fact that it requires you to have an empty hand before you can benefit from it is a major downside.  It's just too narrow.

Go to forum: General Discussion

454 Reply by elpablo

(14 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Understanding why a card is good and it's probably good to understand why the cards are in the deck you're playing rather than just playing them (although, experience is a good teacher). But your comment Poo Poo'd on everyone because they got on board with a concept after it was popularized by a professional player isn't right either.

You're assuming that people didn't understand or try it before, but sometimes cards don't work out because of an unfriendly meta or the deck was constructed poorly.  I used the wheel analogy because it fits.  We all use wheels we know how good they are. We don't need to necessarily question why they're good.

If you take the analogy a little further then, Reid Duke would be to magic, what a professional race car driver is to his car and it's wheels.  The drivers don't always work on the cars that much, sure they have some basic understanding of the mechanics, but most of them probably couldn't design a race car.  A few can, maybe, who knows.  They are, however, fantastic drivers, and they understand how to take a great car and drive it to the top.  Good magic players can basically do the same thing, with a well built deck.  It's unfair to look down your nose, or criticize someone else because they pilot a deck developed by someone else.  They still have to play it right, understand how it handles, and "put it through the curves".

I've got a pretty busy life, I'm sure most people do.  So, I'm only an FNM warrior most of the time, and certainly not a professional, but I do frequently netdeck (tweak here or there for the local meta).  I don't have the time to test and develop a deck from scratch like Woo or some of these other guys.  They do, so kudos to them.  Doesn't mean I don't know how to play well or deserve to play less than anyone else because I didn't show up with my "own deck".

Go to forum: General Discussion

455 Reply by elpablo

(9 replies, posted in Site Discussion)

It's the main reason I use the site and the only way i've really proposed trades in the past.  I know they're planning an update to trading.  I hope this feature is part of it.

Go to forum: Site Discussion

456 Reply by elpablo

(14 replies, posted in General Discussion)

I never got that argument.

There's a reason why people use wheels.  We've improved on the design a little, but in general it's a round support with an axle. 

Should we not use wheels too, because they're not original?  Does it make you feel bad when you use a wheel because you didn't think of it first?  I can spend time trying to put together a better wheel, but really I'm going to save myself a lot of time, by just using the wheels provided and put them to the best use possible.

Go to forum: General Discussion

457 Reply by elpablo

(14 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Also, if you look at the the decklists that play dark confidant you have a top CMC of like 4 in the deck and only a few of those.  Most are 1-2-3 and provide substantial value when they hit the board.

Go to forum: General Discussion

458 Reply by elpablo

(8 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Firedrinker Satyr, however, I simply have to disagree on.  Sure, it's a 2/1 for 1, BUT, the firebreathing it has is totally worthless and the ability of the opponent to load up on it to hurt you totally messes things up.  Imagine attacking with it into two creatures.  Regardless of the situation, the opponent has incentive to double-block it, dealing a bunch of damage to you while also dropping your creature.  I could see using it in a build with Legion Loyalist giving it first strike, but otherwise, I just see it as bad.  As another example, someone casts Lightning Strike on the Satyr... they've both removed the creature AND done three to you (if that's not a recipe for helping the opponent, I don't know what is).

Or block with a reckoner?  5 damage minimum to you?  No bueno....

Go to forum: Decks and Deckbuilding

459 Reply by elpablo

(18 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Just to clarify. 

Planes walkers only get removed in a few different ways. 

1.  Combat damage, creatures can attack a planes walker, if this results in loyalty counters going to 0 they are removed
2. Direct damage, a spell that deals damage (not life loss) can be redirected to a planeswalker from the targeted player, same result as combat damage
3. Specific Destroy planes walker spells remove them
4. Destroy target permanent or exile target permanent, destroy all permanents, planes walkers are permanents while they're on the battlefield.
5. using their minus "-3" ability, if this leaves them with 0 counters they are removed from play.

It's just important to remember they have their own card type and have special rules.

Go to forum: Decks and Deckbuilding

460 Reply by elpablo

(18 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Mizzium mortars doesn't hit planeswalkers FYI.

Vivid lands are not standard legal.  If you included them it'd have to be a modern deck.

Go to forum: Decks and Deckbuilding

461 Reply by elpablo

(18 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

it is, it's really that good.   smile

think about it, think twice was a staple in standard for blue decks ever since it came out.  It's U1, draw a card, instant, flash back for U2.  that's UU3 to draw 2 cards, and it was great, people are sorry to see it go.  The fact that it's instant helps a lot.

Divination is borderline playable, but really doesn't cut the mustard for blue constructed at U2, sorcery speed draw 2. 

Black isn't really known for it's card advantage so, Sign in blood has been playable for black for a while now.  draw 2, lose 2, for BB. 

Read the bones is, easier to cast B2, sorcery speed, but you scry 2, draw 2, and lose 2.  You potentially can get 4 cards down in your deck off one card. that's pretty decent value.

Go to forum: Decks and Deckbuilding

462 Reply by elpablo

(18 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

I'll start with the mana, because it's pretty obviously the core of the deck.

Four colors is rough no matter what you do, but I'd throw a set of Darksteel Ingots in just for generic mana-fixing. Considering all your important gates enter tapped, I'd say you should replace at least some of those gates with Vivid lands, too. Say Vivid Grove. They enter tapped, too, but they can give you any color mana twice. Obviously, it trades late-game functionality for mana when you need it, but you will have the mana you need when you need it.

He was talking about staying standard for rotation I believe.  And why dark steal ingot over Chromatic lantern?

Other things? I really don't see much card-synergy in this deck aside from a few gate sorceries, and certainly not that warrants the trouble of FOUR colors. Right now you have all four colors in both the deck and the side-board. I know what I'd do: sideboard one color at any given time.

As green and white appear to be this deck's primary colors, roll with that. Set up two sideboards: one black and multicolored, one red and multicolored, and any one game you play one of those colors sits out. You'll still be running three colors, so there's plenty of space for gates, you can fit some basic lands in to give your deck an early mana boost, and the whole deck will just deploy more smoothly if it just has to worry about three colors.

If he's going to cut colors he might as well play a different deck.  The gate strategy only works if you plan for it heavily, with things like Saurli Gatekeepers, Gatecreeper vines, and maze's end.  If he decides to cut colors and get away from the gates, there are tons of better decks we could suggest.  The primary colors of the deck should be GWU, for more control/tempo options.

Also, Transformitive sidebaords like you're talking about only work in very specific meta based strategies.  I wouldn't recommend it for general deck building..

There's nothing wrong with his strategy, it's the execution that needs work.  Gates can work, i've seen them work, it's fringe, but doable.  He just needs the power house cards to help back them up.

Go to forum: Decks and Deckbuilding

463 Reply by elpablo

(18 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

That's probably okay, as long as your opponent doesn't play any spells tongue

let me explain.  Zapping elves is a valid strategy it denies your opponent mana, invalidates the turn in which they played the dork etc... or if they play a board wipe you may not get the chance.  Altars reap is cheap, it's fast and it nets 2 cards, which is great in theory, but expecting to have a mana dork on the board when you play it isn't a good plan and you really don't want to have to sac your board stabilizing creatures.

What if you come up against a mirror?  someone running desecration demon, or something that forces you to sac?  wouldn't he dork be better for that than wasting one of your big guys? 

In general cards that depend on other cards to work will be difficult to play and when there are stable, stand alone cards like Read the Bones, why play something that could be situationally bad?

Go to forum: Decks and Deckbuilding

464 Reply by elpablo

(18 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

um, lets be clear, BTE is not manafixing, it may work out that way for you "occasionally", but relying on it is like praying for rain in the desert.  Manafixing comes in the form of fetching your lands with things like, maze's end, gatecreeper, farseak.  Some cards like the new Sylvan Caryatid or Manaswift Sliver, can fix mana a little too and ramp some.

IMO, BTE can be cut easily and replaced with something more reliable.

Go to forum: Decks and Deckbuilding

465 Reply by elpablo

(4 replies, posted in General Discussion)

i wouldn't do it.  personally.

Go to forum: General Discussion

466 Reply by elpablo

(4 replies, posted in General Discussion)

I don't think those promos where handled the way they should have been.  The whole promotion is "while supplies last" anyway. I doubt any stores have any more.  The codes while unique weren't really verified or logged anywhere.  and I heard of stores just selling them or whatever.

I benefited from it, so I guess i can't complain. I traded for a set of the promo's that a guy showed up with.  IDK where he got them.  The whole thing was a mess, though.

Go to forum: General Discussion

467 Reply by elpablo

(3 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Why run farseek in an aggro deck?  You're going to mana dork turn 1, turn 2 farseak into...?

What you want here imo is to just mana dork on turn 1 and hope to hit a decent 3 and 4 drop on turns 2 and 3.  Voice is good, but if your going for a big aggro deck I think you can do something else.  Domri, reckoner and smiter are pretty good 3 drops what your missing is a 4 drop to fill out your curve.  I'd lose the armada wurms for advent of the wurm. 

Also, are you planning on playing this deck for standard?  FNM or other tournaments?

Go to forum: Decks and Deckbuilding

468 Reply by elpablo

(25 replies, posted in Site Discussion)

a lot of "what ifs" here.  Chances are the person didn't know it was fake.  Sure there will be scammers, but I believe most people just want to decent trade.  You can't assume everyone is a scammer because they traded for/bought a fake card then took it to deckbox to get value.

There was a link on reddit a while back that someone put up an expensive card on ebay that was fake.  It even said the card was fake in on the ebay listing.  Albeit in a very deceptive way.  The last bid I saw was over $100.  The point is...  the person that got the card might believe it was real and they didn't really do anything wrong.

The deckbox moderators shouldn't be in the business of policing the community.  It creates a liability for them.

Go to forum: Site Discussion

469 Reply by elpablo

(25 replies, posted in Site Discussion)

There's a huge profit to be made by faking the expensive cards so I'm sure some people will try it but I don't think its the majority of people. 

When it does happen, and someone opens a BTR because of it you just need to stick to the rules and mediate.  Whatever the resolution is it needs to be amicable between the traders.  But, as a moderator how do you decide to allow someone to leave negative feedback if someone cry's "Fake!"?  You can't examine the card and you can't take sides. 

It should be "Buyer beware" right?  You can't hold peoples hands as moderators. That's not your job.

I think you guys need to have some sort of disclaimer more than anything.  When you're talking about $100s-$1000s, worth of cards your opening yourself up to some serious business.  What's other websites policies on these things?  How does ebay handle it if, someone is selling a fake antique?  It's basically a type of fraud right?  Does the fact we trade through mail add extra weight to the issue?

Now that I've typed it all out like that,  I honestly think you guys should contact a lawyer to get some help.

Go to forum: Site Discussion

470 Reply by elpablo

(18 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

What does burning tree emissary get you?  Sure you can play a gatecreeper or crackling perimeter off it, but you're not exactly pushing damage through early, and paying 2 for an extra chump block seems pointless when you could pay 2 for doomblade or something similar and just remove a creature.

Go to forum: Decks and Deckbuilding

471 Reply by elpablo

(18 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

And sorry, I don't mean to criticize your 60 or sound like a jerk, but it'd be nice to hear what kind of decks you actually do face and what gives you trouble.  You cant just plan for rotation without planning for what kind of stuff you'll be facing.

Go to forum: Decks and Deckbuilding

472 Reply by elpablo

(18 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

You're talking about a turn 7 lethal if your opponent does nothing?  Scavenging ooze can eat your souls before you get to recast them, any board wipe just stops you dead.  And there are more than a few ways to deal with cackling perimeter. RG aggro just goes over the top with trample/thundermaw and you couldn't stop the damage. 

Maze's end has been a fringe strategy and it could still be playable, with gates with the right support. You'd still need some powerhouse cards to make it work.

Sphinx's rev
supreme verdict
Jace, AOT
Ætherling
The new sphinx that gives extra turns
gate keepers
gate creepers
fogs
counters

I just don't see how that wins right now as is.  I'm not saying it's not fun, but all the "improvements" I can think of take you away from your strategy.    I'm guessing you don't see many Tier 1 decks? or even tier 2 decks?  But hey if it works for you keep it up. *shrug*

Go to forum: Decks and Deckbuilding

473 Reply by elpablo

(18 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

We're still looking at some decent white and green creatures (don't forget multicolor RG/BW still counts) so you have obzedat, bloodbaron, ashen rider, the new cyclops, Scooze, GW hexproof, angels, etc.  Still lots of good targets and he's a 3 atk evasive beater, that can trade up pretty well.  He also provides knowledge and knowing is half the battle.

Go to forum: Decks and Deckbuilding

474 Reply by elpablo

(4 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Nivmagus was garbage, and probably still is, I wouldn't attempt to play it. 

There could be a deck with pyromancer and the red god, molten birth?  IDK,  seems to be there.  Though I feel it would be mono red the token stuff for blue seems to require a lot of devotion/mana. 

In a control mirror it becomes who plays their counter spells better and who gets off their draw card utility. A resolved Ætherling in a control match is pretty deadly.

Go to forum: Decks and Deckbuilding

475 Reply by elpablo

(18 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

really, to beat revelation, you want duress and thoughtseize *shrug*  a good control deck doesn't win off the back of their life total it's the card draw you have to shut down.

This is a list i'm thinking about atm. 

I, think I want underworld connections maindeck because I'm trying to play off the devotion mechanic a little with the merchant, but at the same time I don't want to gaze for 3 and blow it up. Not sure yet.
   
Qty Name CMC
Creatures
3 Scavenging Ooze G1
4 Lifebane Zombie BB1
3 Desecration Demon BB2
3 Reaper of the Wilds BG2
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel BB3
2 Hythonia the Cruel BB4
   
Instants
1 Abrupt Decay BG
1 Doom Blade B1
2 Hero's Downfall BB1
2 Putrefy BG1
1 Devour Flesh B1
   
   
Sorcery
3 Read the Bones B2
2 Gaze of Granite BBGX
2 Thoughtseize B
2 Rescue from the Underworld B4
   
Lands
6 Forest   
4 Overgrown Tomb   
2 Mutavault   
2 Golgari Guildgate   
11 Swamp   
   
Sideboard
1 Gaze of Granite BBGX
2 Thoughtseize BBGX
1 Abrupt Decay BG
1 Doom Blade B1
1 Hero's Downfall BB1
2 Golgari Charm BG
2 Underworld Connections BB1
1 Devour Flesh B1
2 Vraska BG3
2 Duress B

Go to forum: Decks and Deckbuilding