1,226

(17 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Good lord, between the Lion's Eye Diamond and "like nine" Aether Vials... what else do you have hiding in your inventory?

1,227

(17 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

There are a few reasons to go with Jhoira of the Ghitu over Aether Vial

First off, and perhaps most importantly, is the cost.  You're looking at $2-3 per Jhoira vs. $9-11 per Aether Vial.  Now if I had several Vials, you had better believe they would already be in here.

Second, I would need more than one Vial to play more than one creature per turn.  With Jhoira, her ability only costs two colorless and doesn't require tapping, meaning it can be done numerous times per turn.  With her at a casting cost of three, if I were to play her and only have her for my fourth turn, I could still set two creatures into motion before they would kill her.

Third, Jhoira doesn't require it to be a creature.  Look at the text on her, it's ANY non-land card in my hand, meaning I could drop one of the big creatures, Venser's Journal, Paradox Haze or even Cruel Ultimatum all for two.  The Vials only apply to creatures and require the number of counters to be exact, so I would have to a) have multiples of them and stick them at different counter values for when those creature costs arise, b) WAIT until I get creatures at those values before adding more counters, or c) figure out a consistent way and plan around REMOVING those counters.  None of those are thoughts I really want to have to consider.

A good suggestion and one I thought about myself just a day or two ago, but Jhoira is far more flexible from the look of things.

1,228

(6 replies, posted in Reddit MTG Trades)

I too have some from Ice Age.  If you want more, let me know and I'll be happy to open up a trade with you.

1,229

(5 replies, posted in General Discussion)

You have a fair number of good pieces here, but no means of removing enemy creatures.  Where is Feast of Blood?  Why don't you include Urge to Feed?  Essentially what you're going on is straight aggro with no removal, which, I fear will bite you in the end.  Pillar of Flame, Shock or just some simple direct damage could help a ton (especially with one or two Curse of Bloodletting).

Here's a quick search I did that should show some of the options:

http://deckbox.org/games/mtg/cards?f=27 … !b31!734.3

I'd also suggest knocking your mana curve down some.  You don't need so many cards in the 5-6 range as you might want in the 1-2 range.

Lastly, if you only have one of a card, unless it's going to make a BIG difference, I'd leave it out.  It leads to too much inconsistency.

So if you give it quick tune up I'd wager you will have significantly more success.

Good luck!

1,230

(17 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Wizard:  imsully hit it spot on with the use of Jhoira of the Ghitu.  What appears to be the key card in this whole deck is no longer Mr. Bolas sad, but Paradox Haze which is sooooo nice, as it's willing to give me additional upkeeps.  When Jhoira suspends things, the added upkeeps let me take the suspend counters off faster, meaning that I essentially can cast anything in my hand for two colorless.

imsully:  As reluctant as you might think me to be with the Amulet of Vigor, I actually toyed with the idea of yanking it last night and still am.  With only one, really the likelihood I have it in my opening hand isn't that good to give me the added convenience of untapping all my lands when I play them out.  I like what it does, but I think you're right that another Venser's Journal makes a lot more sense.

With regard to Bringer of the Red Dawn, sure, I could use his ability to take and attack with their creatures, but Mr. Bolas let's me take and keep them.  I like Magmatic Force in the sense that I get the multiple upkeep thing going while essentially getting Inferno Titan's ability.  To that end, I think Bringer of the Blue Dawn could work out even better than Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur in the long run, as he's a bigger creature, pairs with the Bringer of the Black Dawn sooo well, and also plays into my multiple upkeep mechanic (think, with only 2x Paradox Haze out, I would be drawing seven cards per turn anyway).  It sucks that I would lose the opponent hand reduction, but I don't know that I'd be so worried about the opponent's hand at that point as the two Dawns would help me go find whatever cards I want and then draw them immediately.

I'd love to use Vampiric Tutor but sadly do not have one and don't want to drop ANOTHER $17-20 on a single card.

Any thoughts on the counter magic?  Again, I don't see so much of it, but I could easily see where playing outside my group would result in me getting screwed on that front.

1,231

(17 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

And I just got lucky in my search.  Bringer of the Black Dawn and Bringer of the Blue Dawn are money with Paradox Haze and Venser's Journal.  I get more upkeeps, gain more life, as long as I have more than two cards in hand, I can go find the exact cards I want, then draw two.  Then I'll be dumping exactly what I want into the suspend effect, including Magmatic Force which will let me zap things (and people I guess). 

BAM!  The Dawn Bringers will make this SIIIICK.  It's done ladies and gentlemen.

1,232

(17 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Very true.  I guess I could go with a Diabolic Tutor (just sucks to pay double for the same effect) sad.

There really aren't that many cards that encounter this issue.  I guess it's the slight inconvenience we deal with to have such a great site provided to us for free.  wink

1,234

(17 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Alright, I don't know that I've ever done such a serious overhaul of a deck between comments, but here we go.

You're dead on about Mishra, Artificer Prodigy.  I had one in when I first started fiddling with this but couldn't justify using it.  Now I've changed things up a fair bit so that he would prove useful. 

First off, the mechanics of the deck are shaped more around Jhoira than before.  While you're spot on about the usefulness of the Timebugs, I've decided to knock them down to two in exchange for four Paradox Haze.  By giving myself additional upkeeps, I can take the suspend counters off as many things as I have suspended, not just one thing at a time.  With multiple of them out, I'll REALLY be pumping things out quickly.

Given that I'll have multiple upkeeps, what else can I use to benefit there?  Well, Venser's Journal is a definite plus as it will help me gain life each upkeep (so 2x or 3x or 4-5x if I have multiple Hazes out).  But if I'm suspending my whole hand, I won't have one without drawing, right?  Well that's where Mishra and  Paradox Haze can help, as they both pair well with the 2x Shrine of Piercing Vision.  Mishra helps me put both of them out and they get additional counters for each upkeep (which will be quite a few quite quickly).  I can sack them one at a time and get a buttload of added cards.  The question is, are you familiar of a card that will let me return artifacts from my graveyard to play or to my hand consistently (hopefully without sacrificing it)?  That's currently the only reason I have Elixir of Immortality in here, is to recycle the Shrines and Tutors.

You're right, this is a pretty narrow spread and will need a few key cards to work, so I've maintained 2x Nightscape Familiar to reduce U-B-R casting costs, but I've also added 2x Demonic Tutor to ensure that I'll be able to get Jhoira of the Ghitu (which is further helped by the fact I have two of them in the deck.  To protect her, I've installed 3x Elgaud Shieldmate to give her (and any other big creature) hexproof.  However, I'd happily remove one of them for another big creature that's worthwhile.

A few other things. 

First, I don't run into counter magic very often in my casual group, but I would imagine I will if I play this casually at my LCS.  What would I pull to put in my own counter magic?  I like Terminate to just drop whatever creature I like.  Chainer's Edict forces them to sacrifice their creature (bite me shroud and indestructible!) and I can buy it back.  Pyroclasm gives me the light board clearing effect.  And Cruel Ultimatum is among the power cards of the deck worth using suspend on.  Does Mundungu provide a sufficient deterrent as it will cost one more mana AND one life to cast their spell?  Or should I just go for the more traditional Counterspell/Cancel/Negate/Mana Leak route?

Second, I feel like there's a LOT in here to make and protect this suspend mechanic, but not a lot that I'm actually using it to play out.  Between Nicol Bolas, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, Prince of Thralls, and Cruel Ultimatum, I'm only using this huge suspend move for a total of seven cards.  Surely there has to be SOMETHING epic out there that I'm forgetting that would work here (and I'm not thinking Eldrazi because those are tied up in another deck).  It just seems like such a waste to have half the deck based on a mechanic for so few cards.

Third, what are some other ways I can benefit from having multiple upkeeps?  I already have a life gain in Venser's Journal and a means to draw added cards with the Shrines.  But what else can I rock in there?  It again seems like a waste to put forth that much effort toward an effect that I'm not getting THAT much out of.

I'll stop there as this is really just a creative enterprise for the moment, but if we can figure out something cool, I'll definitely rock this deck often.

All suggestions welcome.

1,235

(17 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

So I've revised things a bit.  You're right that most of the real winners in this deck would take FOREVER to play out the traditional way.  To address this, I've figured out a solution, Jhoira of the Ghitu.  When paired with Nightscape Familiar, she can come out on turn three.  Then on turn four you're already suspending the BIG creatures or even Planeswalker Nicol (or from the look of things, ANYTHING you want in the deck outside of lands).  Then you can also play with Jhoira's Timebug to drop those time counters with the quickness.  So if you drop her on turn three, turn four Nicol is suspended and you put down a Timebug (or two).  Turn five and you're already down two suspend counters.  That means by turn six, you have Nicol out, potentially with something else in the suspend queue.

I'm looking at Clockspinning as a potential good one here, as multiples of it could not only help with the suspend, but add counters to Nicol when he hits the field (such that by the second turn he's on the battlefield he's dropping his major ability).  But I'm not sure where the space will come from.  I'm hesitant to drop anything else as I REALLY don't want to lose the defensive control that is in there already.  Timecrafting could be an alternative too.  Paradox Haze and Fury Charm are added options.  But I'm not entirely sure I want to change the entire theme of the deck to Jhoira and suspend based stuff.

Imsully, I looked at Nicol Bolas vs. Crosis, the Purger and you're right, it's not really a comparison.  Nicol (old school) leads to automatic hand discard as opposed to Crosis' half-assed version.  Good call there.  I will say, however, that I've deviated away from the discarding mechanics for the most part.  Nicol's (old school) ability is just an added perk for a 7/7 flyer that helps me win the game.

http://deckbox.org/mtg/Web

The auto-fill feature for the search field is nice, but sometimes when you KNOW that you're putting the right name in, you just click search without letting the auto-fill do anything.

You can load the page above and enter in your inventory.  Then go back and put in the edition and whatnot in your own inventory page.

Cheers!

1,237

(17 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

So seeing as to how Mr. Bolas will be returning in M13, I figured, why not come up with a deck that features him as the centerpiece.  Also, as those of you who have been doing the deck discussions for a while might have noticed, I'm typically a mono-color deck builder with only a few splashes of dual colors here and there.  The thought of a tri-color deck seemed quite the challenge.  I've dug around online for other peoples' builds and outside of EDH it looks like Mr. Bolas is REALLY under-utilized.

I'm open to all thoughts as I don't think I have a single card in this deck yet but would like to build it in the next few months (after suggestions of course).

http://deckbox.org/sets/190751

The basic idea is to utilize creature removal and other control aspects, i.e. Terminate, Innocent Blood, Pyroclasm, and Mundungu, to hold the fort until the big baddies can be unleashed.

Let the games begin?

I would recommend looking on tgcplayer.com (the site the pricing is through on Deckbox).  Just click through one of the cards you're looking for and on the solo card page down at the bottom are price listings.  I normally fill in as many cards as I can regardless of the vendor for as cheap as possible and then you can use their "optimizer" software that figures out which vendors to go through to minimize shipping costs and such.  I typically go with lightly played/slightly played/near mint in my options for the optimizer as you maximize your odds of finding the cards through only one or two vendors.  I've found that when purchasing singles you can actually expect things to fall closer to the low price given than the average or high (unless you're big on foils).

My only other suggestions would be to look at www.channelfireball.com or www.starcitygames.com.

With any luck, you'll find things pretty quickly and easily (as long as you're not hunting for anything really dated like from Odyssey).

Looks good.  Let it run and see how things go from there.  You can make more changes later as the need arises.

I would even suggest reducing numbers for a few cards down to two or three to make room for some substitutions.

For instance:

3x Blood Artist
3x Ornithopter
2x Manaforge Cinder
2x Captive Flame
3x Ensnaring Bridge

That would free up seven card slots to put in some other items:

2x Norn's Annex
2x Crawlspace

and three of something else... whether it be some of the things you had in here originally, Orcish Oriflamme or something completely different, I'd invite you to fiddle around with it to get a clearer picture of what you're looking for (as I can see where there are a few decks/cards out there that would cause you major problems.  But for casual play, this looks pretty mean at current and I'm sure 3x of something (maybe a bigger creature in case things get drawn out) could make this even better.

I used to be a hardcore 4x cards guy until more recently when I've discovered that 2x and 3x lead to much more diverse, flexible decks that can adapt better on the fly.  What you lose in complete consistency, you pick up in other places.

http://mtgsalvation.com/magic-2013-m13-spoiler.html#Red

Dragon Hatchling in the upcoming 2013 core would work nicely.  One red and one colorless for a 0/1 pumpable flyer.

Beyond that, I wouldn't worry about pumping everything, as things like the Will-o-the-Wisp are just there for defensive purposes.  Other options would be to include things like Orcish Oriflamme that will pump the attacking creatures after they're already going without having to pay to pump them.

Interesting... or you could just go with Reverberate which is one cheaper, copy the Counterspell/Cancel/Mana Leak and target their Counterspell/Cancel/Mana Leak.  Then when the stack resolves, their spell is countered.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.  I looked into the rulings for Shunt available at:

http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/ … eid=130362

Sadly it looks like you could not use this on a Counterspell or something of that sort unless there is another spell yet to be resolved, as it says under the sixth ruling that if there is no other legal target, it does not redirect.  Still a great spell to save your creatures from various removal, but if you were hoping to stop counter magic, it doesn't look like it will work sad

I'm glad to be of service.  Be sure to let us know how it works once you have it finalized and play some.

A few added thoughts.  I don't see why not to run both the Annex and the Bridge.  With both, and even including Crawlspace, you can really make sure that you're covered while also giving yourself more freedom and security.  If you have just the bridge, they could destroy it and come at you.  At which point those chump blockers might not be enough.  Similarly, with just the Annex, if they have enough life, they might just deal with it and come at you.  With both you have the luxury of completely shutting them down with the bridge (and being covered by the Annex if they destroy the bridge) OR you can draw your hand back up to a workable number while still knowing the Annex will keep you mostly safe.  If you prefer Crawlspace over the Annex, it might work, again that'll be a matter of playtesting, but given that the imp-attacker destruction is the key combo, why not add some more ways to make it work (also then they might not be so quick to catch on and won't target the bridge/annex/crawlspace so quickly.

Realistically, I don't think you'll need Dark Ritual in the deck as the highest casting cost for anything is what? Three? Four?  Unless you're dying to get Ensnaring Bridge out on the very first turn, you should be fine without them.  I would argue the same goes for Manaforge Cinder.  I can see where you'd be worried about getting stuck with only one color, but you have it evenly divided and the most of a single symbol I'm seeing is two red for Shunt.  The only real benefit I can see for the Cinders now is to let you funnel your black mana into the Captive Flame, at which point you could probably drop to two Cinders.

Lastly, and herein lies the challenge for which there is no easy solution.  Do you need any sort of drawing engine to help you along once you get top decked?  It's clear with the Bridge that you want to keep your hand down, but you also want to be sure that you're not lagging behind only dropping one card per turn while they're going to town (also some drawing assistance could help ensure the likelihood that you pick up the needed cards for the combo).  Imsully might have some different suggestions, but I'm a big fan of Mad Prophet and Elixir of Immortality (which you could fit in if you drop the Dark Rits and two Cinders).  Those let you burn through cards at a much faster rate, but you can use the Elixirs (and I stress plural there) to ensure that your library will never run out (at least not by your own hand).

Anyway, best of luck with it.  I look forward to hearing good things!

My thought would be to have three of both the Annex and Bridge.  Unless you run into someone worried a LOT about artifacts, you should have your arse covered.  Darkness will help cover you in a pinch, but I would go with regenerating blockers like Will-o-the-Wisp.  To the extent that you can make them pay life to come at you and then simply stall their attack, you're winning that exchange.

The second rationale for having both is that you're doubly covered.  With the bridge you can stall all attacking unless you want to, at which point you just draw your hand up a few cards and go to town.  And even once you do that, the Annex has your back.

For the Imps, I would say to move the deck more toward creature retrieval (Bone Harvest, Animate Dead, Unburial Rites, Sheoldred, Whispering One, etc.) such that if they kill the imps, you can just get them back.  Then you really just have to worry about if they exile them.  You can also play into th

This looks like an amusing concept deck.  I like the idea that Maddening Imp can force them all to attack and then you can wipe them out.  The zero power, pumpable creatures are good, but I see some problems.

I'm guessing that you're aiming for casual play?  Do you envision just one-on-one games or multiplayer?

First, what do you do if you don't draw both Maddening Imp and Ensnaring Bridge?  Or even worse, if they blow up one (or both) of those?  I can easily see where Ensnaring Bridge is a target that would draw some serious ire.  If that combo gets cleared out, you're sitting on a bunch of tiny (admittedly pumpable) creatures trying to fend off your opponent - not exactly a scenario I would want to face.

Second, for Ensnaring Bridge to really be effective, your hand has to be empty.  I can see how the low casting cost of everything will help you get there, but do you have any plans to speed up your dropping cards?

Third, as an alternative to Ensnaring Bridge, you could include Norn's Annex.  You don't need to include white as you can play it by paying life and then you can force them to attack and they either drop their creatures or take two damage per.  Then you just need some means to block their creatures.  Wall of Shadows works well in this scenario.

Fourth, as a potential game winner, Dingus Staff helps so that you don't really need to pump your creatures.

As you can see, there are a lot of ways to run with this.  My thought would be to move to a more defensive deck that really plays up the Maddening Imp combo.  This means including blockers galore, means to tap their creatures so the imp will kill them (i.e. Word of Binding and Icy Manipulator), and measures to bring the imps back into play (as the more recent players will exile them as opposed to destroying them).  Shunt does this to some degree, but you would do well to figure out added ways to protect them.

Anyway, I'll stop there, let me know what you think about what I've said thus far and we can go from there.

1,247

(3 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Welcome to the site.  Sadly there aren't too many of us that offer input on deck ideas, but I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that we'd welcome any and all input.

So the first question that has to be answered is what type of playing does this see?  Competitive at your LCS, Casual one-on-one, Multiplayer?  The reason I ask is because there are a lot of different ways to take this.

Beyond that, how much have you played with the deck?  Have you had a great deal of success or are you getting dropped on a pretty regular basis?

My first reaction to what you have pieced together is that there are some solid pieces, but also some perhaps not so strong ones.  I like Plague Stinger, Hand of the Praetors, Reaper of Sheoldred, and Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon as they all really fill some increasing needs as the game would progress, with the Stingers giving those first few poison counters, Hands pumping up your creatures and giving you a means of directly putting more poison counters on them, Reapers giving you a really nasty defense to make them think twice about attacking, and Skithiryx as a sort of end game creature.  However, beyond those, I think the creatures could really be reworked.  Namely, Septic Rats are good, but they are easily blockable and don't do much if you don't already have a poison counter on them.  Blackcleave Goblin doesn't give you much for a four-drop, as a 2/1 can be killed really easily.  Phyrexian Swarmlord and Blightsteel Colossus can both be game enders for you, but your likelihood of winning is significantly reduced if the game goes on long enough for you to get either of them out.

Why pull in green rather than blue here?  Blue gives you access to some NASTY infect mechanics via Blighted Agent, Thrummingbird, and Viral Drake.  The Agents give you a guaranteed poison counter per turn, Thrummingbird gives you a "get in the way flyer" or can let you proliferate, and Viral Drake gives you another flyer who can proliferate without you even having to attack (or even proliferate more than once per turn).  Further, blue gives you some sorcery, instant, and enchantments that can really help speed up an infect deck (as you need to kill them quickly or you'll lose your advantage).  Steady Progress is a nice card to throw out on their turn if you have some left over lands, as it proliferates AND lets you draw another card.  Inexorable Tide essentially ends the game when it comes out.  Also, if you want to stick with the Blightsteel, you can include Shape Anew to rip him out on turn five, as opposed to around turn ten.

For the artifacts, Decimator Web is good, but you could also throw in Contagion Clasp and/or Contagion Engine as both of those help proliferate too.

I hope those ideas help.  Let me know your thoughts and I can try to help more as you move forward.

Sorry for the delayed response.  Sometimes it lights up the little dialogue bubble when there are new posts and sometimes it doesn't (or it clears them all out when you look at one post) so I totally missed it when you put this one up.

So the idea is just to frustrate and lock them down until... I'm not really seeing the winning play here.  I'm seeing a lot of ways to piss the opponent off, but not a lot to WIN the game.

A few other cards you might want to include (note that some might not be standard legal to my knowledge):

Meekstone - For one, you can certainly stop anything large that gets out onto the battlefield.  When paired with your creature tappers, you can essentially cripple their creatures.  To that end, I would almost look to see if you could pump up THEIR creatures.

Terminus would be some good board clearing fun.  Any other white board clearing effects would be great (Wrath of God or even Mass Calcify if you're up to the seven casting cost).

Norn's Annex NEEDS to be in here.  Island Sanctuary could work in a pinch.  Don't forget your COPs in the sideboard either!

Let us not forget classics like Eye For An Eye and Reverse Damage.

Beyond those, you might want some flyer generation or something, whether they be spirits or something else (like Pegusi), as those might be your best bet to hit back.

Lastly, I would actually advocate moving up to 65 cards in the off chance your game comes down to who has more cards wink.

1,249

(2 replies, posted in Reddit MTG Trades)

TyWooOneTime (I don't remember if the spacing is there or not)

A few thoughts.

First, if you're wanting self mill, red has put some awesome pieces for that in AVR.  In particular I'm talking about Mad Prophet, Dangerous Wager, and even Reforge the Soul.  Those will help you burn through the deck and drop items into your graveyard. 

Second, since you're running Legacy, some more pieces come into play that could prove useful.  Since Sheoldred, Whispering One could be killed or countered (or worse exiled) herself, you need more than just her to give you that sort of reanimating effect.  If you don't want to splash white, Debtors' Knell will pull that off in enchantment form for you (such that you could even have multiple out at once).  Admittedly it's expensive (both monitarily and mana cost), BUT, think about sitting on two or three of those helping plop everything back out onto the battlefield.  Further, it lets you go into OTHER players' graveyards.

Third, also a legacy card to run with, Living Death could prove hilarious in a long game if you include a creature sacking engine on your side.  Sack everything you have in play and then drop that bomb with all those creatures and everything you've milled. 

Best of luck!