A lot of wining comes from knowing your deck and knowing how to play in a given situation.  That's why most pros can pilot a ham sandwhich to victory.

I do like this deck, and tried it for a little bit. I was on the yisan version, but imo it suffers from not being able to get devotion/prophet online in time.  While backbreaking when it happens it can be fragile.  Prophet on its own will not win a game and applies little pressure.  It's basically a combo deck.  Prophet+nykthos+follower+big scary thing. While you don't always necessarily need all 4 pieces to win, if you "go off" then your opponent has a hard time coming back.

Overall i think it's fine and if you're good at piloting it will serve you fairly well.  There will just be games where you can't make it happen because you didn't get a piece of the combo.   

As far as aetherspouts, i think it's a bit mana inefficient, normally you only need to tempo your opponent. I like the way the deck interacts with retraction helix.  Helix, on a caryatid with a follower or two out, will do almost as much work as aetherspouts in this meta and it's a lot easier to cast.

I adapted the play style you're talking about and moved to a more proactive strategy.  Temur for me has been pretty consistent.  Almost every card in the deck is a threat.  Nothing is back breaking, but everything is "must answer".  You also get access to stubborn denial while only 1 less than negate is much easier to manage.  And denial just won't work in the UG deck. It also gives you access to other lines of play not available to UG.  You can't ever burn those last 3 hp if the board gets clogged, or remove a planeswalker easily. Also, i get to cast storm breath... people hate that. wink

My temur list atm : https://deckbox.org/sets/754821

127

(6 replies, posted in General Discussion)

almost a month... that's pretty nice.

128

(6 replies, posted in General Discussion)

I'm having that issue with a trade atm too.  Shipped priority the 6th, was supposed to get delivered on the 9th, hasn't updated.  I know it's busy for them, but I agree tracking should provide viability.

what he means is tap the opal for mana and leave that mana in your mana pool... it's technically correct to do it that way, but won't matter 99% of the time.

I also rarely use ravager to sack lands/other artifacts other than when swinging for lethal... imo, it's better to play it defensively to sack targets of removal and slow roll the ravager play... which is why i like spell pierce as an option main deck.  But that all depends heavily on the matchup too. so, take this paragraph with a grain of salt.

I recently switched to chalice affinity to try it out. After GP madrid it seemed okay with so many 1 mana spells going around. It kind of poo poos on my spell pierce plan though.

I would probably open a BTR.  It's not that the trade was bad, or that either of you did anything wrong, but it would just serve to document the issue and get feed back from the mods on your next best coarse of action.

131

(32 replies, posted in Site Discussion)

9700377 wrote:
elpablo wrote:

Sending something priority comes with tracking and $50 insurance ... why either of you wouldn't spend the extra $1.00 to get insurance on a trade of this value boggles my mind.

Would insurance actually cover a case where the package is marked as delivered but the recipient claims never actually arrived?

I've sent something like over 80 trades and have yet to have a package simply lost in a way that only insurance would clearly deal with. Thus I don't really miss it. Maybe I'm naive.

As I said I've personally never seen a package lost with tracking.  I think you'd have to jump through some hoops to get the claim pushed through if tracking said delivered. Which imo means if tracking says delivered and package actually, really, for sure, no doubt, absolutely,  no joshin, fo realz... didn't make it to the destination that person is just SOL.

Here's a corner case with some discussion on the topic from the perspective of an ebay/amazon seller.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-S … p/16841117

http://www.reddit.com/r/Flipping/commen … o_package/

132

(32 replies, posted in Site Discussion)

sk00gle wrote:

I'd like to point out that the poll at the top of this thread is somewhat misleading. In order to make an informed vote, the potential voter needs a bit more context than just the prompt provided. In my case, I need to know the specific circumstances of the lost mail. Granted, this thread came to be in light of a BTR involving our colleague Wally; that having been said, the prompt is phrased too generally and does not reflect the circumstances of that BTR.

Indeed but that's the way Wally intended it to be, right? tongue

I think clarification in this area would benefit everyone.  Also recommending insurance for anything over $50 is good sense.

The sender is responsible for sending correctly, which includes using tracking etc... if the sender doesn't send correctly then they are responsible.  Sending without tracking is a risk the sender is willfully taking. If they do send with tracking then they did their job, imo.

Everyone needs to also understand that the traders on here are not a business in general and even if they are their small businesses (shop owners) and usually can't afford to take a personal loss and just resend product like an Amazon or a Wal-Mart.  This is why it feels so personal when things don't work out.  It hurts in a very real way when you have to pay someone out of pocket or resend cards or lose value on a bad trade (USPS or not).  Sebi and team are doing a decent job running things and there's only so much they can do, but I wish people would do more research and have a better understanding of what they're getting into.

133

(32 replies, posted in Site Discussion)

Sending something priority comes with tracking and $50 insurance ... why either of you wouldn't spend the extra $1.00 to get insurance on a trade of this value boggles my mind. $5 shipping is just part of the  price you should pay when trading online, and it does put a trading value minimum on trades in my mind.  I wouldn't ship anything less than $10-$20 depending on how bad i needed the cards.

Wally is "passionate" when defending his stance, which i kind of understand and I do think the negative feedback was a little much.  He's obviously been successful trading on the site for some time, and did everything "right" on his side.  Claiming he didn't get the package does not automatically make him a liar or a thief.  I think it should be downgraded to neutral feedback.

We don't know for 100% certainty that he didn't get the cards, we don't know with 100% certainty that he did.  I think it's very unlikely (but not impossible) that something would get lost with tracking. If you look at the instances of people not getting their cards with tracking on deckbox through the BTR forums then our average would be pretty high (context: my wife and I order a great many things online through Amazon and other online retailers that use USPS tracking to date we have always gotten our tracked packages).  Given this I think giving the senders credit when sent with tracking is the right thing to do.  I think we're protecting more people than we're harming that way and I'm sorry if Wally is losing in this trade, but i think it's for the greater good.

Problems i have seen with USPS tracking are not updating properly (usually not until its out for delivery for some reason) and even being routed incorrectly to other locations within the same area and taking longer to arrive as a consequence.

134

(2 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

i'm also running temur atm... it's been doing well for me.  The amount of pressure it puts on combined with protecting it's threats and removal is pretty amazing. 

https://deckbox.org/sets/754821

I've been playing affinity off and on for a little while now.  You're list is fairly stock and the deck itself is pretty "modular" if you'll pardon the pun. It can be tailored to any meta and has lots of boarding and maindeck options.

I've been playing the deck below for a little bit and I like it as well. The main deck spell pierce can catch people off guard and ghost fire blade is a slightly cheaper 5th and 6th cranial plating, it puts ornithopter out of bolt range which is nice.

https://deckbox.org/sets/502486

For your deck specifically, you're going bigger than i am with so many etched champion and master of etherium... with so many 3 drops you might consider an additional mana source... it may not seem like it, but I've had plenty of games were 3 mana is very difficult to get to in affinity, or there are many other things you'd rather be doing with your mana like activating nexus or equipping a plating.    Also, when i tried the master he just got removed a lot... ymmv.

the only card I'm really confused about is Dragon's Claw, for the burn match or the UR delver that's floating around? could be a meta call, but I feel like spell pierce does a fine job here... you really just need to tempo them once to slow them down and let your board take over.  if you don't win by turn 4-6 it really just gets harder after those turns.

4 damage for a fetch "bolt land" ouch... i might run one in a deck but life does matter... watching some legacy over the weekend, i saw people do upwards of 10 damage to themselves just fetching, force of willing and using gitaxian probe

it might be better in edh, but you'd have to be careful playing them.

137

(4 replies, posted in General Discussion)

in project deckbox we have no names, but in death we do... and that name is Robert Paulson

138

(11 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Helios52 wrote:

It is my understanding that Planeswalkers are unique in that you maintain Priority throughout the resolution of the ability.

Example - You cast Sarkhan, The Dragonspeaker which resolves and priority is passed back to you from your opponent. You than maintain that priority (so long as you dont do anything inbetween) and activate his +1 which would make him 4/4 Indestructable, Haste, Flying Dragon. Your opponent would than gain priority to respond and cast Hero's Downfall and put it on the stack. Sarkhan's ability would then resolve making him indestructable and then cause Hero' Downfall to fail as Sarkhan cannot be destroyed.

Planeswalkers were created such that their abilities would resolve within the stack. Yes you can only activate the abilites at sorcery speed (ie so really only the main phase of your own turn) but upon resolution and activating a walkers ability maintains the priority to iits controller so that there is chance to actually use it. Another example is that upon announcing your going to activate a planeswalker ability, your opponent cant Lightning bolt a PW to a lower loyality to prevent it being used.

This is not correct, Sarkhan dies before his ability resolves. The ability still exists independent of it's source so in most planeswalkers cases, they ability would still resolve, but sarkhans is different like some of Gideons in that he turns himself into a dude.  His ability still tries to resolve, but he's no longer there.

139

(0 replies, posted in Site Discussion)

Is there an option I'm missing to change the default sort option on inventory/trade lists? 

If not, I'd really love it if deckbox could "remember" last sort i did on lists... or set a default option.

thanks

Hello, I'm looking for the following UW edh cards.  http://deckbox.org/sets/74955?s=j&o=d

Obviously my list is ambitious and i won't have trade value to get some of the large items.  I put (*) next to my priority wants.

1     Tundra
1    Rishadan Port
1     Wasteland
1    Vendilion Clique
1     Misty Rainforest
1    Linvala, Keeper of Silence
*1    Chrome Mox
*1    Cavern of Souls
*1    Flagstones of Trokair
*1    Serum Visions
*1    Kor Haven
*1    Lotus Petal
*1    Sleight of Hand
*1    Mana Tithe

here are my haves. http://deckbox.org/sets/74954?s=j&o=d
* I also have a foil Inkmoth that I would swap for non foil + value.

1    Nissa, Worldwaker
1    Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2    Keranos, God of Storms
1    Bloodstained Mire
1    Garruk, Apex Predator
1    Elspeth Tirel
4    Temple of Malady
1    Temple of Epiphany
2    Battlefield Forge
1    Reclamation Sage
2    Jace, the Living Guildpact
1    Dig Through Time
1    Jace Beleren
1    Kalonian Hydra
4    Llanowar Wastes
1    Solemn Simulacrum
1    Garruk, Primal Hunter
1    Nylea, God of the Hunt
1    Master of Etherium
1    Master of Etherium
2    Erebos, God of the Dead
2    Temple of Triumph
1    Galerider Sliver
1    Pharika, God of Affliction

141

(7 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

This is a tournament winning deck from GP Santiago it got 3rd/4th out of 660 players.  It's also about $60us on deck box probably cheaper if you shop around.  This deck will also be valid until the new set comes out in February, but even then there's always a cheap red deck to play.

The BW strategy you're going for is probably okay, but just needs so many more expensive cards to be better.  I highly recommend giving the below a shot. It's in the same vein that you're going for now, even though the colors are different.

18 LANDS
18 Mountain

20 CREATURES
4 Akroan Crusader
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Foundry Street Denizen
4 Firedrinker Satyr
3 Frenzied Goblin
1 Arena Athlete
   
14 INSTANTS and SORC.
4 Titan's Strength
4 Stoke the Flames
2 Coordinated Assault
2 Hordeling Outburst
2 Lightning Strike

8 OTHER SPELLS
4 Hammerhand
4 Dragon Mantle
   
SIDEBOARD
2 Lightning Strike
3 Searing Blood
3 Peak Eruption
2 Magma Spray
2 Harness by Force
3 Eidolon of the Great revels

142

(7 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

what format are you playing at FNM?  if it's standard, murder isn't legal

you'd want heroe's downfall /utter end in your colors.   Also, Caves of kolios and mana confluence would be good to come in untapped especially in an aggro deck.

what synergy (other than warrior) are you getting with tormented hero?  you can't trigger heroic with anything you have in the deck atm.

If the price tag was $2 because I had failed to update for the past month, my bad. If it was $2 because the Deckbox pricing algorithm was off, then yes I would cancel. Selling my wishes for $2 would cause me much more grief than you getting your order canceled. But it seems unreasonable to claim this would make you nervous about buying from *anyone* - you should only be nervous about buying under unusual circumstances where the Deckbox price is way off. This is in fact uncommon!

canceling orders because the price goes up/down/is wrong is the same shady crap people do on TCG player that gets them flamed on reddit tongue

it's your responsibility to make sure your prices are correct.

9700377 wrote:

The alternative - that I have to manually monitor all my prices or just not list cards because the downside of getting fucked even once can wipe out the return from 10+ sales - is clearly unacceptable.

The prices on this site have been inconsistent since they made the change, it's better, and it will get better, but if you don't check other places then shame on you.

If you want to use deckbox's prices and not check things out on your own, you're just as responsible is all I'm saying.  The easy way is not the always right way.

I'm of the opinion that it's only deckbox's responsibility to do accurate pricing to a certain point.

If Walgreen's has a sale on toothpaste and you buy at Wal-Mart at the regular price then it's not Wal-Marts fault you didn't shop around; is it? apples/oranges... right? maybe, but the point is the customer is responsible to a degree as well.

I think the deck box team needs to do their best to get prices right, but there needs to be a disclaimer somewhere that says basically 'hey, we're not responsible if you let yourself get boned".   People will take advantage of market fluctuations and even minute variations in prices.  Did this user basically "price gouge" his fellow traders? probably.  He deserves a slap on the wrist/warning/punishment of some sort, but people are also responsible for their own ignorance.

TLDR; don't trust any one site for prices, do your homework and don't be a fool.

for an EDH deck?  much closer to 40...  you need to hit a land drop every turn in the early turns to get off the ground, this is true in all but the most aggressive constructed decks...  having a flat 1/3rd of your deck be mana is amost never right. 

here's some EDH decks that are tuned pretty well... you can get some ideas from these lists.

http://www.mtgtop8.com/format?f=EDH

I assume these are supposed to be edh decks?  if so, why so few lands?

Just in general terms, i don't think you'll be able to cast some of the spells at the top end of your curve, but these are decks... i don't see anything special about them or anything particularly wrong other than the mana base.

did you want feedback on something specific?

4 fetches to 4 basics usually isn't desirable... also, if you have a card in your deck, you need to be able hard cast it and I don't thin you can cast hornets with your current base reliably... i know that's not the "plan" but sometimes the plan doesn't always work.

21 lands is way too few with only 3 dorks, (really even if you had 10 dorks for this kind of deck), i think 23 should be minimum

you probably want some number of yavimaya coasts... and a full set of wastes.

ty is pretty much spot on...

the only advice i would give is to stay away from cards that specifically crush just your casual opponents... for instance, if your friend is on a mono red deck, main decking Conversion against them is probably a dick-ish move and can lose you a magic friend tongue

150

(2 replies, posted in General Discussion)

I've seen a few of this persons posts, they're always weird and really bad grammar.  They don't make any sense.  So, i don't know if they're trying to spam an advertisement or what. 

I quote...

Would you sort of eat a chatoyant drinking glass full moon of alive white anglo-saxon protestants or eat a iridescent drinking glass?

They currently "play no games" according to their profile. 

https://deckbox.org/forum/search.php?ac … r_id=74869

so really... wft mate?