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Deckbox Forum » Posts by psrex
From a rules perspective, I don't believe that you can pay life for an effect that will cause you to go to negative life:
118.4. If a cost or effect allows a player to pay an amount of life greater than 0, the player may do so only if his or her life total is greater than or equal to the amount of the payment. If a player pays life, the payment is subtracted from his or her life total; in other words, the player loses that much life. (Players can always pay 0 life.)
The best that I could guess is Mark Rosewater as the M and R are very distinct, but the signature doesn't match other cards that Mark Rosewater has signed:
http://www.magiclibrarities.net/forum/v … a6eb69d67c
At least you can rule out one potential match.
Thanks for all of the suggestions. I wasn't able to make changes until last night, and overall they were very helpful and led to a much better deck. I have modified the UG deck to reflect my current list. Overall it ran pretty smoothly, and I went 3-1 overall, losing 1-2 to the eventual winner. If I had the Sylvan Caryatids I would have stood a much better chance against the red aggro deck that beat me.
I cut the Gyre Sages, Frostburn Weirds and Cloudfin Raptors. I think that you're absolutely right that I should play to my strengths, and my strength should not be in trying to out-aggro someone. Things went much smoother with the evolve creatures gone. I couldn't get Sylvan Caryatids, but I think they would be the next change that I would like to make to the deck. I added four Elvish Mystics, and they were great for getting Polukranos out on turn three or the Prophet on turn four. They were much less clunky than Gyre Sage. If Gyre Sage has a deck that it works well in, it is not this deck.
After my changes, I ended up at three Horizon Chimeras, three Prophet of Kruphix, three Wall of Frost and four Polukranos. I think that those are the right numbers for the deck. Prophet of Kruphix completely propelled me ahead whenever I cast it. It meant that I could cast Divination or a creature and be confident that I could keep up mana for countering on my opponent's turn.
For spells I went to three Divinations, reduced the bounce element, and added in Dissolve. Between Jace, Prime Speaker and the Divinations, there was plenty of card draw. I would love to cut the Disperse for another Cyclonic Rift. I'm not sure if any of the Simic Charms should be Cyclonic Rifts, as the +3/+3 mode was very useful as well.
Aetherize was amazing from my sideboard, and Fog let me win one game that I otherwise would not have won. In an ideal world the Pithing Needles should have been Cyclonic Rifts #3 and #4 and two more counters.
I went in to the tournament thinking that I would trade off the deck after I was done, but I had a lot of fun, so I'm going to try to make that trades that I need in order to get a better mana base and the few cards that I'm still missing from my ideal build. As a side note, there were four other players also running UG decks, though all fairly different from mine.
I'm building two decks for Game Day this weekend, one for my son and one for myself. These will be my first Standard decks ever (unless you count 1994), and I'm not really sure what to expect from other players at the store. Pretty much the only tournaments that we play are the pre-releases and Legacy. Based on some cards that we liked from the various pre-releases, I've built a BW deck based around enchantments and bestow creatures, and a UG deck built around evolve and some larger creatures.
The decks are:
http://deckbox.org/sets/506228
and
http://deckbox.org/sets/488368
We're not in the tournament to win it all, but we would like to have decent decks and a few fun rounds. I know that the mana curve on the UG deck is fairly suspect, with a lot of mana-intensive cards. I'm probably relying a little too much on Gyre Sage and Prophet of Kruphix, and I can tell already from testing that if I don't get to four mana then I'll lose horribly. The BW deck is fun, and Ethereal Armor can get crazy with a few enchantment creatures in play. From the limited testing so far, I think that Pacifism should move into the main deck as the deck is light on answers if you can't take out a problem creature through deathtouch.
Does anyone have some suggestions on things that we might look to improve or some match-ups that look totally unwinnable for these decks?
You could use Haunted Angel. I'm sure that there are more that you're not using, but I can't think of any right now.
WotC has said that the only mythic that you can open in the seeded pack is the god of that color, but I think that any of the other rares in that color are possibilities.
I can see why people are aiming for green as a preferred color, as the limited amount of removal means that all of the monstrous creatures in green should be huge threat. That's why I'm playing blue though, too, so that I can bounce those big threats. I'm hoping for decent packs for blue/black, but I'll play whatever bombs I may get.
I think that you have a better shot at a money rare by doing well and getting extra packs from placing well as opposed to opening something specific in your seeded pack. At least at my store if you have a winning record and stick around to the end of the tournament you usually get at least a couple packs since so many people drop out after a couple rounds. They help pump up the prize pool and then take off when they starting doing poorly.
I'm going to go blue. There seems to be very limited removal for the format, and bounce effects will be great with all of the mana that is going to be invested in some of these big creatures.
The cards in the Auras decks spiked up first about a year ago during the last Modern season when the Auras deck made its debut as a thing. It's just had a resurgence due to its recent showing.
Make sure that your login hasn't expired and that you're signed out. My guess is that if you're signed in that everything will appear as you expect.
I don't know if I would include Borborygmos Enraged, but the land idea can be fun:
Mox Diamond
Seismic Assault
Land's Edge
Land Tax
Countryside Crusher
Life from the Loam
Crucible of World
Oracle of Mul Daya
Horn of Greed
Lotus Cobra
other landfall creatures
etc.
The problem with Borborygmos is that he doesn't offer anything unique. You should already be executing well on your plan and have things to do with your land, so an 8 mana creature that doesn't end the game immediately is suspect. That doesn't mean to leave him out entirely, but I would be hesitant to include all four copies, even in a casual deck. Probably two copies would be fine.
Profile for psrex
Date Registered: May 10, 2004
Status: Member
Total Posts: 2307
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Location: USA
I forgot to add that Ghostly Prison may be another option if you're looking to slow the game down a little bit while you build up your creatures. I'm not sure what I would take out, but Reinforcements is one possibility since then you should have extra time to draw your creatures.
I would cut Guilty Conscience for some more land, mana ramp or, preferably, Land Tax. That generally looks like a fun starting point, but I think that you'll find 20 land isn't enough, especially if you ever want to cast Inferno. Try running through the Tools -> Statistics section and see what you think of the draws.
If you add Land Tax it might be worth replacing the Crystal Veins with some more basic lands, but the Crystal Veins do help you reduce your land count during the game to keep using Land Tax, so maybe they would be worth keeping in. Alternatively, Remote Farm and Sandstone Needle play a similar role to Crystal Vein, though you can't use them the turn that they enter play.
Personally, I think that it is too focused on a very specific goal when the payoff isn't fabulous. You have a lot of tutoring cards, which will end up getting you a Stuffy Doll in play and then try to protect it while you hit it twice for a lot of damage. If there was a single shot that you could expect to take out your opponent with, then this plan would be much more attractive. As it is, each of the crucial cards costs a lot of mana, so it's probably going to be at least a couple turns to actually get anything to happen.
If I were making modifications I would drop the tutoring and Rebuff the Wicked to instead stick in more damage redirection creatures. You can easily add some of:
Mogg Maniac
Boros Reckoner
Spitemare
You could also look at Inferno as another damage source since you would deal 18 damage to your opponent if you have two redirection creatures in play. Another less attractive option is Crater Hellion -- it's a lot less damage, but you do get a 6/6 out of it.
If you drop the tutoring you also have better options for attacking to get in a bit of damage instead of just relying on a 1/1.
If you join one of the communities then you will see matches of people that have things that you are looking for as well as the reverse. The most common community is the reddit one, which you can join here:
http://deckbox.org/communities/reddit_mtg_trades
and you can see the list of all communities here:
The price on Command Tower is horribly off. For some reason I am getting a price of $17.98, when it should be around $5.15 (I'm using TCG low, and TCG high is only $8.06).
If you're just playing with your friends that I think that going to a deck with lots of 4x cards that are straight burn is going to lead to some boring games after a while. If you want to simply tighten up what you have now, I would cut down to:
22 Mountain
4 Goblin Arsonist
4 Gore-House Chainwalker
4 Krenko's Command
3 Mogg Flunkies
1 Young Pyromancer
2 Arms Dealer
1 Hellrider
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
2 Pillar of Flame
4 Searing Spear
1 Sudden Shock
4 Brimstone Volley
4 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Pyromancer's Gauntlet
1 Barrage of Expendables
1 Chandra, the Firebrand
Some of the cards that I removed are great in some circumstances, but mostly they will be lackluster, such as Quicksilver Amulet (not very impressive putting small Goblins into play) and Blightsteel Colossus (often uncastable). Others simply were cut because there are better options already within your deck. Sorcery speed direct damage is often awkward, so I would cut it when you can.
To improve the deck I would add:
3 Goblin Grenade
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Hellrider
2 Sulfuric Vortex
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mogg War Marshal
and cut:
3 Mogg Flunkies
1 Pyromancer's Gauntlet
1 Barrage of Expendables
2 Pillar of Flame
4 Searing Spear
4 Gore-House Chainwalker
You'll mostly end up with a goblin deck with a few unusual cards to add a little variety to the game. At that point you could also consider adding some Goblin Cheiftan or some other Goblin lords.
To me it seems like there are a few problems with the deck as it stands now. First, you're running too much one-for-one removal. You have a lot of reactive removal that will help take out an opponent's threat, but you're mostly going to be simply trading your removal card for one of their creature cards. You're simply dragging the game out, and your deck isn't really built to take advantage of a really long game. You'd probably be better off running more copies of Mutilate and Shrivel.
You're running way too few creatures for a deck that wants to win with creatures. You effectively only have 10 creatures that can attack, plus whatever Endless Ranks of the Dead can make, assuming that it sticks around. You need more creatures. If you're running more Mutilates, I'm not convinced that you need Corpse Blockade any longer, as you should be putting your own creatures in the graveyard with the -X/-X effect.
I'd probably also cut the Diabolic Tutors. There doesn't seem to be much that is unique that you are going to tutor for. I don't know exactly what is in Standard now, but some more business spells or creatures are likely going to be much better than the tutors.
If I were changing the deck I'd end up with:
4 Gravecrawler
4 Butcher Ghoul
4 Geralf's Messenger
1 Liliana's Reaver
2 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
7 more creatures
4 Murder
4 Mutilate
2 Shrivel
3 Corrupt
2 Endless Ranks of the Dead
23 Swamp
Shadowborn Demon looks pretty fun for this type of deck as well. Squeezing in one or two might be an interesting experiment.
I would check out this post for some general deck building advice:
http://deckbox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=10953
I would look at adding at least five more land to your deck, and maybe as many as seven. Once you have modified your deck, go to the Tools --> Statistics section and draw some sample hands. You should be hitting at least your first four lands on turns one through four a good portion of the time.
It looks like you need a couple more finisher cards -- something with evasion (unblockable, trample or flying) that can deal a decent amount of damage. Alternatively, if you can get a Haunted Plate Mail or two (or something similar), those can great help make any creature a formidable threat.
Beyond that, just play some games with the deck and notice what's stuck in your hand at the end of each game. Think about the cards that you never cast and figure out what would have been helpful instead of that card.
The OP has some good ideas. I'd like to add that it would be incredibly useful to be able to filter the database by set. Only see cards that were printed in M14 or Innistrad for example.
You can already filter by the set. Go to the Card Database section for MTG. Next select 'Advanced Search' and change 'Edition Printed In' to be the set that you want to display. You can do the same thing to display the cards in Standard (or Legacy, or whatever) by instead setting 'Format' to one of Standard, Legacy, Vintage, Extended or Modern.
Just a quick question before offering advice, but what is the format for the tournament? My guess is that you'll need to modify your deck, as I can't think of any format that allows two Fastbonds.
SCG must have an API to their pricing data, though I can see not wanting to make it public. You could capture traffic from the SCG phone app if you wanted to figure out what they are doing.
There are lots of good resources on the fundamentals of building Magic decks. I've seen a number of people post asking for help on their first Magic deck, and there are a lot of resources out there. Does anyone want to help collect good articles going over the basics of deck building?
Gavin Verhey today posted a great introduction to deck building on WotC's official site:
Building a deck --> http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/a … ily/rc/255
Other articles that he links to are:
Sideboarding --> http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/A … ily/rc/222
Basic deck strategies, good mana bases, how many of a given card to play --> http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/A … ily/rc/188
I don't understand why you're running Gilded Drake as something to put into play with Show and Tell. Normally that is something that you would play to counter someone else's Show and Tell (assuming that they're putting in creatures). If you just want to steal your opponents creatures then run Bribery instead.
Most Legacy decks that are straight blue are putting Omniscience into play and then playing Enter the Infinite (you can see a thread about the deck at http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/show … OmniTell).
If you are open to blue/green, I really like Turbo Eldrazi. Something like http://deckbox.org/sets/241273 With Turbo Eldrazi, the Show and Tell target of choice is Primeval Titan, which then helps you get the land needed to hard cast your Eldrazi. Putting the Eldrazi into play via Show and Tell won't trigger their abilities that occur from being cast, so you have to be careful about why/how you are getting them into play.
If you did end up going with blue/red and Sneak Attack, then something like this deck is an OK option http://deckbox.org/sets/286497
Here's the goblin deck that I'm planning on playing when I'm finally able to make it to a Modern tournament:
4 Goblin Guide
4 Legion Loyalist
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Warren Instigator
4 Goblin Cheiftain
4 Goblin King
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Goblin Grenade
4 Flame Slash
4 Furor of the Bitten
2 open slots
18 Mountain
The idea is to go all in on cheap aggro and burn. You lose a long game, so don't let it go long. I've stayed away from Krenko and Siege-Gang Commander because they are dead draws in a short game if you don't have Warren Instigator. I'm either going to win early or lose, so I'm focused on the win early portion. If I draw a Goblin Cheiftain or Goblin King it is usually castable, but the same is almost never true of Krenko or Siege-Gang Commander.
This is patterned after a Legacy decks that I've had very good success with, though I'm not sure how well it will translate into Modern.
Deckbox Forum » Posts by psrex