Didn't make it last time. It was too cold. But I'm going to be there tonight.
2 2014-01-05 19:28:32
Topic: [EDH] Ruric Thar, looking for advice (0 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)
http://deckbox.org/sets/570280
This is my Ruric Thar build. For a deck with so many big creatures, it's very controlling. It has a combo finish with Primal Surge being the only non-permanent card. It plays Magus of the Moon, and I'm thinking about throwing Blood Moon in there. There's a lot of strong interaction with Seedborn Muse. My recently-traded-for Imperial Recruiter is an MVP. I'm still trading for a few more fetchlands to round out the mana base, and I'm considering putting a Crucible of Worlds in there, but I'll need a second one as mine is in my Esper control deck. The deck needs a Strip Mine, and one is on the way. I've worked hard to keep the curve low (relatively that is) and the mana & acceleration high. The deck can do pretty well on just 6 mana, which it often has by turn 4 or 5. The combo takes 10 mana, and in testing I'm usually there by turn 7 or 8.
The basic game plan is to kill anyone playing blue while waiting to draw into the combo. But even without Primal Surge, the deck can build up an imposing offense very quickly. Ruric is good for making opponents think twice about their spells, he blocks fliers, and does a respectable amount of damage. Every once in a while his downside forces him to attack into a deathtouch blocker or what have you, but all in all the requirement to attack every turn hasn't been that big of a disadvantage. The real downside to Ruric's ability is that it draws attention and brings some hate and causes opponents to hold onto their counterspells.
Anyway, I haven't seen anyone else build Ruric around a Primal Surge win, I'm wide open to suggestions.
3 2013-10-30 13:57:58
Re: Mtg: Commander 2013 (8 replies, posted in Announcements)
This reminds me of a feature I've been meaning to request.
The option to bulk-import lists from sealed supplementary products. Commander, Dual Decks, Event Decks and the like.
4 2013-10-28 16:27:48
Re: Idea for variant Commander format. (8 replies, posted in General Discussion)
Well the rub is, if you can build a killer Pauper commander deck, maybe with a few (cheap) ante cards in the mix, you could clean up.
As for Planeswalker commanders, it's a common idea. I don't know if having always available, automatically recurrable Planeswalkers is too unbalancing. And also while J:tMS is obviously a top pick, his abilities aren't as stellar in a multi-player format, and he's automatically the pace car since $120 card. The new Elspeth might be a better pick, and also people are going to prefer multi-colored Planeswalkers in general. There will be a lot of Nicol Bolas. And that might be the biggest problem with the format, that not enough color combinations have been printed yet.
5 2013-10-22 16:21:17
Topic: EDH tech: Glasses of Urza (0 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)
Glasses of Urza is a card I probably have about 8 of from back when Revised was in print. And I never thought much of it, especially after Telepathy was printed.
But then I started playing big multi-player EDH games. I tried to run Telepathy and it was awful. It slows the game to a crawl as everyone wants to look at everyone else's hand after every draw and before every action. It's one of those cards that annoys people so much that they'll kill you just to make the game go faster. It's good 1 on 1, decent in 3 player games, and terrible for any more than that.
But Glasses of Urza is great. Check out what the Blue player has before you cast an important spell. Or, if you're playing Blue, make sure that your counterspells aren't being used on lesser threats. Seeing your opponent's hand is almost always good, it's just kind of hard to justify taking up one of your 99 slots for the effect.
Benefits include:
- It say's "look at opponent's hand" not "reveal opponent's hand" only you need to know what you see.
- It's a 1 mana artifact, and the only thing easier to tutor for than 1 mana artifacts are basic lands.
- It's too unassuming to waste targeted removal on. Especially if your deck runs artifacts that are actually "good" any decent player is going to go after your Sol Ring or Sensei's Divining Top first.
- It's political, if opponent A needs to know something about opponent B, you can let them know, for a price or alliance, or... and this is where benefit #1 comes into play, you can lie. They won't know until it's too late.
- Obviously it's great with any effect where you need to guess what's in an opponent's hand, or see if an "everyone puts an X into play for free" effect is going to screw you over.
It's really fantastic, I'm loving having it in my Esper ETB Control deck, and I've had to make some pretty tough cuts in that one. I took out frikkin' Brainstorm.
Anyway, it goes in the long list of "card I'd never put in a 60 card deck in a million years but rock in EDH." Try it!
6 2013-10-21 17:00:24
Re: Idea for variant Commander format. (8 replies, posted in General Discussion)
Nah, Chaos Orb isn't legal. Anything banned in Vintage is automatically banned in EDH.
And Chaos Orb shouldn't be legal in most formats, the most commonly cited reason is that it's discriminatory against handicapped players, which is true, but infrequently as an actual problem, its a slim group of people who can play a card game that requires as much reaching around the table as Magic who can't lift a card up a foot off of that table. The real reasons are that a judge would pretty much have to stand by the table, and the card punishes your opponent even more if you're playing on a small area. I wonder if the old Magic urban legend of players using two-sided tape or magnets to attach their cards to the bottom of the table when someone brought out a Chaos Orb is true. I hope so.
7 2013-10-20 20:16:45
Re: Idea for variant Commander format. (8 replies, posted in General Discussion)
Obviously, I'm not talking about this taking off as a officially-sanctioned format. (And while WoTC acknowledges Commander, it's actually an "unofficial format" as the rules and banned list are maintained by fans, not the company) and many Commander groups play with their own banned list (usually to eliminate decks that are unfair in the local meta, but also to sometimes allow for someone with a card that's a little overpowered but not quite broken -- for instance I think that both Balance and Library of Alexandria are banned for historical reasons, not because they are more powerful than other things that are perfectly legal in official Commander).
Anyway, I'm just speculating. I think it would be fun to get to use some of the older cards that are almost never played with. Sharazad (which shouldn't be banned in Vintage -- your opponent can just scoop the second game if they're worried about the clock, you just lose half your life, which isn't an overpowered effect by Vintage standards) could make Commander games very interesting.
8 2013-10-20 14:02:39
Topic: Idea for variant Commander format. (8 replies, posted in General Discussion)
No banned list - every Magic card ever printed is legal.
Play for ante, all cards go to winner, but players can, of course, make if-I-win bargains during play. So while Black Lotus is legal, it's pretty damn big risk to play.
basically I want to play in a format where Contract From Below and Chaos Orb are legal.
9 2013-10-20 13:55:31
Re: [Casual] Green/White/Blue/Red Birthing Pod Looking For New Ideas (4 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)
Personally I'd run Phyrexian Metamorph instead of Phantasmal Image, or perhaps one of each.
And just out of curiosity, how often do you get Domri's ultimate off?
10 2013-10-20 13:51:35
Topic: EDH [competitive] Merieke Ri Berit combo - looking for suggestions (0 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)
This is a work-in-progress competitive deck.
http://deckbox.org/sets/507740
The basic idea is to ramp mana, counter, board-wipe, and otherwise delay and react, and then tutor up the combo to kill the whole table. My friends hate the deck, and it usually turns multiplayer games into Archenemy, but I have fun with it, and when they gang up on me, the win/loss ratio is pretty fair. But there's a monthly EDH event at one of our LGSs where the power level of decks is a little higher.
The combo is currently Sanguine Bond / Exquisite Blood + usually a lifegain tapland, though there are other ways of dealing damage and gaining life. I've looked at other combos and this one has some advantages. Mill combos break if someone has an Eldrazi, and Sharuum is an even more hated general than Merieke. Plus this combo is easily understood by players with limited rules knowledge, they don't have to take on faith that what I'm saying about replacement effects vs. triggered effects is true. However it takes 10 mana and a land drop, that could be more efficient.
I do need a backup combo. Right now I'm thinking about replacing Nihil Spellbomb with Leyline of the Void and adding Helm of Obedience.
The mana base is good, but I do think I could remove one land, probably a basic island.
OK, looking forward to your feedback!
11 2013-10-20 13:42:23
Topic: A couple of UI and Forum suggestions (0 replies, posted in Site Discussion)
On the deck page, when building a deck:
If I'm looking at my own deck, the add card text-entry should just be there. I shouldn't have to click a menu item to make it appear. Less clicks = good UI (until it gets too crowded, but you're not there yet)
It should let you know if you've added a card that's already in the deck. I was listing a deck and I entered part by memory and part looking at the deck and it was a real pain dealing with duplicates that shouldn't have been there.
There should be a way to manually designate what format a deck is built for (Standard, Legacy, Commander etc.) or if that exists it should be easier to find. It would be nice to post a work-in-progress EDH deck that doesn't have 100 cards yet and have it marked as EDH.
Speaking of EDH, there should be a way to highlight and set apart the general.
Forums:
Please divide the deckbuilding forum into sub-categories for different formats.
Just minor suggestions, love the site. Y'all are doing great work!