Magic:the gathering

[Angst]

Yeah that was what I understood - and it feels like you're perfectly able to be calm and joking about it.

I'm mostly trying to express that it's really neat. Keep it up, it feels relaxed.

 

[PhroX]

Yea I know, but things like Stax and Land destruction are stuff that they simply do not make anymore. They want each player to play.

And yet they push aggro where the entire strategy is to kill the opponent before they can cast their main spells. Gee I got to play so much when the game's over turn four...

Anyway, yeah, I'm a big Magic fan, but I avoid Standard like the plague. EDH is where it's at. Stax, mass LD, control - the good stuff - is perfectly at home there

 

[Angst]

And yet they push aggro where the entire strategy is to kill the opponent before they can cast their main spells. Gee I got to play so much when the game's over turn four...

I always play aggro when I participate in tournament sessions and despise the misrepresentation of creature strategies that control-only-players promote. Slower decks currently have all sorts of tools to combat aggro strategies. Control players whine mostly because control isn't dominant.

Anyway, yeah, I'm a big Magic fan, but I avoid Standard like the plague. EDH is where it's at. Stax, mass LD, control - the good stuff - is perfectly at home there

EDH isn't a game meant for control to me personally. It's a game meant for silly synergies and impractical moments of awesome, again, allowing people to have cards breathe and interact. EDH I like because the cards breathing are more often than not underpowered or amusing. I have a rainbow machine-ish artifact deck whose sole purpose is to get Filigree Angel out and gain a lot of life, then play Platinum Emperion and Darksteel Forge and feeling machiney and fortressy until the easily disruptable steel wall inevitably gets easily disrupted. The rest of the deck is mostly a lot of internal synergies that I adore to explore during the game (I simply seed the deck with all sorts of obviously combotastic artifacts - luckily without getting an infinite combo as of yet ). The deck simply lives and thrives and fails on synergy. I have two other EDH decks - an angel-dragon-glorious equipment WR deck mostly thrown together because I had too many of the cards not to do it; and a black sacrifice-graveyard-synergistic thing (similar to the pointlessness of the artifacts, but with less reliance on abilities of permanents) built around Endrek Sahr and Null Profusion. Can't go infinite either, which I like.

Most monoblue EDH decks can wreck havoc with all their card draws, counters, time walks, rites of replications etc, but I honestly didn't find them that fun to play. They felt too spikey for EDH, I didn't connect to them emotionally or flavorwisely and honestly the games felt a bit too easy to win. :/

EDIT: This is the kind of silliness I use EDH to do.

 

[PhroX]

I always play aggro when I participate in tournament sessions and despise the misrepresentation of creature strategies that control-only-players promote. Slower decks currently have all sorts of tools to combat aggro strategies. Control players whine mostly because control isn't dominant.

To be honest I don't have an issue with aggro (I don't really enjoy playing with it, but I like the challenge of going against it), nor do I consider it dominant (admittedly my last post wasn't clear). I just find it hypocritical that strategies like discard, lard destruction, stax, "classic" blue control and so forth are being phased out because they "stop the opponent playing", when that's the entire point of aggro. It's like Wizards saying they want "interaction" then printing Thrun - how the hell am I supposed to interact with that?

EDH isn't a game meant for control to me personally. It's a game meant for silly synergies and impractical moments of awesome, again, allowing people to have cards breathe and interact. EDH I like because the cards breathing are more often than not underpowered or amusing. I have a rainbow machine-ish artifact deck whose sole purpose is to get Filigree Angel out and gain a lot of life, then play Platinum Emperion and Darksteel Forge and feeling machiney and fortressy until the easily disruptable steel wall inevitably gets easily disrupted. The rest of the deck is mostly a lot of internal synergies that I adore to explore during the game (I simply seed the deck with all sorts of obviously combotastic artifacts - luckily without getting an infinite combo as of yet ). The deck simply lives and thrives and fails on synergy. I have two other EDH decks - an angel-dragon-glorious equipment WR deck mostly thrown together because I had too many of the cards not to do it; and a black sacrifice-graveyard-synergistic thing (similar to the pointlessness of the artifacts, but with less reliance on abilities of permanents) built around Endrek Sahr and Null Profusion. Can't go infinite either, which I like.

Most monoblue EDH decks can wreck havoc with all their card draws, counters, time walks, rites of replications etc, but I honestly didn't find them that fun to play. They felt too spikey for EDH, I didn't connect to them emotionally or flavorwisely and honestly the games felt a bit too easy to win. :/

For me EDH is great because you have such a massive variety of decks and archetypes - I want to play against as many different strategies as possible (my issue with standard - 6 shades of aggro, some midrange, and a bit of board wipe based control). I like going up against hardcore control decks - not all the time, and not every opponent - but having one around makes things interesting.

Personally, I don't really have one of "those" blue decks, instead my "control" deck is probably my Teysa, Orzhov Scion one (BW tokens). It obviously doesn't stop things being cast, but it has a lot of ways to ensure that nothing stays on the board long enough to be a threat - board wipes and lots of token generators fuelling Attrition, Grave Pact and Teysa herself. I'm also currently building Glissa stax with all the old favourites like WInter Orb, Tangle Wire, Braids and of course Smoke Stack, along with a lot of cheap disposable artifacts and recurring creatures. Looks like it'll be fun.

I do have some big flashy decks too. Gisela voltron/Repercussion+mass damage, Melek "cast all the biggest spells twice" etc. Hell, my only mono-U deck is Thada Adel and has the stated aim of controlling every Sol Ring in the game, or failing that, at least have two Progeniti (Progenituses?)

 

[Angst]

I'm sorry I misunderstood you.

Personally I never got why discard was so offensive to players. It only ruins your hand, not your board position, your mana base or your card draw in general. Both powering down discard cards and swaying from making instant discards (in order to prevent proper card draw) is strange because discard is really only powerful when the two properties are done in conjunction. Imo.

The only discard card I could dislike is Hymn to Tourach - if every discard card was in accord to that card's power level - but other discards, even from back when it was somewhat viable, are nowhere as powerful as Hymn. So as it is, I actually don't find Hymn that offensive. Stuff like Stupor or perhaps Liliana's Caress (a very nonpowerful card to boot as its way too dependent on other discards...) would be really interesting to see being played. I'd like to see Mono Black creaturelite control being viable (Precautionarily controlling through discard, retroactively answering threats through Terror effects rather than the current lame doom blades until Grave Titan-style), especially as it's so prone to falling into metagame traps, being easily countered by enchantment and/or artifact strategies - black's only answer to those things is discard, mind you.

Oh, and discard is kind of awkward against graveyard strategies too.

I like your EDH style.

 

[mrrandomplayer]

And yet they push aggro where the entire strategy is to kill the opponent before they can cast their main spells. Gee I got to play so much when the game's over turn four...

Anyway, yeah, I'm a big Magic fan, but I avoid Standard like the plague. EDH is where it's at. Stax, mass LD, control - the good stuff - is perfectly at home there

I'm trying to build a Kaho, Minamo Historian control deck and a Maralen of the Mornsong bear hug deck. I know, they're bad/unconventional, but it will be just for my kitchen table meta, and I will still try to optimize it, being a Johnny/Spike. Any advice?

 

[PhroX]

I'm trying to build a Kaho, Minamo Historian control deck and a Maralen of the Mornsong bear hug deck. I know, they're bad/unconventional, but it will be just for my kitchen table meta, and I will still try to optimize it, being a Johnny/Spike. Any advice?

I'd really suggest you avoid Maralen - not just because she's bad (I have nothing against "bad" cards, as long as they're fun), but because of what'll happen whenever she sees play: either you opponents get their win cons and kill you, or they grab something to kill Maralen. Either way, you never get to use her ability, which is rather boring really. If by "bear hug" you mean hurting everyone (the reverse of group hug), Kaervek would probably be a better option, and it opens up red which has some very nice cards for that style of play, such as Spellshock, Spiteful Visions and Zo-Zu, not to mention Stranglehold which would go perfectly if you make Maralen one of the 99 instead of the boss.

As for Kaho, don't really know, not built a mono-U control deck for EDH - and the blue based (though not mono obviously) control deck I face most often is Ertai who is far from the classic design despite his ability to counter almost everything if you have the resources.

 

[mrrandomplayer]

I meant group hug. They would tutor up great cards and I would tutor up answers and mass removal. It would basically be a deck that helps the other players (at the cost of life, which I would be ahead of them from lifegain/Sign in Blood effects on the other players) until I have enough mana to one-shot them with Exsanguinate or a similar effect. That or they would eventually die from life loss.

 

[PhroX]

I meant group hug. They would tutor up great cards and I would tutor up answers and mass removal. It would basically be a deck that helps the other players (at the cost of life, which I would be ahead of them from lifegain/Sign in Blood effects on the other players) until I have enough mana to one-shot them with Exsanguinate or a similar effect. That or they would eventually die from life loss.

Except you wouldn't, because they'll just kill Maralen before you can tutor. Or at least, they will after the first time

 

[Tsoate]

Good luck finding them before everyone in your store buys the 2 copies the store gets and the price skyrockets on eBay..

Dude, i've like a dozen dark rituals, and at least a playset of HTT

 

[Tsoate]

Also, I feel this EDH this is so odd. It didn't exist when i first played MtG. It was Type 1 or Type 2 only!

 

[mrrandomplayer]

Dude, i've like a dozen dark rituals, and at least a playset of HTT

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!!!!!?!?!!!!!

I envy you. My budget consists of allowance money.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

Dark Ritual isn't seriously expensive now is it? It used to be a common, I have like a million of them floating around in my card box.

 

[mrrandomplayer]

They are a lot cheaper than I thought they would be. On Starcitygames, they are each $1-2 (except for Alpha, Beta and misprints). That means that they will be even cheaper on other sites!

 

[PhroX]

Dark Ritual isn't seriously expensive now is it? It used to be a common, I have like a million of them floating around in my card box.

Less than a dollar according to TCGPlayer (depends on the edition, some are more)

 

[Tsoate]

Yea I was going to say, its not because I am rich, just that I first played back when the set Ice Age was released. DR was a common back then, an i loved playing BLACK

 

[Wolfbeckett]

Less than a dollar according to TCGPlayer (depends on the edition, some are more)

Good, for a second I thought the world had gone insane. I haven't played Magic in years but the prices couldn't have gone THAT topsy turvy on me .

(reprint Counterspell and we'll talk about me coming back, WotC)

 

[Tsoate]

First turn; ritual, hypnotic spectre.. muahahah!

 

[Angst]

Yea that's a classic.

Anyways, this whole discussion made me remniscend my old artefact loldeck which I, nostalgically, just posted here. There are a lot of big dumb creatures that I think I've put in because - damnit, this is EDH! And I have cool giant artefacts! They can't stop me from playing it! Heh. I'll probably eventually put in some more machine pieces than this, which is very artifact-digging with less interactions than I remembered (Actually I'd taken out quite a few cards I thought I'd put in) - but damn it is it still fun to goldfish.

 

[PhroX]

First turn; ritual, hypnotic spectre.. muahahah!

I prefer Ritual, Duress, Hymn.