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#52 Jul 14 2014 at 11:14 PM Rating: Excellent
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If I was to guess, I'd say people weren't used to it and built slower decks that would stalemate against the other guy's slow deck. I was walking around after my matches and would see games with five or six creatures up against five or six creatures on the other side and neither one willing or able to make the first move. My second two matches I dominated by having a faster moving deck. Also, very few people seemed to be playing red. Some heat rays and lightning strikes could have broken up those stalemates in a hurry. But everyone was all about either B/G or B/U.

A good number of cards did seem to have ridiculous casting costs but I haven't really compared to see if it's worse than 2014. The sealed format tends to make you use stuff that you wouldn't ordinarily use in standard play and every set had cards that are basically trash due to their cost.
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#53 Jul 15 2014 at 1:01 AM Rating: Good
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Timelordwho wrote:
Solid performance. Based on the timing, is 2015 a slow format, or are people just not used to it yet?
Sealed is always slower than draft, although from what I've seen M15 won't be a particularly fast format either way.
#54 Jul 15 2014 at 12:06 PM Rating: Good
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Jophiel wrote:
Also, very few people seemed to be playing red.
Philistines.
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#55 Jul 15 2014 at 12:29 PM Rating: Excellent
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I was surprised that Siege Dragon wasn't more of a draw. Not over Infernal Tormentor but just in general. Out of the 62 people, I think they distributed two or three red boxes. But even after opening the rest of their sealed packs, no one seemed to use it much (or a couple people made a three color deck with splashed red). Maybe old B/G, B/U habits die hard.
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#56 Jul 16 2014 at 7:22 AM Rating: Good
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Jophiel wrote:
I was surprised that Siege Dragon wasn't more of a draw. Not over Infernal Tormentor but just in general. Out of the 62 people, I think they distributed two or three red boxes. But even after opening the rest of their sealed packs, no one seemed to use it much (or a couple people made a three color deck with splashed red). Maybe old B/G, B/U habits die hard.


It's a 7 mana cost weenie clearer.
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#57 Jul 16 2014 at 7:42 AM Rating: Good
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Generator Servant being a red common makes it a lot better though.
#58 Jul 16 2014 at 7:56 AM Rating: Excellent
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Timelordwho wrote:
It's a 7 mana cost weenie clearer.

Resolute Angel is a seven mana cost situational heal but still got more love than Siege Dragon. You'd think with that many people, you'd still have enough of the "Oh cool, big creatures" types who'd go for it. Heck, your Siege Dragon could lock down their Phytotitan!

Plus just the general lack of */R decks was puzzling. Not that I surveyed everyone or anything, just my observations from having a half hour between matches to mill around and see what was going on.
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#59 Jul 16 2014 at 8:30 AM Rating: Good
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Jophiel wrote:
Timelordwho wrote:
It's a 7 mana cost weenie clearer.
Resolute Angel is a seven mana cost situational heal but still got more love than Siege Dragon.
Key difference between the two is that the angel is rarely too late to the party where the dragon is often a waste of your turn if you're at low life, it makes the Angel a great finisher for controlling decks.

The lack of red decks is odd though, there is a big list of great commons in red for all sorts of archetypes. Quite a few bombs in the rare and mythic slot as well and Cone Of Flame at uncommon which is almost good enough on it's own to splash red for.
#60 Jul 16 2014 at 9:07 AM Rating: Excellent
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His Excellency Aethien wrote:
Jophiel wrote:
Timelordwho wrote:
It's a 7 mana cost weenie clearer.
Resolute Angel is a seven mana cost situational heal but still got more love than Siege Dragon.
Key difference between the two is that the angel is rarely too late to the party

Can be too early to the party to be useful (for the cost) though. I mean, it's great if you're healing for 15 points off it or something but healing for two points and a 4/4 for seven mana isn't quite as impressive. In any event, I'm not saying it's useless or trying to really get into a debate about the relative value of each, I just found it odd. Yeah, there's some people who no doubt studied the spoiler lists and had it all planned out in their heads but you also have a lot (I'd almost guess most) who go into it on a gut feeling. I was talking to my son about it yesterday and he had completely misunderstood what Siege Dragon's effect was (he thought it was something like destroy one wall per attack) so I wonder if that played into it at all.

Edit: I'll make the point that I'm only referring to the sealed tournament where you're not sure what you'll be getting and, while you may have a concept in mind, you don't know what cards you'll be pulling for that concept. Siege Dragon seemed, to me, to have more overall utility than Resolute Angel. The life gain is situational and nothing you can rely on (as I learned the hard way) but a 5/5 flier who torches weenies seems more often useful.

Edited, Jul 16th 2014 10:59am by Jophiel
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#61 Jul 17 2014 at 8:08 AM Rating: Excellent
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I'll tap this thread to move it back to the front page. Then I'll end my turn.

Edited, Jul 17th 2014 10:10am by lolgaxe
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#62 Jul 17 2014 at 8:16 AM Rating: Excellent
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Mana burn!

Buying a box of 2015 boosters tomorrow to split with the kid. Also getting my 2015 Duel of the Planeswalkers promo pack (I pre-purchased when it was 50% off). Not that I really have a home for Soul of Zendikar in a deck but they owe me, damn it.

Well, I suppose I do have a Commander deck built around Animar that could use it.

Edited, Jul 17th 2014 9:21am by Jophiel
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#63 Jul 17 2014 at 8:49 AM Rating: Good
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Does green red and blue work well enough together to play a deck of those colors?

I never really went beyond two color decks and they were never opposing colors (unless we were just ******* around or making some all color decks like slivers). Problem always seemed to be either the deck was huge and you couldn't get the necessary cards or it was manageable but you got mana screwed in at least one color. At least from what I remember.
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#64 Jul 17 2014 at 9:12 AM Rating: Excellent
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Commander is a special case. You pick one Legendary critter as your "Commander" and then you can only select cards from the Commander's casting cost. So, in this case, Red Blue and/or Green cards. Then you get a 99 card deck but can only have one of each card in there (except basic lands). Without explaining all the rules, you can look up Commander or EDH (Elder Dragon Highlander) for them, the dynamics allow for more variation than you see in a standard deck game.

I only play it against my son for a change of pace. We have a big box of older cards from buying cheap eBay lots and go through it to make the decks. My Animar deck is creature heavy with a mix of low cost guys to pump up Animar's counters and high cost critters you'd ordinarily never use to take advantage of the reduced casting cost. That's the fun of it for us, using cards you'd usually never touch for whatever reason.
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#65 Jul 17 2014 at 10:00 AM Rating: Good
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TirithRR wrote:
Does green red and blue work well enough together to play a deck of those colors?

I never really went beyond two color decks and they were never opposing colors (unless we were just @#%^ing around or making some all color decks like slivers). Problem always seemed to be either the deck was huge and you couldn't get the necessary cards or it was manageable but you got mana screwed in at least one color. At least from what I remember.
Any combination of colours can work, kind of depends on what you want to do with the deck. Too many cards is a problem with selection and mana ***** is a problem with how you build your mana base and how many coloured mana your spells cost, you can't expect to cast Cryptic Command on turn 4 in a 3 colour modern deck for example. It also depends on the lands available, although Wizards tends to make sure that 2 colour lands are widely available in every format which makes 3 colour decks easy to achieve. With fetch lands existing in older formats it's even easier to get what you need and you get decks like this that don't have a single basic land which has made decks like Painted Stone and Dragon Stompy running 4 Blood Moons and 1-4 Magus Of The Moon a thing in Legacy because turn 1 Blood Moon means you win the game against half the decks.

In a commander deck you get to play all the old lands, albeit only one of each, so you get to play Wooded Foothills, Scalding Tarn, Misty Rainforest, Volcanic Island, Tropical Island, Taiga and then the shock lands that you can also fetch out etc.
#66 Jul 17 2014 at 10:15 AM Rating: Good
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When I played, true two color lands were not readily available. There were the fake ones that cost mana to produce other types.
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#67 Jul 17 2014 at 10:17 AM Rating: Excellent
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There's actually even a land designed specifically for Commander format: Command Tower

Of course you can only have one in your 99 card deck which sort of limits its usefulness but hey, it helps.

Edited, Jul 17th 2014 11:18am by Jophiel
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#68 Jul 17 2014 at 10:25 AM Rating: Excellent
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Command Tower wrote:
Add to your mana pool one mana of any color in your commander's color identity.
Freaking SJWs. Smiley: oyvey
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#69 Jul 17 2014 at 10:42 AM Rating: Good
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TirithRR wrote:
When I played, true two color lands were not readily available. There were the fake ones that cost mana to produce other types.
Well you've got true duals, fetch lands, filter lands, pain lands, shock lands, check lands, fast lands, temples and god knows what other lands now so mana fixing is generally not an issue (as long as you're willing to pay the price).
#70 Jul 17 2014 at 9:56 PM Rating: Good
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Jophiel wrote:
Mana burn!

Buying a box of 2015 boosters tomorrow to split with the kid. Also getting my 2015 Duel of the Planeswalkers promo pack (I pre-purchased when it was 50% off). Not that I really have a home for Soul of Zendikar in a deck but they owe me, damn it.

Well, I suppose I do have a Commander deck built around Animar that could use it.

Edited, Jul 17th 2014 9:21am by Jophiel



Gonna teach him to draft with that box, or just crack em?
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#71 Jul 17 2014 at 10:13 PM Rating: Excellent
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He's played draft before. Just gonna crack 'em.
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#72 Jul 18 2014 at 3:52 AM Rating: Good
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If you find any Nissa's, sell em now while they're at their high.
#73 Jul 18 2014 at 8:02 PM Rating: Excellent
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One Nissa, two Garruk (Apex Pred) and a Soul of Theros.
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#74 Jul 18 2014 at 8:23 PM Rating: Good
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Nissa is about $50 now, you can probably sell it and get 2 or 3 for the same money in a few months, not sure what Garruk's price is but he's probably at a high point too as neither of them is going to be a vintage, legacy or modern staple and all planeswalkers suffer from The Mind Sculptor syndrome.

Not sure what else is valuable at the moment but you can get your money back with selling those walkers.

Edit: looks like Garruk is $20-25 and Nissa has fallen back to $35 already. Still, neither of them is going to hold this value for long. Jace, Chord of Calling, Sliver Hivelord and Ajani are the other $10+ cards in the set. Urborg has some staying power as well as it sees some play in older formats.

Edited, Jul 19th 2014 4:31am by Aethien
#75 Jul 18 2014 at 8:37 PM Rating: Excellent
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Got an Urbog and a Chord of Calling as well. Probably won't sell any though. Just don't usually bother with that end of it.
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#76 Jul 18 2014 at 8:50 PM Rating: Good
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I should learn M:TG.
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