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Magic: the Gathering |OT| Guilds of Ravnica - We built this city on blocks of gold
- Thread starter SigmasonicX
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The only one of them I have trouble remembering is the Boros one, mostly because I never see anyone use it. I think it has an extra combat phase on the back half?
Respond resurgence is 5 dmg to atk/blk or first strike vigilance and extra combat
Other one is +2/+2 and helix
Other one is +2/+2 and helix
As I expected, without the ability to dive into past sets for limited or the Kaladesh level gift, Arena makes it tough to get a quality constructed deck together. Mana Bases eating up so many WCs alone is an issue.
I guess I'll put together Chainwhirler Red based on the WC cost. Can't think of what else to do with 20-20-8-8.
I guess I'll put together Chainwhirler Red based on the WC cost. Can't think of what else to do with 20-20-8-8.
You don't tap to activate the ability so you should be able to activate it whenever you want as long as there is a creature you can target in your graveyard.
It should be able to be used right away. Summoning Sickness only prevents abilities that have a tap symbol (the rotated arrow) next to them.
For an even more confusing example: if you have two Merfolk on the battlefield and play Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca, you can use his second ability (tap 3 Merfolk to draw a card) and tap him on the turn he enters the battlefield. Even though you're tapping Kumena as a cost for the ability, it doesn't have a tap symbol in the cost, so you can use it even when he has Summoning Sickness.
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OP
OP
There is no tap symbol in his ability's cost, so he can use it right away.
You can use Lazav's ability at any time, but if you don't have any valid targets given your current available mana it won't pretend like you can use it.
Thanks for the quick replies. There's a bug then which just cost me a match. Had enough mana, and two Nightveil Predators in my Graveyard. Tapped the four mana after putting Lazav out, clicked on it, pressed + and then the middle button, but it wouldn't activate. Kept trying over and over and just ended up having to pass the turn.
Hmm. If you have the chance to try it again, try activating Lazav without manually tapping the mana first, and see if it displays the Predator as an option?
Might be a bug associated with full control and/or Lazav not checking the floating mana.
Might be a bug associated with full control and/or Lazav not checking the floating mana.
I'll give it a try. Submitted a bug-report with my log-file as well and I'll see what comes of that too.
To be fair, the time since reset is less than two weeks. But yeah, catching up on 5 sets is rough.
Yeah, it's more me being realistic looking forward: I managed to squeeze a ton of sealed out of the ~$25 worth of gems I have from prior purchases in closed beta (averaged spending 400 for 2000 buy-in), but it's all GRN product. There's no good way of getting Ixalan or Dominaria cards, besides buying packs and opening them, until they introduce Limited for those sets.
In the meantime, I'm kinda left doing nothing but free play with some trash decks to get gold every few days heh.
I wouldn't mind messing around with something fun but the cost of WCs is the same for good or bad rares and mythics, meaning I'm not limited by dollars but by WCs. A tier one deck and a fun semi competitive jank deck with the same amount of rares and mythics is the same Arena cost
Next set of MTGO 5-0 Standard lists were posted. Lots of decks with some of the unique/new ones being Elf Tribal, Chromatic Lantern Sentry, Divine Visitation, Golgari with no spells, and Izzet Cantrips. At least those are the ones that caught my eye initially.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articl...titive-standard-constructed-league-2018-10-08
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articl...titive-standard-constructed-league-2018-10-08
So do any of you who might've posted pre-release about how terrible Risk Factor was maybe want to take it back...?
I've been on board baby. We all have been pretty bad at evaluating cards in the past tho.
I just put most of the Crackling/Enigma Drake Jeskai deck together on Arena, since it didn't have any Mythics except for the sideboard. It's pretty fun! Though I didn't have all the Deafening Clarions to use, and that was a MISTAKE. And playing taplands is of course bad too, but what can you do.
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I was just coming to ask about this. Where is it seeing play? I've been really out of paying attention for a little bit now
I feel like I need someone to explain to me what that first deck even is.
Has Risk Factor done anything? I think the concensus among pros is that it's way better then previous punisher cards but will probably be overvalued in the short-term and it remains to be seen if it will still be around after the dust settels.
If the weekly 5-0 decks are anything to go by, it's fallen off super hard once people started playing more optimized decks, which is what anyone reasonably should have predicted.
From lsv's set review:
How does that work? I would expect the ability to check when the surveil goes on the stack, at that point the BO is not in the gy. Is it continously checking and thus this works as the surveil finishes resolving at which point the BO is in the gy?
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It checks after, or rather it checks 'when you finish surveilling'.
I can tell you after watching a local high level player play mono red with this card it is not only NOT overvalued in standard, it appears to be somewhat absurd.
It looks like a control deck that just pulls the appropriate win condition from the board. If they'r elow enough or you have enough sources, you grab a banefire and just burn them out; otherwise you grab a carnage tyrant.
Kinda? I've gone from "complete garbage" to "playable," but I think the hype is way high right now. It's a pyschological thing - Risk Factor is almost always played at the end of the game and when it does its thing it always looks great, so the responds ends up being "Wow I just won that game because of Risk Factor!" when actually they won the game because of the sum contribution of a bunch of cards, not just the one. Risk Factor didn't do anything unique - it just pushed through the last bit of damage. Plus, when everybody talks about it being garbage and you win the game with it anyway, it feels extra good. So I'll begrudgingly concede that it meets the bar of playability, but I'm still not convinced it's optimal. I'll check back in on this after the PT and some more high level events.
If you want to talk about cards I was completely wrong about, lets talk about Experimental Frenzy. Holy shit I was completely wrong about that card. It's absurd.
Yeah, experimental frenzy is absolutely ludicrous in RDW or Big Red variants, especially if you have a Steam Kin or two on the ground. Then it goes into crazy combo land.
I've been running this RDW in the grind on arena the past weekend and coming out 6-3, 7-2 or so pretty much always winning my coins back. Experimental frenzy just does crazy work.
4 Fanatical Firebrand
4 Ghitu Lavarunner
4 Runaway Steam Kin
3 Goblin Electromancer
4 Viashino Pyromancer
3 Goblin Chainwhirler
4 Shock
4 Lightning Strike
4 Wizard Lightning
2 Experimental Frenzy
3 Risk Factor
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
13 Mountain
I don't know if this is better than the straight red replacing the Electromancers with an extra risk factor, experimental frenzy and chainwhirler and bouncing back to 21 mountains. I've flip flopped between the two over the weekend, and like the blue splash especially when lightning strike and risk factor also become one red to cast, the chaining with Steam kin and frenzy gets ridiculous. I have some negates and disdainful strokes in the sideboard but haven't used it in a BO3 so don't know if it matters. This deck will definitely cover your entrance fees on the event, and I picked up probably 8-10 rares/mythics as well as an extra 1200 gold or so running that series 5 times this weekend. Steam kin and experimental frenzy is a nutso pairing
I've been running this RDW in the grind on arena the past weekend and coming out 6-3, 7-2 or so pretty much always winning my coins back. Experimental frenzy just does crazy work.
4 Fanatical Firebrand
4 Ghitu Lavarunner
4 Runaway Steam Kin
3 Goblin Electromancer
4 Viashino Pyromancer
3 Goblin Chainwhirler
4 Shock
4 Lightning Strike
4 Wizard Lightning
2 Experimental Frenzy
3 Risk Factor
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
13 Mountain
I don't know if this is better than the straight red replacing the Electromancers with an extra risk factor, experimental frenzy and chainwhirler and bouncing back to 21 mountains. I've flip flopped between the two over the weekend, and like the blue splash especially when lightning strike and risk factor also become one red to cast, the chaining with Steam kin and frenzy gets ridiculous. I have some negates and disdainful strokes in the sideboard but haven't used it in a BO3 so don't know if it matters. This deck will definitely cover your entrance fees on the event, and I picked up probably 8-10 rares/mythics as well as an extra 1200 gold or so running that series 5 times this weekend. Steam kin and experimental frenzy is a nutso pairing
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OP
OP
What's coming up with Magic Story
Basically, it's a return to how things were circa Return to Ravnica / Theros. Web stories will be side stories exploring the world while the main story will be a novel you have to pay for. Comic tie-ins from IDW are coming back.
This also confirms that there will be two Guilds of Ravnica block novels, both written by Greg Weisman.
Basically, it's a return to how things were circa Return to Ravnica / Theros. Web stories will be side stories exploring the world while the main story will be a novel you have to pay for. Comic tie-ins from IDW are coming back.
This also confirms that there will be two Guilds of Ravnica block novels, both written by Greg Weisman.
Well, props to the brewer on finding the path least traveled for getting to his control shell.
Looks like the Knights tribal plan is kinda not panning out, sadly. Might have to shift to Selesnya Tokens or Boros Angels, considering I have the History of Benalia already.
I mean, Experimental Frenzy works more or less like you'd think:
You try to empty your hand and then play it, and then once you have it down you're trying to rip cards off the top of your deck as fast as possible. There's a stronger incentive to play instants main phase because if you take them off the top and reveal a sorcery-speed spell you can play it right away and keep rolling. There's a strong incentive to use jump-start spells since they allow you to convert cards in hand into spells instead of just holding them until you've got enough hand built up to be worth sacrificing the Frenzy. The surveil and explore mechanics work quite well with it for getting the top of your deck organized to keep the frenzy rolling, but neither of them are well-represented in red so you're often just relying on cantrips to move cards off the top instead.
It rewards (mostly) empty hands and aggressive play with high risk/reward ratio.
You try to empty your hand and then play it, and then once you have it down you're trying to rip cards off the top of your deck as fast as possible. There's a stronger incentive to play instants main phase because if you take them off the top and reveal a sorcery-speed spell you can play it right away and keep rolling. There's a strong incentive to use jump-start spells since they allow you to convert cards in hand into spells instead of just holding them until you've got enough hand built up to be worth sacrificing the Frenzy. The surveil and explore mechanics work quite well with it for getting the top of your deck organized to keep the frenzy rolling, but neither of them are well-represented in red so you're often just relying on cantrips to move cards off the top instead.
It rewards (mostly) empty hands and aggressive play with high risk/reward ratio.
THIS TIME they'll buy the books! It can't miss!*
*They will not buy the books, it can miss.
They now have sales data of the physical art books Viz had been publishing. The RTR/Theos books were all digital only. Maybe they have data saying people will buy physical books?
Art books are one thing - Magic has always had top notch world building and design - but actual novels are another. In a huge, open ocean of YA-focused fantasy fiction I can't really picture people going out of their way to buy an MTG book.
Maybe I'm underestimating their audience, but it feels like a leap. I know I'm just gonna read a summary online.
Maybe I'm underestimating their audience, but it feels like a leap. I know I'm just gonna read a summary online.
Too many people caught up in Red Aggro from last Standard can't give it up so they latch onto it. I think it gets snuffed out as the Control decks dial into the new meta. I think it becomes a Tier 2 deck in a month.
I think the way forward for Magic fiction is to focus on Light Novels to try and get optioned as manga/anime.
They'll have to up their quality to compete with the isekai genre, but I'm convinced they can find a semi-literate eighth grader to get them over that hurdle.
They'll have to up their quality to compete with the isekai genre, but I'm convinced they can find a semi-literate eighth grader to get them over that hurdle.
Probably the best Dimir deck I drafted so far. No Nightveil Predators (and luckily I didn't face any either), but I had so much Surveil it was hard not to find the right answers at any time. It's so immensely satisfying to stop everything your opponent throws at you until they're in topdeck mode. I would have liked if I had a Severed Strands to gain some life because I was dead to a Direct Current or Sonic Assault quite a few times if they drew it. Three Notion Rains might have been too much lol. I'm glad I picked up Enhanced Surveillance because I nearly decked myself in most of my games. Turns out Ral mills your deck even faster lol. Mmemonic Betrayal was a house. Glad I played it. Since I was light on creatures and removal, I could pretty much find the right answers in the late game, usually making it a 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 and win from there. Don't sleep on it if you're drafting control. It's a better win condition than freaking Drowned Secrets lol
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