Magic the Gathering fans?

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

I just looked up worldfire....that card is kayana...O.O and only just realised what a good combination chandra's ignition and spellheart chimera could be (providing you're not countered/it hasn't died or been exiled)

Edited August 26, 2015 by ParadoxSpren

[Dunkum he/him]

Ah, I see it. Exile your own creature with an Oblivion Ring-style effect, then use Gideon's ability to bring it back. Then you have several turns to whack at your opponents before they get the mana up to have a defence. Using It That Betrays lets you steal Lands to both help you cast more stuff and stop your opponents stopping stuff. Gideon's also not difficult to tick up in multiplayer, he just has to survive a turn.

 

You could do it in monowhite with Oblivion Ring or Banishing Light or the like. There's stuff like Barren Glory as well, which could be very handy for this when exiled with O-Ring. They banned Worldfire in EDH for exactly these sort of combos.

ah, I was missing that final connection of the annihilator/return to play under your control effects wen there are so few other permanents in play for them to sac.  the main problem is that in an EDH setting, your chances of gettign any of those cards is lower, especially since none is a legendary creature, and so cant be the commander.  I guess as long as the individual cards still work within the grand scheme of the deck, it's all good; and Gideon and It That Betrays are pretty good on their own (though i still hate all eldrazi, and probably wouldn't play one).  that said, I'll just stick with my Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind/Curiosity combo.

[Wyrmhero he/him]

I just looked up worldfire....that card is kayana...O.O and only just realised what a good combination chandra's ignition and spellheart chimera could be (providing you're not countered/it hasn't died or been exiled)

 

Worldfire's pretty hilarious, yeah. Works well with a Suspended Rift Bolt .

 

Chandra's Ignition and Spellheart Chimera isn't really an especially useful combo, unless your graveyard is absolutely full of spells, of course. At that point though, it will be very late-game. You're far better off doing it on a creature with Deathtouch or Lifelink, as the creature is the thing that deals the damage. The first case wipes your opponent's board, and the second just gains you a chunk of life.

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

EDIT: scratch my counterburn decklist. Just seen some BFZ spoilers. I think i might have to build an EDH elemental deck around Omnath, Locus of Rage. And Hedron Archive is now the sassiest card i've seen. Jace is on top form!

Edited August 28, 2015 by ParadoxSpren

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

Magicmadhouse or whoever packages their duel decks dun goofed. In the Eldrazi deck, instead of giving me Hellion Eruption I was given an extra Butcher of Malakir instead. Not too bad a trade off methinks :B

[Wyrmhero he/him]

You should probably contact WotC to let them know. They'll replace it for you, and sometimes they'll add a little something for your troubles. Might not be worth it if you're happier with the mistake, but the option's there

 

So, BfZ discussion time!

 

...Yeah, Wizards is printing money. There is a *small* chance for booster packs to contain a foil, full art Shockland, Fetchland or one of the new Slowlands. This chance is a bit bigger than the change to get a foil Mythic. So don't go out and buy box after box expecting to get one. They're also (except the Slowlands) not playable in Standard, but they are in Limited.

 

I am absolutely loving what they've done with the Eldrazi. They feel alien, they feel powerful, and they look absolutely incredible. The borders are beautiful, and probably even more beautiful in foil. I'm not sure what I want to build with them, but I definitely want to build some kind of Eldrazi deck.

 

And these Slowlands are pretty cool too. Not as good as you might hope for actual dual-typed lands, but their drawback is fairly alright. For slow decks, they're excellent. Fast decks won't want them because they're just a bit too slow, but they are at least fetchable. Not a bad cycle, in my opinion, and hopefully not good enough to become high-priced aside from for EDH.

Edited August 30, 2015 by Wyrmhero

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

Indeed, I want me some of the basic Lands with the full art scapes *_* Seeing as I missed the first Zendikar block, It kinda feels...magical to experience it now. The Eldrazi are crazy, and i see potential opportunity for the Spawn tokens but the creature card that exiles the top 20 cards I might have for my mill deck (along with Tormod's Crypt). Curious to see more of the Landfall cards and even more so the whole card list. (which makes me get ahead of myself and think of the second block of BFZ, especially if I'm blown away by this one).

 

The artwork is pretty incredible. Even the Oblivion Sower foil is pretty wowza. I seriously can't wait for this set. Gideon is quite interesting so i can see Ally decks being made, I wonder what other Planeswalkers we might see (apart from Nissa, which I hope she either gets a Green/White print or she doesn't get another print cause that'll be 3 sets in a short space) 

 

EDIT: from the MTG FB page

 

 

 

I wonder who the 3rd walker is; Kiora perhaps?

Edited August 30, 2015 by ParadoxSpren

[Shallan she/her]

I believe this is about the fifth or sixth time this thread has been necro'ed, but I just got the app and played MtG for the first time, and it is really cool. Does anyone have a suggestion about where I could/should get a real deck?

[Dunkum he/him]

Most comic book or gaming (d&d type, not video game) stores will sell cards.  you can usually find premade decks there.  I know I've bought cards at Target before, though not sure if they had decks or just booster packs (which you wold need a lot of to make a coherent deck), likewise for book stores.  comic shop is probably going to be your best bet.

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

Aye, most comic shops/geek and nerd merch shops will sell MTG, and some bookstores. (Waterstones over here in the UK usually does, depending on the shop). A good way to get a deck usually one of the intro decks for the beginning of each block.

 

EDIT: was pretty surprised at Ob Nixilis being the 3rd planeswalker. I did see some speculation about it being him but i guess they're saving Nissa for the next set

Edited September 12, 2015 by ParadoxSpren

[Dunkum he/him]

that emblem of his would be nice in one or two of my decks.  so far this set is putting me off as much as I expected it to.  Eldrazi are still ludicrously overpowered, but at least there isn't too much annihilator so far.  I hate that ability so much.

 

also, just now realized that oblivion sower's ability applies to all exiled cards the player owns, not just the most recent batch caused by his ability.  that means it works with ingest and any other exile abilities you might put together.

Edited September 12, 2015 by Dunkum

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

I believe this is about the fifth or sixth time this thread has been necro'ed, but I just got the app and played MtG for the first time, and it is really cool. Does anyone have a suggestion about where I could/should get a real deck?

 

Not only that, but the stores that do Friday Night Magic sometimes also do little events based around learning to play with those intro decks i mentioned (you also get to keep it). 

 

I know right? I've put it in my Mill deck for now, as when combined with the Tormod's Crypt reprint from M15, it is a pretty lethal move, I can't wait to wipe the looks off my friend's faces....and can we talk about how over-powered Talent of the Telepath is? A 7 card mill + i get to cast an instant/sorcery for free or cast 2 if i have 2 or more instants/sorceries in my graveyard for only a 2UU

Edited September 12, 2015 by ParadoxSpren

[Dunkum he/him]

hadn't seen that one, but it is pretty good.   though against a creature based deck it ends up just being an expensive mill.  on the other hand, in a blue deck that would play that card, you almost definitely already have 2 instants or sorcerys in the graveyard by the time you have 4 mana, so against anyone else, you are probably getting that spell mastery ability, which could end up being very powerful, if you get lucky.

 

I hadn't considered putting Tormod's crypt in a mill deck, since most of my friends don't do a whole lot of graveyard interaction anyway, but that combo would work extremely well with oblivion sower.

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

My Mill deck as it stands, is something like this:

 

22 lands

15 Islands

7 swamps

 

19 Instants/Sorceries

4 Tome Scour

4 Mind Sculpt

2 Talent of the Telepath

2 Traumatise

2 Psychic Intrusion

1 Dreadwaters

1 Thassa's Bounty

1 Mind Grind

 

10 Creatures

4 Mnemonic Wall

4 Wall of Frost

1 Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker

1 Oblivion Sower

 

9 Other

2 Sphinx's Tutelage

1 Jace's Sanctum

1 Skywise Teachings

1 Jace, Memory Adept

1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

2 Tormod's crypt

1 Grindclock

 

Considerations

Swapping the Mnemonic Walls for Archeomancers

Psychic Intrusion I might swap for more Talents, I'm not quite sure yet

Swapping dreadwaters for either another Thassa's Bounty or something else

Swapping back in some Divinations

 

It looked very different not too long ago. I used to have a bigger creature count (Phenax, Returned Phalanx and Returned Centaurs to name a few)

Edited September 12, 2015 by ParadoxSpren

[Dunkum he/him]

I have 2 mill decks, one is a blue white tribal merfolk that relies on drowner of secrets and a set of ink dissolver to mill, the other is blue/black and closer to yours, though I might have had a bit more draw and discard type spells (or maybe that was just a concept I had been playing with...its been little while).

 

I would say consider adding another mind grind.  its a bit of a risk, but it has the potential to mill quite a bit if their lands aren't near the top of the deck; using 2 or 3 mana for the x cost tends to work pretty well, I have found, plus you are guaranteed to mill a land, which is usually nice.  I'd have to look at my decks to see what else I had in them.  haven't played either in a little while.

Edited September 12, 2015 by Dunkum

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

I might do that actually. I'll probably swap Dreadwaters or a Psychic intrusion. I'm tempted to make another mill dead based around Defender creatures combined with Phenax, Doorkeeper off the top of my head

[Wyrmhero he/him]

Must admit to loving the colourless spoilers so far. I have no idea how often I can play where I am (if at all) without an hour and a half travel, but aside from that the pre-release should be fun. Thinking of just building a four-colour Eldrazi deck (I am sad there aren't any in blue), even though I don't like the idea of four colours .

 

To Shallan: There are a lot of changes that Magic: Duels does to make the game work, but the majority of the game is the same. As has been said, most nerdy game stores (aside from Games Workshop, a direct competitor to Wizards of the Coast in many ways) will carry cards to sell. A lot of them also have 30-card starter decks of a single colour to give out to new players. They aren't great or tournament-legal, but they're a decent way to start and they're free, so you might as well.

 

Aside from that, it just depends on what you want to play:

 

• There is a pre-release event for the newest set Battle for Zendikar in two weeks time, which is usually a fun way to play. That gives you cards (you pay around 7 boosters and get 6 with a promo card and a chance of prizes - usually another booster at the end for playing too) to play with, so the size of your collection doesn't matter.
• Most tournaments will be in the 'Standard' format. In three weeks time, that will be the Khans of Tarkir block (with three sets within it), Magic: Origins, and Battle for Zendikar. Origins contains the sort of generally useful cards, whereas the other two blocks are a bit more complicated and focused. Other cards not present in these blocks cannot be played in standard tournaments.
• Modern is higher power and expensive. I would not advise going for it at the start of playing Magic.
• The other event most commonly on is a draft event. You get given three boosters, pick a card from the first booster and pass it around. Then after the first booster's done, you do the same for the second and third. It's difficult, but one of the better ways to build your collection as you make semi-coherent decks out of it (ideally).

As for getting new cards, there are various avenues available to you:

• Pre-constructed theme decks tend to be poor-to-middling in quality, but they're not a terrible place to start if you just want lands and some cards to play with. The best ones to go for are the Event decks, which tend to be more pricey but have better cards in them.
• Dual decks consist of two decks, but they tend to have a lot of non-standard-legal cards in them. They are very good for casual play. The most recent two are Elspeth vs. Kiora (which is an older one now and contains more non-standard-legal cards) and Zendikar vs. Eldrazi (which has some cards from the newer set).
• Deckbuilder's Toolkits are very good for new players - They consist of a few boosters (some, I warn you, may become non-standard legal in the very near future), and some semi-randomised packs of cards with some synergy between them. They also contain a lot of lands, which is handy.
• In the very near future, there will be some more Commander decks released. They're for a special format of 100 cards with all cards singleton except basic lands, so it's not good for making a consistent 60-card deck with them, but they do tend to contain the best quality of cards within them.
• The best way though is always to purchase specific cards online, unless they happen to be within another source cheaper. If you want to do this, my suggestion would be to pick a format (or casual), and then to either look around and see what there is for it or come back to us and ask what sort of thing we'd advise.

Edited September 12, 2015 by Wyrmhero

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

Void Winnower if you get that out quite early...and then Hexproof it...Eldrazi man, broken as colours

 

I'm not particular keen on the Converge mechanic

[Wyrmhero he/him]

The problem there is that you're thinking of ways to break it by cheating it into play/making it uninterruptible. And if you're going to do that, you might as well just do it with something like Avacyn, or similar effects. Void Winnower's effect is nice, but it doesn't stop it being hit by Swords/Path or Murder etc. And you're then dedicating additional pieces to protect it. I don't think it's a good card to build around.

 

Converge will be dependant on the cards revealed - so far, they've actually been pretty strong. I'd rather have had more Domain cards than 'fixed' Sunburst, though.

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

True. I'm toying with ideas at the minute but until i see the fat pack companion booklet for the full card display, I'm not really settling on any themes yet. The wait is killing me >.< and i can;t even go to a pre-release

EDIT: One of the main things I like about the eldrazi is that quite a few of the effects happen on cast and not just enter/exit the battlefield, taking Oblivion Sower for example; the effect still happens even if it is countered....unless I'm understanding that completely wrong. And green white black Ally deck looks pretty storming appealing right now.

 

Another question: if you cast a spell from exile, does it stay exiled and can you cast it multiple times or would the card text have to say that for it to happen?

Edited September 13, 2015 by ParadoxSpren

[Wyrmhero he/him]

EDIT: One of the main things I like about the eldrazi is that quite a few of the effects happen on cast and not just enter/exit the battlefield, taking Oblivion Sower for example; the effect still happens even if it is countered....unless I'm understanding that completely wrong. And green white black Ally deck looks pretty storming appealing right now.

 

Another question: if you cast a spell from exile, does it stay exiled and can you cast it multiple times or would the card text have to say that for it to happen?

 

An effect which triggers on cast occurs before the spell actually resolves (such as these Eldrazi effects, or Cascade). As it is an ability, it is entirely unattached to the spell when it goes on the stack, same as if you killed a creature that used an ability while that ability was on the stack. The only way to stop that ability occurring would be to use something like Stifle to counter the ability itself.

 

Whenever you cast a spell from anywhere, it gets put onto the stack, and then upon resolution it goes to the battlefield (if it's a permanent) or it goes to the graveyard (instant/sorcery, unless something says otherwise). You can't just keep casting it. Because it leaves exile, it is no longer the same card, and so even if it reentered exile, it would lose the ability to cast it from exile unless it had it written on it - And I think that's only on Misthollow Griffon and Torrent Elemental.

Edited September 13, 2015 by Wyrmhero

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

An effect which triggers on cast occurs before the spell actually resolves (such as these Eldrazi effects, or Cascade). As it is an ability, it is entirely unattached to the spell when it goes on the stack, same as if you killed a creature that used an ability while that ability was on the stack. The only way to stop that ability occurring would be to use something like Stifle to counter the ability itself.

 

Whenever you cast a spell from anywhere, it gets put onto the stack, and then upon resolution it goes to the battlefield (if it's a permanent) or it goes to the graveyard (instant/sorcery, unless something says otherwise). You can't just keep casting it. Because it leaves exile, it is no longer the same card, and so even if it reentered exile, it would lose the ability to cast it from exile unless it had it written on it - And I think that's only on Misthollow Griffon and Torrent Elemental.

 

I thought so, mucho gracias ^^

 

It seems BFZ is aiming for decks with more than just 2-3 colours in mind. Lotsa potential but I just can't seem to settle of themes >.<

 

Something else if you could. The BFZ sorcery March from the Tomb returns any number of target ally creature cards with total CMC 8 or less from your graveyard to battlefield. I'm understanding it in two ways; any ally with CMC 8 or less gets returned to the battlefield or; the cards returned cannot exceed 8 CMC combined? i.e. 4 cards with 2CMC or 2 cards with 4 CMC etc. etc.? 

Edited September 13, 2015 by ParadoxSpren

[Wyrmhero he/him]

I think it basically has to cater to 3+ colours because of the sheer number of dual lands in the set. Plus, allies have always been a five-colour thing, and they seem to be what is being pushed here. Eldrazi are four colours too, so someone will try that (I really wish some where White...). I don't know if it's their intention so close to Tarkir, but we'll see I guess. All depends on how strong going 3+ colours is.

 

It's 8 CMC combined. So that'd be a 8, 4+4, 5+3, 4+3+1 etc. Protean Hulk is another card with a similar effect.

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

I'm seeing potential for a 3-4 coloured Ally/Awaken deck, possibly combining Vorel, Kiora and Noyan Dar, might require a bit too much ramp though, not to mention you'll be down mana if those man-lands are killed

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

Sorry for the double post....again. Finally opened by box of boosters as a last gift to myself before my travels and storms am I happy. I got Kiora and Gideon among the extra turn mythic and the Elemental landfall counter one but after opening something seemed odd; there weren't any Eldrazi with any white CMC's at all.

 

Anyone else liking BFZ at the moment?