MTG thread

Mist_sl said:

Wait, like BFM?

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Yeah, there was a Double-Sided Test Print that leaked out, two different cards on the front, two halves of an Endbringer on the back, fitting together on fat-sides to make one huge Endbringer. The rumor is it was a test print in preparation for having two different cards that transform into one BFM-style conjoined card when both are in play.

There's also apparently supposed to be "a big vanilla mythic" sometime soon, according to Maro, so people assume that might also be part of it, since they'd have to do *something* special to make a Vanilla Creature mythic (What they'll actually do is just make another $0.25 card... or accidentally make a green creature even more efficient than Tarmogoyf).

The 2-halves card thing is something other CCGs have done, and tacking it onto a Transform trigger would be like Gimmick Inception. Will be hilarious if it's real, and it's two cards transforming and combining into an EVEN HUGER Emrakul.

Miracles put 4 into the top 8 at GP Columbus. Ban talk will increase.

Of course Miracles does well on Sunday.

Top is so fun to play with though :/

OUAriakas_sl said:

Joe Lossett from Twitch and the SCG tour is one of those 4. He is considered a Miracle specialist and plays a funky build with a bunch of legendary creatures. This is his second top 8 in a row.

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And he proceeded to lose to a 16 year old kid on borrowed Infect.

Giant Growth too strong.

Can confirm, was collected many a salty nerd tear with giant growth.

One of my fondest memories ever in MTG was back when the tron/wildfire deck was big around the kamigawa-ish era, responding to wildfire by giant growing my own hypnotic specter and watching the look of sheer horror on the kids face as he realized the position he was now in.

Phyrexian mana is what makes the infect deck run. I wish they'd never done that mechanic.

Free/alternate casting costs have been a problem many a time. I'm hoping they won't forget again that fire is hot for a while.

Prerelease for me was pretty cool. There was a guy with baller Mana Crypt openings that couldn't win a flip (or a game) to save his life, Sinkholes and Wastelands floating around, I got hit with some Hymms to Tourach, played Wildfire Emissary and Skulking Ghost like it was 1996 again, and opened a Jace that lead me to try and force blue because fuck it why not and I got wrecked in all my matches.

I wish this shit wasn't ten dollars a pack. There's so many cool cards in the game's history and we just don't get too many opportunities to mess around with them in a limited format. MTGO does stuff but it's not really the same as hanging out with a bunch of people in the real world.

Infect is the single worst mechanic to ever exist in magic. When we all first started playing again a couple years ago a buddy built one that he saw on tapped out and then complained when nobody would let him join in any games with it.

cabbitcabbit_sl said:

Infect is the single worst mechanic to ever exist in magic. When we all first started playing again a couple years ago a buddy built one that he saw on tapped out and then complained when nobody would let him join in any games with it.

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It's pretty bad but I'd hardly call it the worst mechanic. Affinity is retarded if you're just talking about powerful things. If you're just talking about stupid mechanics then Shadow and Rhystic need to be at or near the top of the list. Also fun fact, 2nd allotment for EMA is 2 boxes direct from wotc and like none from any secondary distributors. Ugh.

Shadow was fine at the time. I have fond memories of Tempest. It was just a slightly more specific version of flying.

The untap mechanic from Urza is FAR, FAR worse than infect. There's a reason Frantic Search is banned in Legacy. Infect finally made poison counters tournament viable, and i have no real gripe with it. It's all the pump effects, many of which are free, that make the deck competitive.

Affinity isn't all that bad anymore. In fact, very few "affinity" cards even see play in the modern Affinity deck. Modular and Metalcraft have aged more gracefully. What made Affinity an unholy terror was a combination of modular and damage being placed on the stack. Now that the rules make more sense, Arcbound Ravager isn't nearly as scary.

Infect wasn't a thing until NPH. Poison always worked differently; you only got 1 poison counter no matter the power of the creature that dealt it to you. Infect took that, tied it to creature power, and attached Wither to it for when the creature was blocked.

In modern, it's generally fine. You don't have a simple way of giving Trample like in Legacy. Neither deck is broken in the format it's meant for. They're tier 1 for sure, but they're not oppressive. Infect is a very strong mechanic, but it's phyrexian mana that was really busted in that block. Mental Misstep is the fucking DUMB. I honestly would not mind seeing it restricted in Vintage so that people had a reason to play Spell Pierce and Spell Snare again.

Heylel_sl said:

In modern, it's generally fine. You don't have a simple way of giving Trample like in Legacy. Neither deck is broken in the format it's meant for. They're tier 1 for sure, but they're not oppressive. Infect is a very strong mechanic, but it's phyrexian mana that was really busted in that block. Mental Misstep is the fucking DUMB. I honestly would not mind seeing it restricted in Vintage so that people had a reason to play Spell Pierce and Spell Snare again.

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There's also a million more Spellskites running around in Modern compared to Legacy. Those guys work wonders to keep Infect in check enough to warrant playing some copies of Twisted Image maindeck. (Also no Invigorate).

I played Elves for a while in Modern, and it's actually mildly hilarious how bad Infect is against a deck that just has 30 Power>0 creatures to block with, and the minimal amount of removal needed to deal with Nexus once they hit enough mana to make Nexus a threat. They desperately need to draw the unblockable blue infector.

Chickenpants_sl said:

There's also a million more Spellskites running around in Modern compared to Legacy. Those guys work wonders to keep Infect in check enough to warrant playing some copies of Twisted Image maindeck. (Also no Invigorate).

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Yeah. People are going light on spellskite lately due to splinter twin's banning, but that'll change if infect continues to put up numbers.

As for legacy, a local has started playing Forcefield in Tezzeret just to troll them.