MTG thread

OneofOne_sl said:

Wasn't really sure where to put this or who might care, but he was my favorite Magic artist. According to his son and wife, Quinton Hoover passed away over the weekend at the young age of 49.

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Sucks. Was one of my favorite artists too.

RIP

OneofOne_sl said:

Wasn't really sure where to put this or who might care, but he was my favorite Magic artist. According to his son and wife, Quinton Hoover passed away over the weekend at the young age of 49.

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I heard the same thing. Sad day. I loved his art work.

So I signed up for the prerelease tomorrow and it will be the first time I've played paper Magic since the original Ravnica prerelease and the first time I've played any Magic since Rise of the Eldrazi on MtgO.

I'm not looking for any deckbuilding or strategy advice, but what kind of important rules changes have happened over the years where I don't just straight up embarrass myself and look like an old geezer because it worked that way "back when I was your age."

Since Zend block I can't think of any changes to rules. Just changes to tournament rules that shouldn't apply to prereleases.

Edit: I think deathtouch was changed right after Eldrazi. The big thing is trample and deathtouch together only have to deal 1 damage as an attacker the rest can trample over to the defending player/planeswalker.

DiddleySquat_sl said:

Sucks. Was one of my favorite artists too.

RIP

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I met a lot of the artists at different pro tours and conventions in the 90's but he was never at them. He was my favorite artist that I did not have any autograhed cards from, so I sent off a bunch of alphas and betas and a letter asking him to autograph them. I never got them back. Pissed me off at the time. Now that he died and I saw this article on him, sounds like he had a lot of bad stuff going on at the time.http://www.gatheringmagic.com/glenn-...uinton-hoover/

I'm an idiot, just went through some old cards and I see that I did meetin Quinton and he did autograph stuff. It was Anson Maddocks who never did. So fuck me for throwing a poor dead guy under the bus.

R1 Bye, R2 2-1, R3 2-0, R4&R5 Intentional draws to top 8 cut. R6 2-0, R7 Top four split. Played out R5 for fun and 2-0. The only game I dropped was me not playing in forever and thinking Dreadbore was an instant. Played the same guy after cut to top 8 in R6. I was really surprised by how well I did with my awful curve. I just couldn't cut any of my 5, 6, or 7 drops so I had to cut playables lower in the curve for the two clue stones. My pool was ridiculously hard to build from though. I had nine fucking clue stones out of four packs of Dragon's Maze. Not counting the two I main decked I had 2x Rakdos, 2x Izzet, 2x Azorius, and 1x Orzhov.

Second pic are the playables I ended up cutting or not running that color. My green and blue were great but there was no way I was going to go past splashing a 4th color. Anything you would have done differently? 6th rare was Notion Thief.

It's hard to lose with a pool like that. Your curve wasn't an issue because the format is so slow.


I just got back in to Magic myself about a month ago (after 16 years away). Had an injury at work so I have A LOT of free time on my hands. I've been going to FNMs, local drafts, and Star City events within reasonable distance. The first couple weeks were rough due to all of the rule changes and simply just being unfamiliar. I lost several matches for failing to remember that damage to creatures no longer goes on the stack. Anyway, it's been a lot of fun and I am actually seriously considering going to the GP in Miami in June, I'd like at least one bye but I'm not sure I have time to grind 400 PWP.

I ended up going 5-0-1 (ID last round to split prize) off of Rakdos/Gruul. Turn 4 Ruric Thar off a druid and cluestone is kinda beats. Even with the significant M10 changes, it's nice to know the same concepts still apply today as they did the last time I played (card advantage/removal are good). I'm also not quite sure the level of competition here in Colorado is as high as I had dealt with back in Ohio. It could have just been the casual nature of the prerelease though.

Oh I am sure the level of competition in Colorado is very high.

I went 2 and 2. I had a descent deck but just did not draw answers when I needed them. That is the nature of Magic though. I could be playing the best deck and still lose.

It depends on what store you're playing at honestly. When I both lived in Denver and played Magic (7ish years ago), I had a few different places that I would hit up each week. Valhalla's generally had good competition and I went there for Tuesday night draft. There were always ~30 people that entered. Dale'z Cards'n'Comics had a couple of good players but didn't attract nearly as many people for FNM and other events. I didn't play at Mile High very often but they generally didn't run as many small tournaments and mostly just did big prereleases and things. Lastly, Enchanted Grounds in Highlands Ranch is where the best comp was and generally is where you would find most of the pro's playing and hanging out.

Also when I lived in Colorado Springs there was a nice shop downtown called It's Your Move, it had a mix of everyone because it was basically the only place to play. A couple kids there that I used to play with went on to win some Grand Prixs and place high in a few pro tours.

I don't even know anymore. Shop I played at yesterday told me the wrong time for today and didn't have enough players show anyways. Decided to roll by another shop I'd never been to on the way home. Wasn't running any side events like I had hoped but the manager was a cool dude and held up his game to offer to let me join if I was fine with just playing the last 3/5 rounds. I waffled for a bit and then went ahead. Asked the guy at the counter for Orzhov and he brings me Boros but I've got like 6 minutes to crack and build before R3 so I just take it. Built the below deck in about six minutes and had to call someone over to watch me open my packs after I cracked my first pack with the UW champ foil, Progenitor Mimic, and Maze's End. Out of six packs I pulled four mythics and five rares. Godless Shrine, Renegade Krasis, Frontline Medic, Teysa, and a foil Lavinia. Maze's End, Voice of Resurgence, Rakdos, and the Mimic. Went 2-0 for the three rounds I played of course and ended up in 9th. Got one pack at the end which I opened and pulled a Deadbridge chant, another damn mythic. Cracked the 5 packs I didn't sell from last night when I got home and pulled an Aetherling and an Exava. I will never be this lucky again.

I didn't cast any of my rares/mythics more than once out of the 6 games. I won on the back of the two dillo cloaks, three! wolf riders, and what I now regard as a P1P1 in a draft Moa.

(I suck at pictures. Teysa and a Troistani's Caller were my seven drops that got cut out of picture.)

Thanks for the link, they have some good prices. Also I want to say this: Fuck Pack Rat. In the last two drafts I've played against people who got Pack Rat and managed to play it turn two. The consolation prize is I did at least get foil Boros Reckoner, foil Skylasher, and a Domri Rade at the drafts, but still Pack Rat is no fun to play against.

Been playing a bit of standard lately, this is what I am running now, can be a lot of fun.

4x Experiment One
4x Mayor of Avabruck
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
4x Flinthoof Boar
3x Wolfir Avenger
4x Huntmaster of the Fells
2x Hellrider
4x Ghor-Clan Rampager
2x Domri-Rade
2x Garruk Relentless
2x Bonfire of the Damned
4x Rancor

2x Hellion Crucible
1x Kessig Wolf Run
1x Cavern of Souls
4x Stomping Grounds
4x Rootbound Crag
5x Forest
4x Mountain

I've played Modern and some Phyrexia/Innistrad Standard online, played with real cards ~10 years ago just with IRL friends. I went to the Dragon's Maze prerelease and it was quite fun so I'm thinking of getting into playing Friday Night Magic or something regular. Any advice? I'll probally want some kind of Boros Deck as I usually play Affinity which is an aggro deck.

Naya Blitz is the agro deck of choice unless DGM changed that. Gp winning list from mid Feb.

4 Burning-Tree Emissary
1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Experiment One
4 Frontline Medic
4 Boros Elite
4 Searing Spear
4 Flinthoof Boar
4 Lightning Mauler
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Mayor of Avabruck
1 Rootbound Crag
3 Sunpetal Grove
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple Garden
3 Giant Growth
4 Sacred Foundry

Sideboard
3 Boros Charm
2 Gruul Charm
2 Nearheath Pilgrim
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Fiend Hunter
3 Pacifism

Mist_sl said:

That's not really true. That deck has no reach at all. It was good for a few weeks but everyone knows they have to build their deck to beat it. There's been RG decks that can actually do things after turn 4 (aka cast thundermaw hellkite.) Some have black too, some don't.

Naya Blitz is basically a combo deck where you just hope to draw Burning Tree Emissaries so that they die before they can deal with all of your threats.

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Nah, it's the real thing. I played it for most of March. You're right in that it's a very all-in, death or glory style deck, but it's legit. A ton of strategies just don't work against it, because it is so fast. Basically you're just trying to race a Supreme Verdict. The version above isn't really optimal (too many Spears, main deck Thalia over Giant Growth), but it's damn effective.

Made Top 8 at FNM last night with a Bant brew. It started as control, but ended up a midrange list by the time I was done. Several high impact creatures (Voice of Resurgence, Thragtusk, Angel of Serenity) + Progenitor Mimic. It was very resilient to sweepers and had a great control match up. I ended up losing in top 8 to another midrange deck running a lot of populate effects that was just able to take over the board faster. I wasn't running Supreme Verdict in the main deck because the list was so tight, and D Sphere was a poor substitute. I won't make that mistake next week.

Overall I'm really enjoying Dragon's Maze. I just started playing again when Gatecrash came out and some friends opened a hobby shop nearby, but it didn't take long for me to dive way into the Standard deep end. I enjoy the hell out of it, it's cheaper than a bar, and it keeps me out of the house while my girlfriend is busy with her thesis work. Working on a Commander deck, and I'll probably start looking at playing some Modern once Modern Master's comes out. The shop has a box on pre-order for me for MSRP (they're currently preordering for about 50% *over* MSRP at StarCity).

Gave all my old cards to a buddy of mine like 10 years ago after I stopped playing and he's agreed to ship them all back if I pay for the boxes and shipping. Tons of old unlimited and revised cards including a couple balances, demonic tutors, sunglasses, and a bunch dual lands. Baller

Chris_sl said:

I've played Modern and some Phyrexia/Innistrad Standard online, played with real cards ~10 years ago just with IRL friends. I went to the Dragon's Maze prerelease and it was quite fun so I'm thinking of getting into playing Friday Night Magic or something regular. Any advice? I'll probally want some kind of Boros Deck as I usually play Affinity which is an aggro deck.

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I only started drafting about six weeks ago, but these tips should help:

- It's suboptimal to decide what guild/colour you're going into first. Generally speaking what's going to decide what guild/colour you go into is the cards in your first few packs combined with which guilds/colours are being taken by other players before they pass packs to you. So while you may want to go Boros, if people on both sides of you are going Boros you are only going to get the bad cards. That said, if you like playing aggro there are plenty of options for doing that in Dragon's Maze (DGM).
- Look out for bomb cards, these are cards that will single handedly win games and try to pick them up. For example, if I'm going blue/red/green and in my Return to Ravnica booster I see a Pack Rat, I will now be going black because Pack Rat is pretty much an auto win if you get him out turn two.
- It is suboptimal to hate draft except in extreme circumstances (money cards, bombs like Pack Rat). Generally you should only take cards in the guilds/colours that you're drafting. This will keep players beside you from taking cards in this guilds/colours. If you hate draft you will then send confusing signals to other people and this in turn might cause them to start drafting into the colour/guild that you're actually drafting. Plus, hate drafting means taking cards you can't use and won't improve your deck.
- Draft is creature heavy. Generally speaking I try to run with 15-17 creatures, 5-7 other spells, and 16-18 lands.
- Creature removal is very powerful in this format.
- In DGM drafts, because you will often run three or four colours, it is usually a good idea to pick up mana fixers (guild gates in particular) early.

The following is some advice I followed when drafting Gatecrash, not sure how applicable it is to DGM yet:
- Most high mana creatures are simply too slow (DGM is a little bit slower draft format so more high cost creatures are worth it)
- Generally speaking you want to take the first turn instead of drawing first so that you have mana advantage.

I'm sure some more experienced players here can chime in too with anymore suggestions or corrections.