i don't really like this block format right now, it's kind of warped by sphinx's revelation and is also short a pyroclasm or infest effect to let other colors than UW sweep the burning-tree decks. if dragon's maze has one of those plus a duress effect i think it could shape up a bit.
― ciderpress, Friday, 22 March 2013 05:48 (eleven years ago) link
yeah i havent enjoyed block since AVR came out and made my sweet R/G undying deck bad
― ò_ó, ó_ò, õ_o (Lamp), Friday, 22 March 2013 06:04 (eleven years ago) link
yeah innistrad block constructed was actually sweet with just ISD which is unusual. DKA was fine too after they banned lingering souls, but AVR ruined the format because of Borderland Ranger of all cards (it let green decks play 4 colors and get access to all the powerful cards while every other color combo was stuck with bad mana)
― ciderpress, Friday, 22 March 2013 13:18 (eleven years ago) link
do you think they playtest block constructed at all, or is it a total afterthought?
― iatee, Friday, 22 March 2013 13:21 (eleven years ago) link
I'm sure they do a little. But I'd imagine their testing is like 90% Standard
― frogbs, Friday, 22 March 2013 13:23 (eleven years ago) link
I'm under the impression that a big portion of their testing is Limited rather than Constructed
― Moodles, Friday, 22 March 2013 13:24 (eleven years ago) link
that's definitely true. I mean, out of their constructed testing, it's probably overwhelmingly Standard, plus a little Modern and Block. they've certainly released cards that seemed like they weren't properly tested so maybe I'm overstating this
― frogbs, Friday, 22 March 2013 13:26 (eleven years ago) link
it seems like limited playtesting is a better use of their time, just in that you can get a pretty good sense of how a set plays in limited / what's broken after 20 drafts, but predicting the constructed meta when most of the cards aren't even being played at the moment...
― iatee, Friday, 22 March 2013 13:36 (eleven years ago) link
they playtest limited and standard a ton but don't test block much and don't test eternal formats at all
― ciderpress, Friday, 22 March 2013 13:49 (eleven years ago) link
you know Gatecreeper Vine may be a big card in RTR block
― frogbs, Friday, 22 March 2013 13:50 (eleven years ago) link
i'm thinking of a G/W/B deck with Deathrites/Abrupt Decay/Centaur Healers/Obzedat/Vraska
― frogbs, Friday, 22 March 2013 13:52 (eleven years ago) link
vine gets played in like bant control but in general the mana in the block is much better than in a typical block so that type of effect isn't as powerful in context. borderland ranger was an actual threat with wolf run, sacced to falkenrath aristocrat for a counter, etc. all while fixing your mana. gatecreeper vine just fixes and chumps once and that's not worth 1G unless you're a 3+ color control deck.
― ciderpress, Friday, 22 March 2013 13:54 (eleven years ago) link
here's what a G/W/B block deck looks like at the momenthttp://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=581570
― ciderpress, Friday, 22 March 2013 13:56 (eleven years ago) link
you don't really have much else to do on turn two tho, at its worst it's just deck thinning
― iatee, Friday, 22 March 2013 13:58 (eleven years ago) link
yeah Alms Beast is something i'd definitely play with. just a deck of big honkers.
true that Borderland has its advantages but Vine can nip Gates, and it does tap for the Grove :)
― frogbs, Friday, 22 March 2013 14:01 (eleven years ago) link
gyre sage, call of the conclave, lotleth troll, abrupt decay their guy are all better things to do on 2 than play vine. i don't think it's terrible, i just don't think the mana in the block is bad enough that you need it
― ciderpress, Friday, 22 March 2013 14:03 (eleven years ago) link
just want to fire off that Obzedat - but yeah Sage/Call are probably better. in fact I would imagine Call of the Conclave plays quite well?
― frogbs, Friday, 22 March 2013 14:09 (eleven years ago) link
it's okay, awkwardly not a creature for domri though so i don't play it in my naya decks
― ciderpress, Friday, 22 March 2013 14:12 (eleven years ago) link
well a card I really want to dick around with is Rootborn Defenses. though it's no good vs. Auger Spree. do people play that?
everything just feels like speculation now - ultimately every block deck I've seen just plays like a really good draft deck. DGM should mix things up.
― frogbs, Friday, 22 March 2013 14:37 (eleven years ago) link
i wouldn't go that far, really good draft decks still don't have 4 sphinx's revelation and 4 wraths
― ciderpress, Friday, 22 March 2013 14:53 (eleven years ago) link
it just depends how good a drafter you are
― iatee, Friday, 22 March 2013 14:59 (eleven years ago) link
yeah but in general the idea is just to play the most powerful stuff within your color pairing, and from what I can see the guild mechanics do come into play
― frogbs, Friday, 22 March 2013 15:13 (eleven years ago) link
from the new Duels game
http://25.media.tumblr.com/5b5da31eb312ae3788455e4e0b96eac9/tumblr_mk2hlzS4aT1rp0rzso1_1280.jpg
could be a spoiler for M14? seems like a good way to either get Griselbrand out early or play your whole hand on turn 3 and lose
― frogbs, Friday, 22 March 2013 15:47 (eleven years ago) link
there was a demon shown in one of those promo videos too - 3BB for 5/6 flying, when it ETB destroy target non-Demon creature, sac it on upkeep if you don't have 6+ creatures in your graveyard. obviously meant to go together. not clear if they are M14 spoilers though or whether they're actually making special cards for duels now
― ciderpress, Friday, 22 March 2013 16:17 (eleven years ago) link
there was also a reaper from the abyss-style demon spoiled in the duels video. although i'd be pretty interested in playing a demon tribal deck for a few months this summer
haha! i had 2 before. but i figured i had lots of options against burning-tree
i havent played a block daily since last year but mono-red was a huge part of that meta and i cant imagine its gone away so i figured it might be a good card against that match-up while still allowing you to be aggressive against the UWx decks. i really like that list though, i should be playing more standard but maybe ill try to put that list together, the only cards i need are reckoners i think
or maybe w/r/b is good? i feel like rakdos return has to be the best answer to sphinx's revelation decks, it can answer an obzedat a couple of ways although it may be too weak to aggro starts? idk
― ò_ó, ó_ò, õ_o (Lamp), Friday, 22 March 2013 16:36 (eleven years ago) link
i wish block was interesting, because its fun to think about playing cards like high priest of penance in a constructed format but rtr only block was actually really narrow
― ò_ó, ó_ò, õ_o (Lamp), Friday, 22 March 2013 16:38 (eleven years ago) link
Next block announced: Theros
Set two: Born of the Gods
Set three: Journey Into Nyx
― Moodles, Saturday, 23 March 2013 18:29 (eleven years ago) link
could use a break from draft. after 0-3'ing a Swiss for the first time in my life (playing 5c green no less), i've gone no better than 1-2 in the last 8 or so events I've done. in the meantime my rating has tumbled nearly 200 points. daaaaamn, what happened
― frogbs, Saturday, 23 March 2013 22:05 (eleven years ago) link
lamp and I were also having pretty shitty days on mtgo, something in the air
― iatee, Saturday, 23 March 2013 22:49 (eleven years ago) link
lost two matches due to misclicks + not realizing I needed to fix my settings w/ stops
― iatee, Saturday, 23 March 2013 22:50 (eleven years ago) link
yeah as of about 9 days ago i had my limited rating over 1900 for the first time and now i'm down at 1768 after going 1-2 in an M13 phantom sealed of all things. also cider my results with that geist list have been terrible. i lent it to a friend for a standard tournament and he went 5-0 with it, so i'm not sure i want to give up on it completely but i've yet to win a match on mtgo with it and went 1-3 at fnm. i'm also irritated because farseek has been one of the fnm promos i've most wanted to get a playset of and i'm stuck w/only one so far this month. i realize how lame this is but it doesn't stop me from being upset by it all the same.
― ò_ó, ó_ò, õ_o (Lamp), Saturday, 23 March 2013 23:57 (eleven years ago) link
i played a couple matches with your list and aggro matchups seemed unwinnable which is not where i want to be on MTGO where there's a higher % of aggro than irl events
― ciderpress, Sunday, 24 March 2013 06:31 (eleven years ago) link
Were you trying to flash in a 4/4 elemental on your opponent's declare attackers phase?
― Moodles, Sunday, 24 March 2013 06:44 (eleven years ago) link
its the phantom sealeds that are killing me. i havent won two matches in any of my last six. seems like if I play 3 colors that I'm destined to lose one game every match to just not drawing the color I need. I hate going R/G/W and having like one on-color gate but 4 Dimir ones. If I go two color it seems like I'm always playing cards I really don't want (like the 2RW double strike batallion 3/1 guy) and just losing to bomb-ass creatures every match.
― frogbs, Sunday, 24 March 2013 18:26 (eleven years ago) link
not that exactly this time but the same thing more or less. I figured out what was wrong but it's dumb that the default settings prevent flash blocks etc
― iatee, Sunday, 24 March 2013 18:30 (eleven years ago) link
also lost one where I was trying for like a minute to figure out how to work Simic Charm's +3/+3 with trample to get past a Guardian of the Gateless and wound up getting Smited, not even realizing I could have just bounced the damn thing. i need a break
― frogbs, Sunday, 24 March 2013 18:31 (eleven years ago) link
lol I recently double striked a 3/2 w/ boros charm leaving them at one life and losing on the next turn. gf was talking to me while I was playing so I blame her but...
― iatee, Sunday, 24 March 2013 18:34 (eleven years ago) link
Ran into a weird problem trying to cast biomass mutation today. I tapped for 6 mana, but it only applied 5 to the spell. I think it has something to do with the choice of which colors I chose for the hybrid portion and then the order in which I tapped, but I'm not really sure.
Do you know how that works? Does the order in which you tap lands impact hybrid spells, X spells, or both?
― Moodles, Sunday, 24 March 2013 19:10 (eleven years ago) link
MTGO has a weird way of trying to figure out what mana you're tapping for the spell and which you're not. I'm not sure of a better way to do it but you really have to watch your pool in these cases. To cast a hybrid spell, I think it works like this:
1) Select "how" you cast it (like...XGG, XGU, XUU...)2) Tap the necessary colored mana3) Tap mana for X
If you do, say, XGG, then tap an island BEFORE you tap the two green, the blue mana just goes to your pool, not to the X. So if the cost was XGG and you tapped Forest, Island, Forest, Island, then the rest, you'd have one regenade blue.
― frogbs, Sunday, 24 March 2013 19:17 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, that's basically what happened with me. Is the same applicable to all X spells?
― Moodles, Sunday, 24 March 2013 19:36 (eleven years ago) link
yeah at fnm i played nothing but aggro decks and did terribly. i also played like garbage but that was partly just getting bored/frustrated with my deck in the last two rounds and not focusing on the matches at all.
i tried playing with it again and it's just not good enough rn. not sure what deck i should pick up next so if you have any suggestions i'm still looking for a deck i really like. might try rug flash next if nothing else fun pops up
― ò_ó, ó_ò, õ_o (Lamp), Sunday, 24 March 2013 22:55 (eleven years ago) link
i'm currently 5-1 in the ptq with naya humans but i dunno if that's your type of thing
― ciderpress, Sunday, 24 March 2013 23:18 (eleven years ago) link
list is almost identical to the one i was playing a month agohttp://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=575291
maindeck: -1 wolfbitten captive -1 fiend hunter +1 garruk relentless +1 geistflamesideboard: -1 oblivion ring -2 zealous conscripts +2 rest in peace +1 garruk relentless
― ciderpress, Sunday, 24 March 2013 23:21 (eleven years ago) link
yeah i saw you were in that. gl btw
i dont mind naya humans but i only have two sacred foundries irl and i may need garruks on mtgo
― ò_ó, ó_ò, õ_o (Lamp), Sunday, 24 March 2013 23:27 (eleven years ago) link
garruk has been unimpressive every time i try it but xMiMx, the mtgo grinder guy i get my aggro lists from, insists it's good and he wins a ton with the deck so i dunno. i think you can play it without garruk for sure, i did for a long time.
― ciderpress, Monday, 25 March 2013 00:11 (eleven years ago) link
yeah, i'll give it a try. as much as i want to try rug flash my feeling is that its probably not that great. how'd you do in the ptq?
― ò_ó, ó_ò, õ_o (Lamp), Monday, 25 March 2013 16:26 (eleven years ago) link
i crashed and burned after that post, finished 6-4. still think the deck is fine though.
― ciderpress, Monday, 25 March 2013 16:48 (eleven years ago) link
welp I just drafted a deck with 5 kingpin's pet, wish me luck
― frogbs, Monday, 25 March 2013 23:53 (eleven years ago) link
how is that possible? It's usually a pretty high pick
― Moodles, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 00:24 (eleven years ago) link
I uploaded it here:http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=47d36
Getting one p1p1 is kind of dodgy, but I'm not big on the Hellkite (only seems good in Gruul and I never go Gruul)Looking back I do have some tough choices - Screecher > Killing Glare is one I kinda wish I hadn't done in retrospect, but I had no idea how the rest would shake out
― frogbs, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 00:31 (eleven years ago) link