Magic: The Gathering C/D

i think it's more fun to be able to play your cool cards than not. wizards seems to be pushing the complex, cluttered boardstate and i like it. the game gets so much more challenging when you have to consider both board and hand.

I'm definitely a fan of having your JTMS replace your JAOS when he comes down, rather than engage in some sort of mutual suicide pact; that just feels more sensible to me, and I guess this rule is necessary otherwise you could replace your opponent's Legends which would be super brutal.

I'm glad they waited until Geist went away though.

also iatee as the resident nivix cyclops expert is furious resistance a real card in a deck w/two of them?

I mean I use nivix as an aggro card so it wouldn't be ideal in the spell-heavy build because you want the option to play your hand and surprise swing with a 10/4.

if your deck is slower otoh it's just like adding a smite. but it already kinda was. so I guess the answer is 'depends on how the rest of your deck looks'

I will say that using Phantasmal Image as a 2-mana kill spell for Hexproof dudes like Geist and Thrun felt a little odd. If nothing else they at least got that weird bit out of the system. Also I imagine this needs we will get more legendary lands because the #1 downside (randomly turning cards into Strip Mines) is now gone. Also if I'm not mistaken this makes Mox Opal a little better. I'm primarily a Limited player though so I doubt this'll mean much to me - but I can only imagine how outraged some of the more serious players must be (first...you came for MY SLIVERS...and now...)

BTW total thumbs up on the sideboarding rule. I always wondered why you couldn't do that.

I like all these changes, especially the Planeswalker one. Always thought it was dumb that in a mirror whoever got their Jace down first got to use theirs, while the other player couldn't. Or that your Liliana on 1 prevents you from playing your Liliana in hand.

the latter feels like an intentional drawback on some planeswalkers but its not like planeswalkers have taken over formats recently other than JTMS so its not a big deal if they get a bit better.

Intentional? I'm sure they noticed how Lili and others play and decided they didn't mind that one prevented you from playing another, dunno if I'd go as far as intentional. I'm sure many will argue that strategy is lost yada yada, but this adds just as much strategy, maybe more even, while getting rid of the feel bads.

yeah this change is definitely variance-reducing which is something competitive players should like but still won't because they resist all change

also thespian's stage now combos with dark depths so grab some of those if people haven't figured it out yet

Either I'm dumb or you're making a joke, and I could go 50/50 on which it is.

dark depths starts with ten and activates at zero instead of starting at zero and activating at ten. wonder if they regret that one.

Oh geez, forgot it wouldn't have the counters. Yeah that's a very hard-to-stop combo, but at least it's already banned in Modern.

drafted the deck i've like the best tonight at a local shop, had the supreme skill and foresight to open and not pass aetherling, but even outside that there's a bunch of really cool interactions:

faerie imposter
basilica screecher
basilica screecher
grim roustabout
corpse blockade
undercity informer
notion thief
ogre jailbreaker
ogre jailbreaker
ubul sar gatekeepers
saruli gatekeepers
runewing
voidwielder
aetherling
dinrova horror
maze abomination

arrest
devour flesh
call of the nightwing
launch party
midnight recovery
psychic strike
urban evolution

azorius guildgate
dimir guildgate
dimir guidgate
simic guildgate
simic guildgate
watery grave

its not even that good a deck really i just got to do a bunch of fun stuff including casting notion thief in response to both izzet charm and blast of genius in different matches. i also got to mill someone by using undercity informer to sacrifice my board when we were both stalled out and i couldn't dry into aetherling. call of the nightwing also a fun interaction with maze abomination.

also worth noting that lamp lost to the nivix cyclops deck

I am the johnny appleseed of that card

DGR 3-0 deck #3:
http://i.imgur.com/akdeQGV.jpg

deputy is in the board because i was afraid i didn't have enough blue sources to play it but i ended up boarding it in for bane alley blackguard every time

oops meant to link that not embed it

thats a well and good but i dont see an aetherling

try harder next draft and you can be as good as me

have not opened one yet

i had pontiff of blight earlier though and that card is absurd too

Pretty solid DGR draft strategy from Ben Stark.

I find that more confusing than helpful

everyone who seems to have a strategy for drafting dgm seems to be doing pretty well despite these strategies often contradicting each other so I think there is a multiple equilibria thing going on here. if you have a good knowledge of the format and have a plan for your draft there are a lot of successful approachs.

i have yet to meet anyone with a better plan than mine: 'open aetherling'

you can thank with a cut off all the sweet gatecrash packs this simple advice is gonna win you

somebody out there has drafted the aetherling-pack rat draft already, I wonder if people beat him up outside the store afterwards

ps what happened at the end of that lol dyzl draft last night

i beat a pack rat deck last night with the one i posted up there

i think i have a winning record overall vs pack rat in limited, i've been very lucky

also a losing record with pack rat in my deck

wait no that part isn't true nevermind

yeah i beat a really bad pat rack deck this week in an 8-4 with a mediocre gruul beat down deck

i don't think i've lost yet with an aetherling in play though #skillgame

do you guys still disagree w/ me that aetherling is better than pack rat

i would be willing to believe aetherling is a better card in limited, the rat does get significantly worse the later you draw it in the game

well i have lost a few games with aetherling in my hand so it kinda balances out

i think the biggest advantage aetherling his in full block draft is that you get to open it pack one rather than pack three. like my opponent had a bad pack rat deck because he was probably some combination of bant colors before pack three and had a really hard time casting it on turn two, or developing a real board presence to try for the turn five play. also pack rat doesnt block that well at first

so lets say dgm packs were fucked up and instead of a shock there was an aetherling and a pack rat. how long does it take you to make a decision.

yeah i have already passed pack rat at least once and i would do it again - i think it is actually a poor splash because it's often mediocre late and if you draw it late you want multiple black sources to double up and catch it up with the rest of the board

i would take aetherling since it's worth a few bucks and i have the whole draft to pick up anti-pack-rat cards

whereas there are no anti-aetherling cards except pithing needle, a rare

i guess debtor's pulpit is too, and new prahv guildmage, but none of these take it off the table still

as someone who has consistently managed to draft aetherling the only thing it really loses to is 'dying before i have seven mana'

i think in a situation where card prices have no bearing, i would take the pack rat over it but i think they're about equally good

I think 6 lands + Aetherling will usually lose the game. 6 lands + Pack Rat will usually win the game. Going with the Rat but it's close.

Well Pack Rat is one of the three most broken Limited cards of all time while Aetherling requires seven mana to get going; for that you get Gruul Ragebeast which is almost always a win too

gruul ragebeast is not almost always a win. i have cast it followed by giant adephage and still lost to a removal-heavy deck

also you're allowed to play aetherling on turn 6 which is a pretty big difference from 7 in terms of the probability of getting there in any given game

err on 6 mana i mean, not turn 6

It has been an auto-win for me! and yeah I guess you can chance it with Aetherling (not a whole lot of cards take out a 4/5 anyway) but I still feel like once you get into the 6-7 mana range there are a lot of real bomby rare/mythic creatures that are tough to lose with. Aetherling may be near the top of the list but it doesn't inspire the type of helplessness that Pack Rat does. You can still power through it or win with flyers. It's a card that wins on turn 9-10 most of the time.

also is that article above suggesting you need to stick with 2 colors in DGR drafts? I did that once (with Azorious) and actually swept the draft even though my deck was pretty awful (my first round opponent played 4 colors and could have easily won the match with that dude that lets you sac something to give all your creatures +1/+1 but I think he just didn't see it). I think 3-color decks can be excellent but you need fixing badly.

aetherling inspires just as much helplessness. it cannot be killed, cannot be blocked, attacks for 8.

my best decks have all been 3 colors

just like any deep limited format, there's no 'right' way to construct decks, just make sure you have a plan and then execute on that plan

xp yes but you get at least 5 turns before it lands and more often something like 6-8. whereas the Pack Rat is already a huge problem on turn five.

my stronger decks have been closer to two colors, although they usually splash a third for one or two bombs

I'm onboard for a strategy that sticks reasonably close to two colors. You may end up with a slightly dull deck, but casting spells on curve is a huge asset in this format when so many decks aren't able to do that.