Magic: The Gathering C/D

its a fun draft format - not too different from the DGR drafts of today - but $25 is quite steep when you know you'll likely walk away with less than two bucks worth of cards. those rares have not really held up outside of Vindicate/Deed/Orim's Chant.

I just won a game on mtgo where the other dude cast armed and dangerous for the win while I had a teysa out - the double strike killed the unblocked creature via teysa before the 2nd strike came. opponent only saw it after he played it, I didn't even realize it until it happened.

he was like "oh no...teysa" and I thought he was mocking me

both those cards are so sick in limited

I kinda hate 'win out of nowhere' cards

looks like travis woo is spreading the gospel of nivix cyclops

fluxcharger is the one I seem to get every draft and it's worked wonders for me

speaking of cards that just win out of nowhere, played against a Blood Baron the other day and it dawned on me just how much I hate protection, especially when it's from two colors in a multicolor-oriented format

haha woodlot crawler has been the bane of many of my green decks

little guy is such a pain to deal w/sometimes

yeah if I see that 4-5 pick I force dimir

I wonder if they purposely hold back on the protection from cause its one of those things that actually frustrates people

gotta get that trait doctoring for max woodlot crawler value :D

I had a draft where I strongly considered picking him p1p1 but went with something else instead (I think Zhur-Taa Druid which I took b/c I wanted to play Gruul). then one was in the second pack as well. Both of them wheel (!!) and I wind up defensively picking them. I don't think people realize how powerful protection is and just how much of a fork it can stick in the spokes of even a well-tuned deck. Especially since the creatures it tends to show up on aren't really underpowered otherwise (see the Exalted M12 Knights).

In a way I'm kinda surprised they are printing protection at all, it's got that combination of frustrating to lose against, no fun to win with, and tough for beginners to understand. I mean how many people thought Black Knight survived Wrath of God? (and as I recall, in Alpha it actually did?)

ha I actually saw like a 13 y/o kid play trait doctoring/woodlot crawler

In a way I'm kinda surprised they are printing protection at all, it's got that combination of frustrating to lose against, no fun to win with, and tough for beginners to understand. I mean how many people thought Black Knight survived Wrath of God? (and as I recall, in Alpha it actually did?)

I was watching gp providence and somebody tried to holy mantle his own blood baron - this was like in the finals or semifinals? I was surprised they let him take it back.

don't they have to? Blood Baron isn't a legal target. If you cast Grisly Spectacle on an artifact creature (which I think happened in a PT?), the spell doesn't just fizzle.

ha I actually saw like a 13 y/o kid play trait doctoring/woodlot crawler

i have played this (admittedly out of the sideboard) against a dude with only white removal - i had a swampwalker guy as well for all the value

if he's tapping lands and bringing it out to the battlefield then shouldn't he have to put it on something? possibly an opponent's creature

ha that's great lamp

choosing the target is part of casting the spell, rather than something you do after the spell is cast, so technically he hasn't actually cast the spell yet.

Just 3-0ed DGR draft at the new 11,000 sq ft game and comics superstore that opened near me. I've been drafting a lot of orzhov decks lately and they've mostly been underpowered, but it finally came together tonight. Sadly, their prize support is pretty weak with 2 packs for 1st plus a participation pack, so I'm probably headed back to my regular LGS.

Here's the deck:
Concordia Pegasus
Boros mastiff
Daring skyjek
2 basilica screecher
Vizkopa guildmage
Tithe drinker
Basilica guards
Profit // loss
Avenging arrow
2 kingpin's pet
2 Viashino firstblade
Sin collector
Auger spree
Syndicate enforcer
Launch party
One thousand lashes
Carnage gladiator
Debtor's pulpit
Golgari longlegs
Maze sentinel
Boros Guildgate
7 swamps
6 plains
3 mountains

I sided in wear//tear, cinder elemental, and electrickery at various times.

ah that makes sense

xp

how much is the entry fee?

I think the problem with orzhov-based decks is that they are unlikely to end up w/ 7 extort dudes like your deck had and need another win condition, which wasn't the case in gtc. like your deck is bomb-less but still works, but take out 3 extort dudes and it's kinda terrible.

I'm seeing 10th pick Tithe Drinkers a lot as everyone tries to draft RUG (including me). Esper's worked pretty well and doesn't rely too heavily on Extorters (as RTR should net you 3-4 cheap flyers plus a Stab Wound or something)

xxxpost

The entry fee is $12 vs. $15 at my regular LGS, so in a sense they are more generous, but they also pull in way more people. My main gripe is that they should ditch giving everyone a pack for participation and make the prizes more competitive, but it's mostly bellyaching.

Yes, most of my Orzhov decks have been fairly underpowered. I'm not particularly trying to draft Orzhov, it just seems to have been pretty open in recent drafts, probably because people have realized that it isn't the greatest archetype. I've also had several drafts in a row where the rares I've opened have been pretty weak or haven't lined up with the rest of the cards that come to me.

So finally having a critical mass of extort dudes was nice, keeping the curve low helped a lot, and then having lots of multicolored dudes plus Maze Sentinel was a great way to close down games. Golgari Longlegs with vigilance sounds good to me. I also had lots of fun attacking with Maze Sentinel into my opponent's Murmuring Phantasm and then activating Vizcopa Guildmage's abilities.

yeah the everybody gets a trophy prize structure is lame but the actual payout is okay for $12

true, they're definitely not being greedy, just a little too "fair"

http://8e8460c4912582c4e519-11fcbfd88ed5b90cfb46edba899033c9.r65.cf1.rackcdn.com/sales/cardscans/MAGEXO/survival_of_the_fittest.jpg

ha, this silly trading card game is turning me into Ayn Rand.

Here's a rules question that came up last night that I still don't know the correct answer for:

Who is responsible for noting damage taken during upkeep from cards like One Thousand Lashes or Stab Wound? What happens if it is missed?

person who plays it has to remind opponent, if the trigger gets missed it doesn't have to happen, douchebag thing to do at a fnm tho

yeah there was a big controversy about this with Jackie Lee where one player was not announcing it but just writing it down on his notepad and then she argued that the triggers actually got skipped

I get that in a competitive enviroment you want to have every advantage possible but reports of people single blocking a Pyreheart Wolf because they didn't explicitly announce the trigger (even though they clearly intended to) is enough to make me want to quit competitive Magic.

yeah, I missed it one time and the dude pointed out that he shouldn't have to take damage, seemed a bit douchy to me, but I'm ok with it if that's the correct rule.

How does that work with timing? Can an opponent try to zip through their upkeep in an effort to miss the trigger?

I always wondered about this in regards to Pyreheart Wolf. Say my opponent attacks and don't announce the trigger. How much time can pass before I can single block?

if they immediately untap draw you can roll it back, but if 4 minutes later during their main phase you remember it's too late, I think, technically. but really in a casual environment I think remembering anytime during their turn should probably be accepted.

xp

they changed the missed trigger rule for competitive RELs back so that you don't have to announce the trigger anymore. it's still good etiquette to do so but mandatory triggers happen whether or not you announce them e.g. stab wound, obzedat, jace aot +1 (this was the most frustrating to announce). at casual events like store drafts, fnm &c that was never the rule, since those are meant for players who are still learning and/or more casual - although again announcing your triggers is often good etiquette/helps keep gamestates clear i think. so anyone claiming that your stab wound trigger or pyreheart wolf effects don't happen is wrong and you should call a judge

They've changed the rules about triggers like Pyreheart Wolf or Exalted. They don't need to be announced until they "matter". If I attack with my 3/3 exalted, you block with your 3/4, I can say my guy is 4/4 when it comes time for damage. But if I put my guy in the bin, then it's assumed the exalted trigger was missed. If you ask me how big my guy is before blocking, I have to say 3/3 or 4/4 and it's locked in from that point on.

So with Pyreheart Wolf, you don't need to announce the trigger at all. Once your opponent tries to block, you can say that they need to block with multiple creatures. This is how I understand it, they've fiddled with these rules a ton over the last couple years so I'm not 100% sure.

uh yeah what Lamp said

okay, good to hear that. I think those trigger rules were well-intentioned but they really wound up screwing more than they helped (IMO, of course)

i think there are always situations where stuff like announcing triggers can be manipulated to help you. i remember at pt gatecrash sam black tricked someone into chump blocking by choosing not to announce an exalted trigger. this was not long after the rules had changed again so it's easy to understand why his opponent missed the trigger, since he was used to his opponent needing to remind him but i think that's pretty fair - you're responsible for maintaining/understanding gamestates and that seemed like a fair thing to do, at least at the pt level.

huh, interesting. I was aware that the rule changed several times, but never had a good handle on what it has been at any given time.

wait what happens if say, two turns later you're like 'oh crap, one thousand lashes was supposed to hit you twice, I should win now'

One Thousand Lashes is a little different because it "matters" immediately, the life total update has an immediate effect. So I think once you move to draw, assuming you've given them some time to announce the trigger, it's missed.

iirc one thousand lashes isn't a may so it happens regardless - if your opponent is arguing that you've 'missed the trigger' because you forgot to remind him i'd call a judge. esp because afaik at casual RELs the rules always said that gamestates can be corrected to reflect missed triggers. since the fix to get the gamestate here is reasonably simply you'd just subtract two life from your opponent and move on. at higher RELs i think you would both get warnings

So basically that dude last night was just being a dick and a sore loser. He completely ripped me apart last week with a deck that had Frontline Medic, Collective Blessing, Trostani's Summoner, Pontiff of Blight, various other rares and bloodrush dudes, so it was pretty amusing to see him get all huffy over a missed point of damage. Also was amusing to have him drop Trostani's Summoner on me again this week only to immediately lose his rhino to Auger Spree.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/233

i believe this is the most recent missed trigger rules update:

At Regular REL, there are really only two "rules." You aren't allowed to miss your own triggered abilities, and your opponent isn't required to remind you about them. The second one is a change that was put in at higher RELs a few months ago. Please note that this part applies only to triggered abilities. You can't ignore rules violations. Now, your responsibilities as the opponent are the same across different types of tournaments. If a triggered ability is forgotten (or any other game error is made) and the error is discovered later, players should alert the judge. The judge will try and fix the error if possible and, if not, the game will just continue. Regular REL is all about fun and providing a casual environment where players of all skill levels and experience levels can have a good time, so missing a triggered ability isn't punished too harshly.

fwiw at higher RELs you do have to announce one thousand lashes life loss on upkeep the first time it happens or its considered missed

i thought that's why we've seen a big increase in "you may" effects over the last 5 years, but stuff like Stab Wound really doesn't read well that way

my gripe with magic players w/r/t this is usually during prereleases, where it's 2:30 AM and everyone's tired and a little drunk, playing with cards they've never seen before. you gotta give some leeway there

also arguing about this sort of thing is infuriating as most Magic players give you a dozen variants of "how hard is it to remember your damn triggers"

According to that same article (which I was just refreshing myself on too), it looks like you can't get an infraction (is that the same thing as a warning?) if you don't point out your opponent's One Thousand Lashes at any level. Man this game is complicated

The last dozen or so posts pretty much prove that the rule is confusing at best