Magic: The Gathering C/D

finally locked in my lion's eye diamond promo and just noticed that next month's promo is force of will - they're really being transparent now about wanting to keep people playing despite the MOCS being suspended

i'm kind of down on all the current competitive formats right now though so grinding out these promos is feeling more and more like a chore, but at the same time my interest in eternal formats is up so i want to get the cards.

I locked mine in as well, wound up taking 46 drafts to do but it was well worth it, now kinda feeling I gotta do it all over again for the FoW

Been doing some Mirage block drafts lately, which is certainly interesting and has a lot of money cards across all rarities. Despite some claims that Mirage block was the first to really be draftable, it's kind of a mess, with a huge imbalance in power level from card to card, and outside of River Boa there really is not a single "over-the-curve" creature - mostly a bunch of 2/2s for 3 with some upside. Still fun though considering I never drafted it back then (I don't think anyone really drafted then. I believe I was like 10.)

sealed was bigger than draft back then (ime)

yeah i feel like booster draft wasn't really a big thing until invasion block which was the first block that was really well balanced for it

i'm actually excited for scars block to get its first retro appearance next week, one of the most underrated limited formats imo.

I think I drafted mirage and I def drafted tempest a bunch but yeah it wasn't what you wanted it to be

100x superior limited play is what got me back in the game over the last few years

cider do you play block constructed? or was it lamp who was posting a few weeks ago about that? i stopped selling my cards on mtgo a little while before BTG came out with the vague notion of eventually putting together a block deck as my first foray into constructed. i just have no idea what i would play.

yeah i feel like booster draft wasn't really a big thing until invasion block which was the first block that was really well balanced for it

you're probably right. I think up until then a "draft" was just "buy 3 packs of anything". I remember most ppl would do Masques block or Urza's but I would always do 6th Edition, mostly because most 6e packs would only contain one truly good card ;) - suffice to say those kinds of drafts don't really work well with modern sets where the cards clearly were meant to work together. With Mirage and Urza's blocks there really isn't much synergy, you just cross your fingers and hope to get enough playable creatures.

i used to play a lot of block during scars and innistrad, but i haven't liked the past couple block formats as much, and they cut back on the number of block dailies, so i don't at the moment.

i haven't really touched theros block since BNG came out, but it looks like a reanimator deck just took over the format, which is kind of neat, i was getting tired of endless GR monsters.

yeah decent playable creatures at common was kinda the missing factor, esp across the color spectrum

xp

the major problem with Urza's block is that there are so many "protection from x" creatures which really lead to bad and frustrating gameplay; I forgot how dumb it was when a common 2/1 flyer would shut down your entire deck

yeah that's the other thing, devastating color hosers were everywhere in early magic, and those are terrible for limited cause the cards are either autowins or useless

Some of those Urza's block cards had Cycling too, so you were free to jam those with little repercussion. I've only drafted the set once, in a retro draft, but I'm not crazy about the format (or any of the early formats)

yeah Constructed was rife with that too. cards like Boil, Choke, Flashfires, and Perish were brutal. I remember building decks and thinking "if my opponent sides in Perish, I just lose"

imo chronologically the first good draft format was invasion block, and the 2nd good draft format wasn't until champions of kamigawa, after which their hit rate became much higher

i liked the mirage draft i did, much more than any of the old-border drafts i've done actually. i thought invasion was really terrible when they had the throwback drafts a few months ago (?) but i can see it working better in a non-mtgo context if that makes any sense.

generally i have not enjoyed any of the throwback drafts except innistrad

cider do you play block constructed? or was it lamp who was posting a few weeks ago about that? i stopped selling my cards on mtgo a little while before BTG came out with the vague notion of eventually putting together a block deck as my first foray into constructed. i just have no idea what i would play.

ive been playing mostly block on mtgo since born of the gods came out and opened the format up a bit. before that every block daily was 75%+ naya mythics which is still a good deck and has plenty of cards that will probably be staples in future standard as well, so its not a bad deck from an investment perspective. i've been playing a junk graveyard deck that i really enjoy and its quite a bit cheaper than the naya deck. i've also played a bit with the monoblock aggro deck but i think that list still needs works - peoples numbers are all over the place. however its probably the cheapest of the three decks to build and is reasonably fun to play. despite reducing the number of block dailies its also a good way of staying positive on mtgo since the pool of competitors is a little more shallow and the decks themselves arent as deep as modern or even standard ones. also contrary to cider i think ths/bng is the best block environment since isd/dka after they banned souls and virtue since in addition to the three decks i mentioned there are at least two other reasonable deck choices and everything except naya mythics is genuinely pretty fun to play

yeah i am willing to believe that ths/bng block is good, i just hated ths-only block so much that i didn't bother looking back in until today, when i noticed that graveyard deck is suddenly everywhere and it looks pretty fun so i might give it a try

do you have an exact list for that deck that you like? or should i just grab one from DE results

xxmixx list is the one i've been using, havent really seen much need to change it up yet

http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/225639

OK that looks pretty interesting. i am like 3 cards short of the main deck too.

i guess i will putz around in the casual room with it, see if i can play it ok

thx dudes

this deck probably works without elspeths if those are the cards you're short - there's a bunch of people playing it with rescue from the underworld instead, which i think is probably a more focused choice anyway if your plan is to get a large creature into play

i'd need a rider and 2 coursers. i would need the 4th elspeth in the side but yeah, i saw other lists had rescue and that is interesting as a substitution. this is my limited (wordplay) experience showing but my first thought was roll out nemesis of mortals, which you could reasonably call a 4 drop in this deck, but i guess it just doesn't do enough

i'm excited to play this now myself, this is the exact style of deck i enjoy playing most (combo-y green midrange) that's completely absent from standard right now

i tried to get a lotleth troll deck like this working in standard but its a bit too weak vs everything still - really needs a shriekmaw type card to beat the devotion decks, the M14 demon is good but too slow on its own and the deck wants too high a creature count to play much spell removal

yeah ari lax made top 16 of last weekends gp with a version of the 'dredge' deck thats been bouncing around mtgo/conley woods head for the last month but i am not at all interested in playing a deck with 0 maindeck answers to blood baron or pack rat on mtgo

i've been tracking my standard matches with nykthos red since BNG came out and i am currently 10-1 vs. the thoughtseize/packrat/desecration demon decks, so i have no real motivation to switch decks as long as that awful pile is the most popular in the format

I need to pimp out my 3 islands and 1 mountain in my storm deck

suggestions?

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/219/9/3/mtg_alter__mario_bros_vs_islands_by_sweetvietbunny-d5a8lpb.jpg

Jesus Christ there are a lot of people with half-naked anime girls on their Islands

hahaha oh man

a cheap-ish suggestion i like is foil 7th edition basics. its what i am using in my modern paper deck. my favorite pimp lands are the promo 'eurolands' and i use those for my commander/legacy decks. there are lots of really sweet basics though. obv foil unhinged (or is it unglued) are the flashiest unless yr willing to go all the way to test-prints. (test-print kamigawa islands are insanely nice but also like 3 grand so). the most common pimp basics are:

unhinged - foil or unfoil, theyre also really expensive but undeniably nice looking
beta - classic, i see them a lot but i dont really love any of the artwork
unglued - these used to be really cheap, i picked up 10 islands for $20 like a year ago, but i feel like theyre kinda overpriced now
mpr foils - they did foil beta, ice age, masques and urza lands iirc. the urza ones are the only ones id consider although they may not have done a mountain
other foils - like i said 7th edition are really nice. i'd also recommend invasion island #366 and mountain #345. theres also odyssey #337 and mountain #346. fwiw i switch btw odyssey foils and unglued fullarts for all my standard decks
other non-foils - i really like mirage basics, the john avon mountain in particular. ice age basics are pretty sweet too and maybe nostalgic for you? the only trick here is finding them in good condition but i guess you only need 4

less common suggestions:

arena promos - the 1996 and 2002 ones are really nice. i have a couple of sets of the 2002 rob alexander basics that i really like, they're unique and non-foil which can be hard to find
apac and eurolands - the euro basics are probably the nicest looking non-foils i've seen. i use them for my commander and legacy decks but they've spiked a fair bit in price since i started collecting them. the scandanavian island and the spanish mountain wld be my recommendation.
mps foils - these can be tricky to find but the innistrad block mps promos are amazing. they're my favorite new border lands.

My serious answer is Zendikar lands, which yes everyone uses, but I think are still the best-looking lands they've ever made. Beta lands are funny to me because they're super expensive but if I asked my non-mtg playing friends to pick the cheapest-looking land out of a lineup, they'd almost certainly go for the Beta land

zendikar basics are the fanciest i ever got with lands in my decks, and i don't even use those anymore since i traded most of them away. i like too many of the normal set land arts to bother spending $ on lands

snow-covered lands are the other cheap option, at least for modern & older, if you can remember to write them as such on your decklist and don't run into someone playing one of the few obscure unplayable cards that punish them

the snow-covered mountain is really nice looking, i agree although i would worry about running one over a basic. i do think in terms of like, distinctiveness/price ratio mirage basics are your best bet. but i have never really understood people who dont care about card aesthetics

i'm feeling the mirage basics right now actually, my official recommendation is http://magiccards.info/mr/en/300.html http://magiccards.info/mr/en/304.html

i would use mirage basics for everything except that i'm not too keen on the forests and i mostly play green decks. the other 4 types are all great.

yeah mirage seems like a good budget option

on modo i only use AVR lands, which has made my opponent angry a couple times for some reason

They've been pretty consistent on basic lands for years, surprised anyone would rage. The last lands I can distinctly remember not liking were Forests in Urza's Saga, though there's probably something I'm forgetting

what if you played super ugly lands to distract the opponent

what is the single ugliest island?

Surely one of the alter arts I waded through earlier today, but this might be my least favorite official one:

http://8e8460c4912582c4e519-11fcbfd88ed5b90cfb46edba899033c9.r65.cf1.rackcdn.com/sales/cardscans/MTG/7ED/en/nonfoil/Island332.jpg

http://magiccards.info/mm/en/335.html is the best i can do off the top of my head

i like the 7th edition island vinnie linked i have three or four foil copies and i think they look really tight. playing scars drafts reminds me of how much i dislike basics from that plane so personally id vote for those being ugliest. there are some pretty unpleasant looking 5th edition basics iirc and they're also white-bordered so those are probably the best troll lands. that are starter 1999 which are white bordered and have the stupid star set symbol

one thing i did forget is how nice the portal: second age basics are if you want slightly fancy non-foils

the otj drafts have been really fun, by far the best of the throwback format drafts i've done on mtgo

so a dude from the LGS here just had his cards jacked. he comes on Monday to play Modern and someone broke into his house and took his collection. he probably has the most valuable collection out of anyone I know - all the power 9, full set of duals, like 20x Force of Will, Mana Drains, fetchlands, and a zillion other money cards. like maybe a 15 grand collection or even more. craziest part is whoever did it is probably someone I know.

that's terrible