Magic: The Gathering C/D

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

yeah there's all sorts of stories of people leaving their valuable cards locked in the trunk of their car in a parking garage at GPs and still having it broken into and stolen

if you own that many valuable cards, then 1) get your collection insured and 2) store it somewhere safe while you're not using it and don't let anyone know where it is

He may have had insurance. I feel bad for that claims adjuster. I mean this guy has been playing since Revised and he never really stopped nor sold anything outside of some brief periods. But I don't think it was carelessness on his part, his house was broken into. that's what's disturbing to me, this is in a town of like 35000 with a very close-knit Magic community, whoever did it knew where he lived and when he was coming to the store (he was broken into while he was playing Modern here), I just have no clue who it could've been.

i recently got my collection insured and was surprised by how much my cards were worth and i dont even own any vintage staples, given the cards you listed i bet his collection is worth way more than 15K

the big local stores have started taking peoples ID and keeping records of exactly what they buy and from who, primarily because the gov't has been cracking down on them for tax reasons but its also had the effect of making it harder to easily move stolen cards, which is nice.

15K is conservative, I didn't even factor in all the Modern stuff he almost certainly had. Hopefully the thief screws up somehow and gets caught - this dude played a lot of 5-Color and some EDH so a lot of his cards have been markered or are otherwise unique

JOU previews start on monday, apparently. i have ~expectations~ for this set after BNG failed to do much at all to standard or limited.

i think what both those formats need is essentially the same thing: some more build-around cards that pay off well. standard only has thassa, domri, and nykthos for that type of card right now, and limited could use some burning vengeance equivalents that give incentive to draft synergy decks that do something other than target creatures with pump spells.

Yeah spoilers start Monday, crazy because it seems like BNG just came out

I think WoTC have realized that 3rd sets are awkward in a few ways though I do trust that they'll come through on this one. I agree that the best decks in Limited tend to be whoever can abuse Heroic the most and BNG didn't really do much but shift some numbers around. It changed the format in rather subtle ways - green devotion got a little better, G/R became playable, and Minotaurs got nerfed, which I wasn't expecting (they weren't that good in 3x THS either)

minotaurs was easily my best archetype in 3x theros, i don't think i've tried it in BTT yet though since you can't get a warcaller or rageblood shaman pack 1 which is what i wanted before trying to force it.

yeah it is so desperate without either. the BNG cards, oracle of bones and ragemonger, are pretty crappy

the 2-drop minotaur is actually nice to have access to, but when you're drafting the deck you really need a lord early and ragemonger doesn't count, so now you're flying blind and hoping to get a specific uncommon in one of 2 theros packs.

ive had pretty good success with r/b two drops in BTT, not really focusing on minotaurs but just using the black two power two drops in theros and asphixates with lots of burn/removal, its been a pretty good plan against the white and green decks

I've done a few R/B decks but I find if you get a lot of removal you run the risk of having a lot of creatures that are below the curve. Looking through my draft logs I see I play a LOT of green. Don't really seek it out but it just goes that way and I have a lot of success with it.

I found minotaurs pretty bad in 3x theros even, even w/ 1 lord out the deck isn't very intimidating, you just kill the lord. and now they have a bunch of vanilla 2/3s unless they have *another* lord.

it's too bad they didn't make them better / standard playable, I think people wanted them to be good

Kragma Warcaller could be scary but Minotaurs as a whole just weren't pushed. Not a single one is a high-pick common. The problem now is that there's no reason to go Minotaurs in BNG - in Theros you could first pick a Lightning Strike, get passed +1/+1 trample lord, and there you go. You may stumble into a Minotaur deck but as iatee mentioned a bunch of 2/3s aren't going far in this format.

Maybe they'll add a really good Minotaur lord in Journey and save this already struggling archetype

3rd sets are often where things go a bit crazy so yeah I'm banking on it

i think we're more likely to get a good enabler for the GB graveyard deck or the UR spell-heavy deck since those color pairs are focused in this set unlike RB

you already have a +1/+1 haste and trample, which are the obvious effects i guess, and i feel like it would have to be better than either to make up for the bng pack and rehabilitate the archetype.

also hoping for some payoff for the UG ramp deck they started seeding in BNG with kiora and her follower

because of the temples? did those actually made a difference in the sets focus? seems like every two-color pairing got a card at common in THS, and a card at uncommon in BNG.

idk, i just expect them to be more likely to make cards that match up with the gods in the new set than to fill holes they missed in the last set

they didnt really do that for BNG though

i think this is the least information we've had about a new set before official previews start, at least in recent history - we know about the remaining gods & ajani via storyline stuff, but other than that, nothing.

ajani cat herder 1GW

+1: put a 1/1 cat soldier on the battlefield tapped
0: put a 1/1 cat soldier with vigilance on the battlefield
-5: 1/1 creatures you control gain trample until end of turn

JOU keyword mechanics are functional but not exciting. feels like Strive is destined to be one of those ones that no one remembers the existence of in a few years, like Reinforce or Offering or Sweep

also this is a really bizarre card especially for an uncommon
http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/tcg/products/jou/aasd7y23m34co/YPivekOpKu_EN.jpg

yeah these abilities don't really seem like abilities

or mechanics rather

they should really just reuse old ones more often as the design space is getting kinda crowded and something like strive adds nothing to a game that already has multikicker