Messages

16

Commander Discussion / Re: What are your experiences with playing EDH on the internet with random people?

« on: February 07, 2024, 01:05:58 am »

I once was in a game on Spelltable and someone just stopped playing after getting salty.  He didn't quit or scoop or disconnect, he just stopped playing.  It was his turn for several minutes as we sat around and discussed whether he went to the bathroom or something and we should wait, of just continue.  As soon as we moved on, he started packing up his cards.  It was weird.

Overall, however, overwhelmingly positive, though I still prefer in person.

17

Commander Discussion / Re: Why are Proxies so relatively rare?

« on: February 07, 2024, 01:02:08 am »

Here are a few reasons that apply to at least some people on why they don't really go all in on the proxying thing:

1. It's more work to make a decent proxy than to buy a card.
2. Some proxying is illegal (for instance making a proxy that utilizes any art that does not belong to you) and most people don't fully understand the nuances of copyright law and would rather avoid the issue.
3. It's genuinely fun to build from your own card collection and limit yourself to what you personally own.
4. Proxying is generally frowned upon by society.
5. Using a deck full of proxies at an LGS may be considered disrespectful to those trying to run the store and sell cards.
6. Some players are not okay with playing against those using proxies, and no one wants to miss an opportunity to play just over that.
7. People tend to get more salty over loosing to an OP card that was proxied than to one that was legitimate.
8. Proxies aren't eligible in many formal and official events.
9. There is enough controversy over proxies that some people would rather just stay out of the issue.
10. Proxying can be seen as morally wrong.
11. The official cards look nicer to some.
12. Using some proxies that have a difference in thickness, card size, weight, gloss, etc. could be construed as cheating.
13. People have a fear that proxies will undermine the financial success of the game and cause their local card store to close, WotC to cut back on product, or MTG to end altogether.
14. People fear that encouraging proxies will undermine the investment value they've already put into their collection.
15. People like having an official copy of the cards they like to play with.
16. People don't want to have to update and adjust their decks every 5 minutes, so they only use cards that they already have, rather than feeling pressure to adjust every time a new card exists.
17. Avoiding proxies creates greater diversity in experiences.
18. Proxying particularly expensive/powerful cards can feel unfair when playing against someone that isn't really into proxying.
19. Proxying can require artistic skill to make it even functional.
20. A lot of official cards are much cheaper than it would cost to proxy them.

18

Commander Discussion / Re: I think March of the Canonized getting used wrong....right?

« on: February 07, 2024, 12:40:04 am »

People aren't using it wrong, but, you're right, there are other ways to use it.  It depends a lot on your meta.  Do you run into a lot of board wipes and enchantment removal?  If so, you're not going to want to expect it to make tokens every turn.  But, if you're playing in a less interactive meta, then, absolutely slam that thing for X=0 and just let it start pumping out tokens.  It also depends on the deck, but, in general, it's seems like a fun card.  I'm kinda shocked that it isn't more popular, since it does have some great potential in a lot of shells.  I'm gonna grab a few.  Thanks for pointing it out.

19

Commander Discussion / Proliferate and Stun Counters

« on: September 20, 2023, 10:16:16 pm »

Am I missing something, or should Atraxa, Praetors' Voice decks (and any other decks that are proliferating regularly) be jumping on all the new stun counter cards.  Doesn't Succumb to the Cold essentially read, "tap two creatures and they don't ever untap again"?  Maybe it's good but not as good as other proliferate things you could be doing, but I really think it's being overlooked.

20

General Magic / Re: MDFC side preference

« on: September 13, 2023, 11:56:08 pm »

It really depends on the card.  For instance, I almost always play Echoing Equation and never Augmenter Pugilist; I play Valentin, Dean of the Vein when I need more life gain triggers and Lisette, Dean of the Root when I need more life gain pay offs; and I almost always end up casting both sides of Jadzi, Oracle of Arcavios // Journey to the Oracle, since I draw soooo many cards in my Kalamax, the Stormsire Deck.

21

General Magic / Re: What do we think of Sieges?

« on: September 13, 2023, 11:43:04 pm »

I agree that the initial batch was underwhelming and not nearly strong enough to influence eternal competitive formats.  That being said, I still say the design space was 100% filling a real need.  Yes, it hasn't shown it's ability to do it, but the potential is definitely there, and it can still fill a need, despite not being successful in really meeting that need on the first go around.  I believe that Battles are a good thing overall for the game and that it would have been much more problematic if they had been even somewhat impactful on their first outing.  I remember the mass exodus of players when the planeswalker card type not only got their start, but also immediately impacted formats that really weren't ready for a new card type.  I remember playing games and saying something along the lines of, "Yeah, I don't play planeswalkers.  They aren't part of my game," for like a year or two after meeting my first planeswalker card.  I believe it was 2013 when I first ran a planewalker in a deck, six years after Lorwyn block.

Having Battles come in and be quirky fun cards for limited and casual magic for the first set or two seems way better.  When we do get Battles that affect standard and pioneer and modern and whatever else, we'll be familiar with them, gotten over our initial aversion, have a little better handle on how to deal with them, and be ready to incorporate them with far less grumbling.  So, I guess, if I were to say what need Battles fill, it would be the need to address the acceleration of the game by adding a step to the game that can slow it down and provide a little more flexibility, variety, and variance to the game, but if I was asked to describe the role that the ONE Siege Battles filled, it would be to introduce a new card type in a way that was fun, but not impactful, which I think they did a great job of doing.

It's hard to change.  It's harder when it feels like it's being forced upon you.

22

General Magic / Re: Salt stories

« on: September 12, 2023, 01:50:37 am »

I'm probably guilty of this to some extent.  I really hated the Arena only cards.  I play paper, but my brother only plays on Arena, so I try to keep up a collection there and earn what I can when I can.  When the Alchemy cards first came out, I wouldn't rage quit, but I would rope anyone that played a single card that wasn't in paper.  I feel bad about it now, as there was no way for my opponents to know that they were playing against someone who cared, but I thought it would be a worthwhile form of protest at the time.  My guess is no one ever even connected my protest with the cause I was protesting, so I guess Arena doesn't really facilitate the rage quit very well.

23

General Magic / Re: What do we think of Sieges?

« on: September 12, 2023, 01:42:37 am »

I realize this sounds harsh, but I really don't see how they add any benefit to the game that needed to be filled.

There is at least one very specific benefit they fill; one that is very important and Battles not only fill the need, but do so in a brilliant and nearly perfect way.  Battles address power creep and have the potential to be able to adjust the game's pacing and flow.   Essentially, flipping a Battle functions similarly to giving your opponent 3-7 extra life depending on the Battle.  This means, that, as WotC prints Battles into the game, they're also printing a slight slow down of the game as well.
Battles are exactly what they claim to be, a "battle" that can, but doesn't necessarily, turn the tide in the overall war.  Ideally, a good Battle would be good but not great to play without flipping, challenging to defeat, and then massively rewarding once defeated. There's also the potential for Battles that you defend which give a bonus until defeated, or that must be attacked until defeated and give you a bonus after they're defeated.  There are so many cool design spaces for Battles, but even with just sieges, they are really fun in limited, make for much more interesting games in casual formats, and represent the possibility of something that could actually even help more established and competitive formats to have more game diversity.  I think they didn't want to go too hard on the initial run of Battles, but they'll likely return to them soon, with something a little different and maybe a few more pushed ideas until they start becoming relevant in Modern or even Legacy, but they wanted to avoid altering the game too much on their first time out, which is good, since that shows they're learning from pushing the Lorwyn planeswalkers a little too hard (though no one really plays them any more either).
As for your complaint about having to know 4 different mechanics (Undercity, Ringbearers, Battle Mechanics, and Contraptions), you seem to have forgotten about Riot and Provoke and Affinity and Retrace and Suspend and Bushido and Dredge and Delve and Scry and Flying and Goad and Channel and Haste and Ward and Trample and Prowess and Adapt and Exert and Manifest and Unearth and Madness and dozens more.  There are hundreds of mechanics that you need to know to play the game, but most, if you don't know, someone will fill you in.  Sure, I get Fading and Vanishing mixed up all the time and it's confusing, but if it doesn't explain it on the card, I can always look it up.  Knowing how a siege works is not any more of a problem than me playing a dragon with Amplify in my Ur Dragon deck.  Most of the time, I just explain it and we move on, just like any card that my table's not familiar with.  Don't equate having to explain how a card works with too much complexity.  That would count out like 90% of the cards in the game for many players.

24

General Magic / Re: What are your collections "crown jewels" and "white whales"?

« on: September 11, 2023, 10:21:03 pm »

My crown jewel is probably my Gaea's Cradle.  I bought it (and a bunch of other cards) off a friend that was quitting the game 20 years ago for a massive (at the time, since I was just a kid and hadn't even had my first real job yet) price of $20.  Best return on investment in my life.

My white whale is Sliver Legion.  I have the other five WUBRG Sliver Legends (2 overlords), but I want all 6, and I just have never seen a great deal on the legion, and I really don't want to spend $40-50 bucks on any MTG Card.

25

General Magic / Re: Flying vs Ttrample

« on: September 11, 2023, 10:11:30 pm »

I prefer flying.  I like to have a wide board and I typically never go big enough on a creature to make trample very meaningful.  In a lot of cases, when I do have trample matter, it's because I was in a dominant position and was able to swing all out a little earlier thanks to trample damage, but if I'd waited a turn or two more, I could have won regardless.  Flying, however, seems more useful as it can chip in damage while working towards that dominant position or block a little extra damage from an opponent with fliers should you ever be on the weaker side of the table.

26

General Magic / Re: Cards you refuse to use

« on: September 11, 2023, 10:05:46 pm »

I really like playing "broken" cards completely fairly (yeah, I've cast Thassa's Oracle just for card selection more than once), so there's not a lot I won't play.  I will, however, outside my one cEDH deck, almost never use like 90% of the counterspells out there.  I will use those that are a little more niche if they fit the theme of my deck, but, I would almost always rather let someone else play what they want to and loose than to counter something and win.

27

General Magic / Re: How to make a better magic player

« on: September 11, 2023, 09:56:25 pm »

I just want to reiterate that she needs to build and build around something she likes.  Have her build Cat Tribal if she likes cats.  Have her build just a bunch of ramp and big beaters if she likes going to combat.  Have her build some combo that's 50% in the command zone (not one that wins the game, necessarily, but one that lets her do something cool like draw 12 cards for one mana or something) if she likes combos.  If she likes the graveyard, have her build some aristocrats or self mill.  If she likes alternative win cons, have her build mill.  Using that last example, it doesn't really matter if she wins, but if she can mill out one player, or even just discourage any card draw for the table, that'll be her victory.
Most importantly, just get her building something she wants to play, regardless of how it does in the long run.
My wife's very competitive, and she doesn't play Magic with me, strictly because she can't handle the constant loosing.  That all changed with the recent Middle Earth expansion.  She loves Samwise Gamgee, the character, so now she has a food token deck with Sam at the helm.  She loves to play it, and has been particular about not adding any cards that break the flavor of her deck.  It's been fun to watch her explore deck building, and having so much more fun playing because now a loss is a puzzle she can build a solution to, and each "victory" along the way feels more like something she made happen, not just lucky draws.  Give your wife ownership of her games by allowing her to be the brain behind the build.

28

Commander Discussion / Re: Is amass as bad as we think it is?

« on: September 06, 2023, 11:50:22 pm »

There are dozens of cards that deal a bunch of damage to everything.  Some of my favorites are Arcbond, Chain Reaction, Sweltering Suns, and my personal favorite (not because it's good, but because it was one of my first combo builds back when I started playing) Skirk Fire Marshal.

There are a bunch of really generic ones, like Earthquake, Fault Line, Inferno, Molten Disaster, and Fire Tempest, that basically do more or less the same thing.  There are also ones like Pyrohemia and Solar Blaze that, despite being able to do a lot of damage to a lot of creatures, don't really work with Fall of Cair Andros.

Also, to contribute to the actual topic here, I'll happily use Dreadhorde Invasion and any other amass spell that give zombie tokens an ability (there are several) in my Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver deck, or any other deck that makes a bunch of zombie tokens.  A small army of decayed 2/2 zombies is a lot more menacing when they have flying and lifelink and deathtouch and hexproof and (yes, pun absolutely intented) menace.

29

General Magic / Combo in Limited?

« on: September 05, 2023, 08:48:38 pm »

I've been a big fan of doing crazy things in magic, from gaining nearly 1000 life off an Awe Strike, to making more tokens than there are dice in the universe to track them, to winning with Battle of Wits after spending more time shuffling than all my other game actions combined.

This weekend, I attended my first ever limited event, the Wilds of Eldrain Pre-release.  After opening an Aggravated Assault and a Nature's Will, I decided to go all in combo.  It was a blast, just digging through my deck after dropping a couple little evasive creatures, and then playing both those enchantments and winning on the spot.  The main reactions were "I've never seen anything like that!" or "No one ever combo's in limited!" or something like that?

I'm new to limited, so I just had to ask, is building combo in limited really that rare?  Have you ever seen any one go infinite in a limited environment?  Did I just do the most crazy thing of my Magic playing career and not even realize how special it was at the time?

30

Commander Discussion / Re: Best Card In Your Deck

« on: September 05, 2023, 08:32:20 pm »

I just introduced a MTG club to my students afterschool this week.  I was showing them one of my first EDH decks, with Teysa, Orzhov Scion as the commander, just to explain the basic concepts.  They had the same question, "what's your best card?"  I pulled out Darkest Hour, which, with my commander, makes any sac outlet infinite.  I explained that it was probably the best card to draw while playing the deck, then went on to explain that it would easily be the absolutely worst card in every single other deck I own if I were to add it.  It was a great teaching moment as they started to see that Magic isn't always about just having a pile of the best cards, it's about having cards that support each other and work together.  What a great lesson for a bunch of beginners to learn right off the bat.