Messages

31

Deck Reviews / Re: [EDH / Commander] Commanderp Cats REBUILD

« on: July 04, 2018, 03:52:53 am »

I think I have to make room for 2 more lands. The "starting hands" I've been trying are speaking to me.

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Deck Reviews / [EDH / Commander] Commanderp Cats REBUILD

« on: July 04, 2018, 03:37:06 am »

Commanderp Cats REBUILD

A rebuild of the C17 Feline Ferocity deck. Most of the value comes from the 5 or so cards from the prebuild that have spiked.

Not meant for competitive edh, just a combat-based deck that can kinda fit into several power levels - good at many tables, not going to dominate many, if any.

Only played it once, but it was really fun. 14 Bloodstained Battleaxes all equipped and swinging was funny.

Multiple commander choices seems cool, only ran under arabho, and never cast him.

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General Magic / Re: Card copies in a sideboard

« on: July 04, 2018, 01:24:36 am »

Here are some fun stats to go with the discussion, RE: getting a 'last chance got em' card from the sideboard - in both the opening 7 (assuming on the play) and by turn 4 (again, assuming on the play):

1 copy of a card in from sideboard, chances in:
Opening hand - 11.7%
By turn 4 - 16.7%

2 copies of a card in from sideboard, chances in:
Opening hand - 21%
By turn 4 - 28.3%

3 copies of a card in from sideboard, chances in:
Opening hand - 28.2%
By turn 4 - 35.8%

4 copies...why aren't you mainboarding this card?

All results rounded to nearest 0.1%, and provided only for information. Thanks to all who are offering their opinions on an interesting question.

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General Magic / Re: Card copies in a sideboard

« on: July 02, 2018, 09:58:20 pm »

Question about making a sideboard. Many sideboards on posted decks have only one copy of a card (with none in the main deck). It seems pointless, because chances are you will not even get to see that card come up. I would think you would want at least 2 if not 3 copies to make sure you get to that card. I'm just back into MTG after several years away, and am looking for advice on how to construct a sideboard.   

I'm not claiming to be an expert, but I think some of it comes from the cold fact that one chance is better than no chance, compounded by people probably overestimating the probability of drawing and resolving that one chance.

It might depend on the format as well - if you were checking out mainly modern decks (you said you were familiar with cards from a few years back), my thought is it is partly due to needing narrow answers to so many different archtypes and strategies; modern deckbuilders gotta have a broad but not deep toolbox for a sideboard to say it a different way. In a standard format situation, you can count on 70% of the decks you face being about 3 or 4 different archtypes (instead of 10+ in a modern format), so you can double or triple up on those hate cards.

A good question to stir debate; I too would like to hear about how others on the site view 'one-of's in sideboards.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Arcane Contract Combo

« on: June 29, 2018, 08:08:15 pm »

Arcane Contract Combo

Combo Deck to win with Arcane Adaptation and Liliana's Contract.

The shell to fit this combo that I am playing is a UB creature value shell. With '30' creatures and '8' different creature names, it gives us more chances to win with Liliana's Contract.

Champion of Wits, Dusk Legion Zealot and Glint-Sleeve Siphoner offer value to dig deep into our deck to find our combo.

The rest of our creatures form our defence. We have Kitesail Freebooter, Hostage Taker and Ravenous Chupacabra to disrupt our opponent and Gifted Aetherborn and Aethersphere Harvester gives us good blockers and important lifelinkers.

Any comments and feedback are much appreciated!

I see you like this combo as I do. I like how you went with value creatures, each one giving a nice bonus; then using arcane adaptation to make them all demons. I went a different way, trying to make the most creatures in the cheapest way, but I don't get the etb value that you do from creatures pike kitesail freebooter, champion of wits, etc., or the nice keywords from creatures like gifted aetherborn.

I think your creature-heavy idea is more resilient in the games where it is a struggle to get both arcane adaptation and liliana's contract out together for the combo win - I went with more draw and interaction to both dig and keep me alive until I get the pieces together.

It's neat that identical combo decks can have multiple ways of 'getting there'; thanks for sharing your idea!

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Deck Comments / Re: Turn five BU Liliana contract - Comments

« on: June 29, 2018, 02:50:43 am »

I made a deck like this. I think you are missing out by not including creatures with a 'Fabricate X' effect when they enter the battlefield. With arcane adaptation, all those new creatures are demons.

Love the strategy with arcane adaptation and liliana's contract, and the budget cost makes it sweeter when you can surprise someone metagaming for the top tier decks.

Thanks for sharing your idea!

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General Magic / Re: Dominaria Power Check - by Color

« on: June 27, 2018, 03:13:12 am »

Out of interest, Delvermage. What kind of methodology/techniques did you use to analyse the individual colours?

With every new set, I build a set of decks to try out the core set.  My goal is to see how new abilities work, core creature mixes and play with some of the more obvious synergies within the new set.  Ixalan, of course, I built a Pirate, Dino, Vamp, and Merfolk deck and played them Round Robin as well.  As I had read somewhere that mono colors were a focus within Dominaria, I went with that idea.  I will often avoid big ticket cards as a part of this experiment.  So no Goblin Chainwhirlers, or Mox Amber, or Tefeiri cards here.

I chose an uncommon card from each color, or a saga, and ran with that for each color.
Time of Ice for Blue
Spore Swarm for Green
Goblin Barrage for Red
Whisper, Blood Liturgist for Black
Triumph of Gerrard for White

I spent about 10 or 15 minutes each to build the decks.  Often the decks are 4x9 with basic lands and a set of the special cycle lands, if they have them.
I use XMage, and play on a local server using the AI as the opponent.  Although I know that the AI does not get many nuances of a card or a deck, if it makes decisions that flat out cause it to lose when it should have won, I will concede the game.  I expect that with any given deck, I should beat the AI two out of three.  When the AI can play a deck and I struggle to win that often would be because the core design, flow, and synergy of that deck has something to it....  The AI could not play the Blue deck really at all.  It struggled with the trickier parts of the White deck.  It played Red, Green, and Black just fine.

So again, not too scientific, but the activity certainly lets me see how cards work, and ideas work, and it allows me to perform much better deck tuning than goldfish testing does.

BTW, I just made all 5 decks public on my main deck page.  They are all titled "Speed (Color) DOM", just in case you are curious.

Off topic from the point of this thread - allow me to apologize - but I'd love to read a thread about how to use sites like xmage. The care and thought you put into the posts you make - that I've read - make me think I'd enjoy a breakdown of options like xmage, how it works,  what you need to do to participate on that platform, tips, etc; if you were willing, of course.

Sounds like you can't program the AI; in your experience, is it overly easy to crack the AI and anticipate it's choices? I'd think that would skew things.

Thanks for throwing out free info to all of us, that's pretty cool of you.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [EDH / Commander] Negative Influence (-1/-1 EDH)

« on: June 27, 2018, 01:46:41 am »

Pharika is terrible, I read the card wrong - the owner of the exiled gy card gets the snake. I don't run enough creatures to make this work.

This new card, generous patron, might deck me. I made over 50 insects in a turn last week because of the blowfly infestation / nest of scarabs combo from a 'put a -1/-1 counter on each creature' effect. The draw effecton generous patron is not a 'may' trigger...

Sounds like fun.

Revision 10

Added/removed cards:
-1 Pharika, God of Affliction
+1 Generous Patron

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General Magic / Re: Store Championship - Game Day (23-24th June)

« on: June 27, 2018, 01:05:45 am »

I played a budget black/white midrange deck that used Solemnity and Vizier of Remedies to prevent Ammit Eternal, Plague Belcher, and Baleful Ammit from getting -1/-1 Counters.

Midrange

First round I lost to an Esper control deck that won with Torrential Gearhulk, because I sideboarded out most of my answers.

Second round I won against Red Rush, mainly because Fungal Infection is very good against one toughness creatures like Earthshaker Khenra, Fanatical Firebrand, and Bomat Courier.

Third round I won against Izzet wizards because the combination of Solemnity and Soul-Scar Mage prevents Abrade, Shock, Wizard's Lightning and Lightning Strike from killing my creatures.

The big 3cmc payoffs in this deck are huge when you get solemnity on the battlefield early. A friend of mine played a deck like this back during HOU to great effect, as it hosed walking ballista and snake strategies while boosting its own creatures. 5/5 afflict 3, 4/3 lifelink, or 5/4 menace, all for 2B - great value.

Awesome you had good success; if I ran it, I may mix up the removal package to include vraska's contempt and ixalan's binding. Cast down can be a dead card with all the dominaria legends running around at uncommon.

The cool bonus of your solemnity shutting down your opponent's replacement effect from their soul scar mage is tight against the heavily favored red decks running around in standard right now. Way to metagame!

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Demons For Days

« on: June 24, 2018, 11:13:28 pm »

I'm not sure where you got "yer dek sux" from "your deck would get fucked in the pre rotation meta but seems fine for post rotation." Please at least read my posts before you go on a deranged rant.

Quoted before possibility of deletion

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Demons For Days

« on: June 24, 2018, 10:47:16 pm »

I actually never said once that it was bad, so stop trying to cause problems

It's ok, Soren. Whatever you are going through, I hope you have a better day. If you are done talking about the deck and its pros and cons in a constructive manner, just stop posting in this one thread. Not that hard.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Demons For Days

« on: June 24, 2018, 10:26:35 pm »

Oh sure you can play it but if you go up against aggro or control    no need to be rude

I agree, no need to be rude  - but here you are, doing your thing where you tell people their decks are bad then react poorly when someone disagrees with you.

Thanks for your thoughts on my idea, though haven't you been warned about this kind of behavior? I mean the hit and run posts with little value that boil down to "yer dek sux lol <insertemoji>". Just to make it clear, I don't appreciate them and ask you to refrain from doing so in the future. By all means, hit me with constructive criticism. But not what you are doing now.

Unless you are doing it to be a troll, I'm sure you have better things to do know that you know it is not appreciated.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Demons For Days

« on: June 24, 2018, 09:53:41 pm »

I don't think it'll be playable until after rotation, because aggro shits on tokens but post rotation it seems to be in a good spot

The Doomed dissenter also dies to Chainwhirler, but it makes a 2/2. The optimal play is not to create the tokens until you have liliana's contract out. Turn after the contract hits you make a few more demons and hopefully have enough mana to counter a sweeper before your next upkeep. Red and black (aggro) are not very good at dealing with enchantments. The 5 toughness on ammit eternal and lifelink from baleful ammit are also good against aggro.

I think you use a funny definition of 'playable'. I think you mean to say 'top-tier competitive at the professional level'. The deck is imminently playable, unexpected, and has interaction with counters and removal - but it couldn't be considered likely to go rogue at a GP and have good success.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] red green show (need help editing - first tournament tomorrow)

« on: June 23, 2018, 11:16:25 pm »

Thanks for the suggestions. It'l like, I don't really have a lot from the ixalan sets because I stopped buying many cards after the amonkhet block. So I guess maybe it's pointless to ask what should go in besides having a reference to go off of like some of the suggestions you made but i definitely could use some help knowing what is just trash in here.

If you have multiple copies of greenbelt rampager and longtusk cub, those 2 form a nice combo from Rhonas's Monument, since you mentioned having cards from Amonkhet and before, but not so much from Ixalan forward. You can continually pump creatures with the monument, casting the elephant over and over while having the cub eat the energy to ensure the elephant always returns to hand. (The elephant can also crew a vehicle after it enters the battlefield but before it bounces.) Narnam Renegade also pairs well with greenbelt rampager.

I would second Mnemosyne's thought of going mono green, unless you wanna spend $20-40 on color fixing. Mnemosyne's recommendation on creatures is spot on as well - merfolk branchwalker is deck thinning/scry and ends up as an aggressive 2 drop or puts a free land in your hand (the benefit of monocolor is never worrying about mana issues, unless you miss a land drop). Thrashing Brontodon is value just as a 3/4 creature, with the bonus of the naturalize activated ability. Rhonas, llanowar elves, steel leaf champion, verdurous gearhulk all excellent for mono green. Resilient Khenra.

Monocolor also let's you play one or two field of ruin / scavanger grounds, as well as play with the deserts from Amonkhet block. Hashep Oasis can help get that last little bit of damage through and cycling lands are nice in a pinch.

Green instants I'd play or put in sideboard: blossoming defense, naturalize, ancient animus / pounce, plummet, heroic intervention.

Lifecrafter's bestiary is good sideboard against control, as is wildest dreams. Prowling Serpopard against control always gets a groan from opponent.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Demons For Days

« on: June 23, 2018, 09:30:03 am »

This deck can be broken down into a few sections:

REMOVAL - Vraska's Contempt and Fatal Push. Fungal infection can be used here for smaller creatures like llanowar elves, bomat courier, etc.

COUNTER - Negate and syncopate. Blue Draw Go is my least played archtype, so judging these types of cards is harder for me. Good to stretch, grow, and learn.

DRAW/TUTOR - Mastermind's Acquisition, Search for Azcanta, Liliana's Contract. Mastermind's Acquisition to find one of the 3: arcane adaptation, liliana's contact, weaponcraft enthusiast. Search for azcanta is good in ways I don't have to enumerate here. Liliana's Contract draws 4, nuff said.

CREATURES - demons themselves, and good ones at 3cmc, or the doomed dissenter replaces itself which works well for a win condition predicted on having 4 creatures. Weaponcraft enthusiast is just stupid in this strategy, making 3 demons for 3 mana when arcane adaptation is out.