Mensajes

1

Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Really not sure about this one (The Council of Four)

« en: Mayo 18, 2024, 07:04:21 pm »

Your deck isn't designed to win, but left alone, it will win? 

I'd say that Council of Four are actually quite a strong commander, owing to them drawing you piles of cards whilst also popping out handy knights. 5 mana is a lot, of course, but it's justified. As an 8-toughness blocker they're also great on the defence (or use one of those toughness-is-damage cards and Commander-damage voltron people to death?). If your playgroup have realised that they need to murder you ASAP when running such a deck... well, they're correct. They'll have realised that at some point you'll just assemble a combo, drop an Approach, etc etc. If they're going directly for you and no bothering to remove your engine, though, you ought to be able to protect yourself with fogs, pillowforts, or stuff like Aetherize.

Consider just having Co4 and Kami of the Crescent Moon out. Now everyone else draws one extra card per turn, but you draw five! I feel like you ought to be able to find a way to win with that. Personally, I wouldn't lean into group hug much - just one of these effects and you're laughing.

They don't really dictate a particular direction or wincon for the deck beyond that. The tokens are nice and could be part of your wincon, and of course if you're drawing +5 cards a turn then you can abandon bothering with making a deck anyone actually wants to play and go for Approach of the Second Sun. On the other hand, when you're drawing that many cards you could use them to fuel whatever actually-interesting thing you fancy.

2

Commander Deck Reviews / Re: How do YOU guys build commander decks?

« en: Mayo 11, 2024, 01:43:32 am »

I think this is in the wrong forum but, anyway, I'll bite.

For me it varies. Often I see a commander I like and try and build around it. Obviously that sets the colours. Other times I have some concept or specific thing that I want to do, or some build-around card that isn't a commander, and then I have to figure out (a) what colours to use and (b) who the commander is - which is trickier, since then you're weighing up the two things together.

I do use a template as a start point - I actually have a script which generates a start of a decklist mostly from the colours (but I can vary some of the numbers). However that's as much so that I don't, like, forget to put in removal or something; I typically aim to tweak that as I go as appropriate for the deck.

3

Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Looking for some help regarding my Galea deck

« en: Mayo 07, 2024, 12:31:23 am »

You don’t have much removal. I’d probably put in more aura-based removal like Kenrith’s Transformation, Song of the Dryads, etc, as well as at least one “real” board wipe.

The knights make this tricky, you kinda want to jam-pack your deck with auras and equipment for card advantage from Galea and they dilute it. You already have a good amount of aura- and equipment-based ramp but I might even put in more, stuff like Overgrowth, etc.

Also note that there are some odd auras and things you can consider to boost your density, like curses.

4

Commander Discussion / Re: Taking Sol Ring out of my commander decks - a reasoning.

« en: Abril 09, 2024, 12:39:14 am »

Remember there is a chance to see the turn 1 sol ring and you need lands for this to happen. I don't know about you but I've known players who play with the incorrect amount of lands and mostly not enough.

Right so you're saying that Sol Ring isn't so powerful because some people play decks with so few lands that they can't cast it, meaning that it has no impact? Uh... you could apply that logic to any nonland card. It doesn't stop Sol Ring being powerful; in fact, it's pretty irrelevant to the discussion. When considering an individual card's impact on the game one has to assume optimal play (as much as it's possible to determine what that is). It's like saying a Ferrari isn't faster than roller skates because sometimes people forget to put tyres on it.

<stuff about shuffling>

I don't really understand what you're saying here but, again, how is this relevant? Firstly, we can't really consider incorrect shuffling since that's outside the rules of the game. Secondly, even if we did, how does it change the probabilities?

Yes it can be impactful ss it consistently impactful? No because most everyone can remember a game where it was but not a single one of use will remember the games where it wasn't. So much easier to constantly point at the impactfulness then to look at it as a whole.

Not so; I can definitely remember games where a turn one Sol Ring wasn't impactful. That doesn't mean it isn't still a bonkers card.

You seem to be saying that you don't think it's impactful because you don't think it's impactful, and everyone is overstating it because they've fallen prey to some delusion. Whilst the latter may actually be plausible, the former is a non-argument; I don't think you've actually put forward any real reason why having a card that costs half as much as the next-best ramp spell but ramps you by twice the amount isn't significantly more powerful than said ramp spell.

I am so confused. Do you not understand how much more 15 mana is over 10 mana? The discrepancy grows the further the game progresses! How is that not super lopsided? Let me take a wild guess.. 25.. nope that isn't it... 67.. nope that isn't correct either.... 2 nope that isn't correct either.. Screw it and I will guess 5 for final answer.[/qupte]Yeah, the answer to "do you not understand?" isn't "5", I think it's "no".

Now on that you guys can respond, the lurkers can lurk(got to love the negative drops from them) After this post I am done and moving on away from the boogy man. So go ahead and fire away

I don't really know why anyone votes or cares about voting but I suspect the reason you are getting downvoted is that (a) your posts are semi-coherent at best and it's not entirely clear what you're actually saying and (b) they make no sense, you're not presenting anything even resembling a rational argument, mostly just talking about irrelevant stuff like shuffling. If you want anyone to take you seriously, you'll have to try and put together something a bit clearer (and more logical!) I'm afraid.

5

Commander Discussion / Re: Taking Sol Ring out of my commander decks - a reasoning.

« en: Abril 05, 2024, 12:02:19 am »

OK you seem to be talking about a bunch of things so let’s break it down…

Deviation from the model mulliganning strategy.
If I understand you correctly, you’re saying that the ~25% chance of seeing a Sol Ring isn’t realistic because people may mulligan less or mulligan away their Sol Ring? Sure, but I think this strategy is a reasonable enough model and, anyway, the number doesn’t actually matter that much. Even if Sol Ring showed up maybe 10% of the time turn 1 (and we’re not counting early-turn top decks, which obviously have a lesser but still-relevant impact) that’s quite a lot, and maybe more than most might expect.

Poor shuffling
The rules say people should shuffle to randomise their decks. They might not, but that’s not really something we can account for when thinking about cards, just as we also ignore all those tables that houserule Sol Ring down to 0 mana and say it taps for 6, or the people who let you have it in the command zone.

Besides, does poor shuffling increase or decrease the chance of a Sol Ring. Assuming no I’ll intent/cheating, one would expect that actually it would balance out, certainly if the first shuffle is good. So either way I think this is a non-issue.

Impact of Sol Ring
A totally different question is what impact Sol Ring actually has. Now actually, I don’t think it is “ruinous” or “degenerate”… but I do think you’re understating it. It’s far more impactful than a t2 Farseek, which is already actually quite good. No or almost no semi-decent decks eschew 2-mana ramp, which implies that cards like Farseek are really rather powerful. If they weren’t, people would skip them and just play impactful 2- and 3-drops on curve. Then, consider that Sol Ring is about (by some metric) four times more powerful than Farseek! It also lets me play powerful cards on t2 than 2-mana ramp simply cannot enable by itself.

The whole point of this thread, in fact, is someone saying they’ve taken Sol Ring out and they prefer it like that. Now, obviously, you may disagree, but the examples I gave before (turn 2 Rhystic, Tithe or GAAIV) I think illustrate well just the impact that Sol Ring can have.

6

Commander Discussion / Re: Taking Sol Ring out of my commander decks - a reasoning.

« en: Abril 04, 2024, 12:17:51 pm »

So wait, your argument is that we’ll see Sol Ring less than we expect… because people don’t shuffle properly? 

7

Commander Discussion / Re: Taking Sol Ring out of my commander decks - a reasoning.

« en: Abril 03, 2024, 01:17:28 pm »

Whether something reminds you of a saying or not doesn’t make it valid or invalid. The point is that t1 Sol Rings show up more than one might expect considering it’s just 1 card in 100.

A t1 Sol Ring isn’t always the be all and end all. However, like all fast mana, it enables stuff that only other fast mana enables, like a t2 Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe or Grand Arbiter Augustin IV. It’s not so much a boogeyman as just a very powerful thing to do. This is simple fact; no one card will entirely warp the game alone, but it doesn’t take a genius to look at Sol Ring, look at the next-best mana rock, and realise that being twice as effective for half the price makes this rather more powerful.

In cEDH we kind of expect this. However in games where people are literally banning fast mana to avoid this, it’s pretty strange to me then to allow Sol Ring still to happen.

8

Commander Discussion / Re: Taking Sol Ring out of my commander decks - a reasoning.

« en: Abril 02, 2024, 11:31:01 am »

I for one don't like that which means I'm taking Sol Ring out unless there's a good reason to include it. I think all my paper decks either have extra synergies, enable combos, or have other fast mana. (Which means I do play Sol Ring...)

Personally, I agree - but that only really works if everyone’s taking it out.

In the end you can only ask yourself if you feel you need the Ring^TM or if you would prefer seeing something else come up instead.

I “prefer” seeing it come up than most other mana rocks - because it’s just stronger than them.

Now, I’d prefer games that didn’t have those at all (heck, I’m minded to believe - whatever anyone else around here thinks - that the 2-mana rocks are already too much)… but I’d also rather that all the decks are on a level playing field.

I do think it’s a bit ridiculous when people ban fast mana in their games but not Sol Ring “because everyone has it”.

9

General Magic / Re: "Reworked" vs "Original" vs "Recycled" mechanics

« en: Abril 02, 2024, 01:18:23 am »

A lot of the time mechanics are reworked for a reason. There were a lot of issues with some of these mechanics, so creating something similar but better-adjusted lets them overcome that. Toxic is your prime example: infect is much-loathed and really quite hard to balance because the effect of pump spells etc are now thrown way out of whack. Toxic is a lot easier to quantify and therefore a lot easier to get the numbers right on. I don’t think many people wanted to see infect back, but toxic was mostly OK.

Fading and vanishing are an older example.

Disguise/cloak is annoying for sure. It perhaps works well in draft as the environment is kinda balanced around it. In a format like EDH the differences are largely irrelevant, so we just have 4+ similar-but-slightly-different variants which doesn’t matter much but is a bit confusing.

10

Commander Discussion / Re: Taking Sol Ring out of my commander decks - a reasoning.

« en: Abril 02, 2024, 01:10:19 am »

Sol Ring is so busted that IMO pretty much the only reason not to play it is because you’re deliberately handicapping your deck to be at a certain strength, same as (budget notwithstanding) the likes of Mana Crypt. Well, that and personal preference, but that’s entirely subjective.

Apparent threat is a valid concern. If you drop Sol Ring t1 you kinda become the archenemy. But, the same could be said about any cards. Vanilla 2/2s are less scary than actually good cards, but you aren’t more likely to win the game with them - they’re less scary for a reason. We still have to do stuff that threatens wins if we want to win. Actually, the irrationality around Sol Ring means that it’s probably one of the least scary cards relative to the advantage it actually gives you. People see a Mana Crypt and they flip out; they see a Sol Ring and they’re like, ah, a classic EDH card! (It’s perhaps why I’ve never been in a game that purportedly banned fast mana that actually banned Sol Ring)

Versatility is a fair point, but Sol Ring is so powerful that I doubt very much that one of those cool rocks is actually better. I’ll often swap some 2-mana rock for one of those, or add one as well as my regular ramp, but none of them let me play Smothering Tithe on turn 2.

Theme and identity are valid… except that this is EDH, we’re not not playing ramp. So, why not play the best ramp? If you’ve cut all signets and talismans too then maybe that’s another matter but such decks are rarely viable at anything other than quite low power levels.

For the record, if I were the king of Magic I would 100% ban Sol Ring (and probably a lot of other cards besides….) and I certainly don’t think there’s anything wrong with removing it, but I think most of the arguments boil down to houserules or personal preference; it’s not mechanically stronger not to run it in almost(?) all situations.

11

Commander Discussion / Re: What do you think of "Baldur’s Gate Wilderness"?

« en: Marzo 13, 2024, 12:53:48 am »

This isn't a proper dungeon, though, right? It's for some kind of event thing or something?

If I did end up in this dungeon somehow, going left seems by far the better choice. Most of the time scry 3 is better than one treasure, and whilst Goblin Camp + Defiled Temple together basically read "draw a card" if nothing else, playing an extra land can be pretty big a lot of the time too. From Mountain Pass you can go diagonally across to Last Light Inn; sticking left for Balthazar's Lab is potentially the better option (and Reithwin Tollhouse is not half bad either) but that forces you into Undercity Ruins which may or may not be a lot less attractive than Circus of the Last Days. But then again, Temple of Bhaal will be brutal in a lot of situations; I'd usually rather have Ansur's Sanctum by far but I'd rather have the option of the temple than the option of Steel Watch Foundry.

I'd use this in my Acererak the Archlich deck if I could; Ansur's Sanctum is probably a better wincon than Mad Wizard's Lair, and just in general this one has far better rooms (and specifically Tollhouse is really good, I'd probably almost always go Teahouse -> Mountain Pass -> Grymforge -> Tollhouse -> Gauntlet -> Circue -> Sanctum, possibly sometimes Goblin Camp -> Defiled Temple -> Grymforge, but less likely what with Crash Landing giving you a land).

12

Commander Discussion / Re: Pip-Boy 3000.... is likely going to become a staple like Arcane Signet

« en: Marzo 13, 2024, 12:41:59 am »

I agree: WotC is being very lazy with the setting of their expansions, lately.
I mean, Phyrexia: All Will Be One is just the Invasion 2.0 (i.e. a self-rip-off, so to say), Crimson Vow is just a rip-off of the red wedding from Game of Thrones, Strixhaven is a rip-off of Harry Potter, Kaldheim is a carbon-copy of norse mythology, Ikoria is just Godzilla vs King Kong etc.
The last new setting that felt really original to me was Ixalan, 6 years ago (and even that was a clear reference to the age of conquistadores).
This said, MtG hasn't always been like this and, while a point can be made that any high-fantasy setting is basically a rip-off of the Lord of the Ring, I think it's still a kind of unfair statement.

Sorry, Strixhaven is like Harry Potter because... it involves both magic, and a "school" (that's actually a university)? That's like saying that All Will Be One is a ripoff of the Wars of the Roses because both involve people fighting. Original Magic is most definitely more a rip-off of Lord of the Rings (elves, dwarves, etc) than Strixhaven is of anything, apart of course from Arabian Nights which is definitely not ripped off from anything at all.

There isn't really anything truly original these days - but so what? Having a set be deliberately inspired by something because that something is cool seems perfectly legit to me.

13

Commander Discussion / Re: Pip-Boy 3000.... is likely going to become a staple like Arcane Signet

« en: Marzo 04, 2024, 12:13:03 am »

The effect is a lot less powerful than any of the ramping swords. It’s 1+2 mana but you also need to have a creature out - you’re not playing this T2 for ramp - and you have to be able to attack with it. Then, you untap lands but you can’t float mana - you can’t use this to cast one big thing. That’s way more limiting.

Obviously it has upside - untap your Cabal Coffers, etc - and flexibility (the looting is also neat, and the counters have their place too) but I’d much rather have Animist or Sword of Blink and Ramp.

Magic has always been ridiculous (eg a squirrel equipped with a sword defeating a zombie), but at least there was some manner of consistency in the flavor.

Yeah, all the cyborg aliens, transforming mech vehicles and all the LotR things are really ruining it for me. I want to go back to the days where we only had a few cyborg aliens and transforming mech vehicles, and only clones of LotR stuff.

14

Commander Deck Reviews / Re: The Serpent Swallows Time (a new silly deck build)

« en: Febrero 24, 2024, 01:41:50 am »

Yup, sounds like a Simic deck to me. If Aesi is your commander, that's pretty much what you can expect.

When I say that this deck was called The Serpent Swallows Time and is described as a silly deck build, I was expecting something like using Wormfang Manta to skip all your own turns. My disappointment is immense.

15

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

« en: Febrero 12, 2024, 11:55:05 pm »

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.

Speaking of the nuances of copyright law... is there any where in the world that that's true? Copying someone's work, claiming it as your own, and then trying to sell it - that's copyright infringement. Putting it on a random bit of cardboard that you keep purely for your own use, not so much.

4. Proxying is generally frowned upon by society.

Is this true? People might believe it to be the case, in which case it's still a potential reason for them not to proxy... I certainly think that proxying is frowned upon by subsets of society, perhaps a given LGS or similar, which is perhaps just as bad, but society as a whole (at least, the small fraction of society who even know that this is for some reason an actual issue for people who enjoy this specific card game) is I think more split.