Messages

1

Deck Reviews / Re: [Modern] Fish Out Of Water

« on: November 13, 2023, 07:40:55 pm »

I dropped the raking canopy completely and stuck merfolk skydiver in the sideboard twmporarily.
Id love to fit it in the main board somewhere, but I dont know what to drop for that to occur.

I have an idea or two, but Im currently suffering from analysis paralysis. So, does anyone have any ideas on how to stuff four merfolk skydiver into the main board?

2

Deck Reviews / Re: [Modern] Fish Out Of Water

« on: November 13, 2023, 03:15:31 pm »

I appreciate your input, thank you.
I do agree with and have incorporated some of your suggestions

-Cut white from deck. Added a couple more UG lands and a couple basics to help with mana flow.
-Cut Travel Preparation. Added 1 River Heralds's Boon and 3 Vineshaper Mystic to maintain the immediate effect of two counters and provide a little more interaction with Deeproot Elite.
-Cut Simic Ascendancy. I see the point of it playing too slow, ESPECIALLY since I misread Vorel of the Hull Clade and I can not double the counters on Ascendancy.
-Added Benthic Biomancer for the looter effect.and more possible Deeproot Elite interaction.

3

Deck Reviews / [Modern] Fish Out Of Water

« on: November 12, 2023, 07:35:45 pm »

Im trying to brew up a Merfolk Tribal deck utilizing counters that is both budget and somewhat competitive. It doesnt have to win the local FNM tourney overall, but Id like to get a few individual wins.

The main win con will be direct combat.
The general idea is to get the one drop unblockable creatures out quick to begin nipping at the opponent as soon as possible.
Turn them into larger threats by beefing them up with the various creatures, artifacts, and spells that grant +1/+1 and/or counters.
Hopefully, during this I can manage to get Simic Ascendancy out to take advantage of the counters created to establish a secondary win con.
Gavony Township and Vorel of the Hull Clade can greatly aid either win con, especially Simic Ascendancy.
Mana base is splashed with some white in order to activate Gavony Township and the flashback on Travel Preparations. 

A small collection of sideboard cards address threats present in both my playgroup and our local FNM meta: spot removal and board wipes (counterspell), mill strategies (gaea's blessing), and this decks general weakness to fliers (raking canopy).

I have not playtested this deck yet, but doing some quick run throughs with my kid, the deck seem to flow fairly well. Even with only 20 mana, I havent been starved for mana, although sometimes I end up having to play one of the dual lands tapped because I dont have a basic in my hand to reveal.

Any recommendations on this deck, or am I on the right track? Anything else I should address with the sideboard?
Be sure to include a why with any recommendations.

Edited: as I posted this, it occured to me to include some graveyard hate in the sideboard. Any recs on good cards fof that while Im off to research?

Edit2: added Return to Nature

Also, remember: this is supposed to be a budget build. I know, I know...budgets vary. My playgroup defines budget as a $1 average per card.
So, a sixty card deck should be $60 or less while a sixty card deck with a full sideboard should be $75 or less as measured by this sites reference to TCG on the decklist.

Thanks in advance!

Draco


Decklist

https://deckstats.net/decks/194830/3284776-fish-out-of-water

4

General Magic / Re: [Modern] Redirection of damage from an activated ability

« on: July 10, 2023, 08:39:17 pm »

The ultimate goal is:

1. Reroute damage from an opponents activated ability to another target
And
2. Do not change the source of the damage while doing that.

Are harm's way, reroute, and shining shoal my only real options here?



If youre still confused, Im sorry. I dont know any other way to state the effect I'm looking for.

5

General Magic / [Modern] Redirection of damage from an activated ability

« on: July 10, 2023, 03:47:39 pm »

Good day all, I have a question about cards that redirect damage from an activated ability but do not change the source of the damage.

The effect I'm looking for is present in these three cards:

Harm's Way
Reroute
Shining shoal

These cards redirect damage to a new target.
The important part is they do it without changing the source of the damage.


Here are some examples of effects I am NOT looking for:

Test of faith prevents, not redirects.

Redirect changes the tgt of an instant/sorcery but not an activated ability.

Refraction trap redirects the damage, but changes the source of the damage.


Additional criteria is they must be Moden legal and can be any color.
Budget is also a consideration (cough, shining shoal). Please don't recommend a $20 card. However, anything ~$5ish or under will definitely be given it's due consideration.

Lastly, I don't particularly want to build a whole new deck for these cards to be used. The goal is to sideboard them into an existing deck of mine to combat a specific deck within my playgroup (think orcish vandal type cards + treasure/food/blood tokens).

I dont have the depth of card knowledge some of you guys have, and my search efforts have not produced anything beyond harm's way, reroute, and shining shoal that meet the criteria.

So, I humbly ask, what other cards are out there or am I stuck with only these choices?

6

General Magic / Re: Question concerning application of multiple static abilities

« on: March 27, 2023, 03:41:07 pm »

One player said it equated to redundancy like multiple instances of double strike or deathtouch and should only apply once.
The other player said it acted as if two abilities were printed on Hushbringer and bith applied. The fact they shared identical wording didnt matter.

It's going to cost 6.
It's not so much that things can't have multiple instances of double strike or deathtouch, so much as stacking those effects does not do anything. You can't create additional first strike and normal timings for combat damage, and you can't make 1 damage = lethal any more lethal.

113.2c An object may have multiple abilities. If the object is represented by a card, then aside from certain defined abilities that may be strung together on a single line (see rule 702, %u201CKeyword Abilities%u201D), each paragraph break in a card%u2019s text marks a separate ability. If the object is not represented by a card, the effect that created it may have given it multiple abilities. An object may also be granted additional abilities by a spell or ability. If an object has multiple instances of the same ability, each instance functions independently. This may or may not produce more effects than a single instance; refer to the specific ability for more information.

Using Riot as an example. https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=554224

If a creature enters the battlefield with two instances of riot, you may choose to have it get two +1/+1 counters, one +1/+1 counter and haste, or two instances of haste. Multiple instances of haste on the same creature are redundant, but we're not going to tell the Gruul how to live their lives.

There it is.
Rule 113.2c is what I was looking for but couldn't find.
Thanks for the reference.

Fwiw, I also said 6 at the time. My arguments were basically what you said in your post, just none of us could locate the rule to support it, though.
Thanks again

7

General Magic / Question concerning application of multiple static abilities

« on: March 26, 2023, 06:07:21 am »

I was watching a game today, and an interesting  situation came up.

One player had 2x Jubilant Skybonder and 1x Hushbringer in play.

The opponents deck relied on ETB and death triggers, so he wants to play Cast Down to remove the Hushbringer.

The two players disagreed on whether cast down would cost 4 or 6 mana to play.
We looked up Jubilant Skybinder and its rulings, but there isn't a ruling that addresses multiple instances of its ability on another creature.

One player said it equated to redundancy like multiple instances of double strike or deathtouch and should only apply once.
The other player said it acted as if two abilities were printed on Hushbringer and bith applied. The fact they shared identical wording didnt matter.

What say the hive mind? Does Cast down cost 4 or 6 in this situation?

8

Deck Reviews / Re: [Legacy] Counter Time

« on: January 28, 2023, 04:40:59 pm »

Very good advice posted above. I know little about tournament formats, but I also know that deck wouldn't even be competitive on the table top with my playgroup.

I would reitetate the advice above and go a step further to say reevaluate your mana curve, also. There are a lot of expensive casting costs in that deck. You might be able to get a couple of your one and two drops out, but you have to wait until turn four or five before you even have the ability to play most of your deck.
By that time, most aggro players are swinging hard for damage, maybe even swinging for lethal while most mid range players have their board state set for what they want to do and you'll find yourself trying to play catch up.

Not if, but when, you cut cards from your deck, I would start with some of those very high cmc cards and try to bring more balance into your mana curve.

If you insist on keeping those cards, that's fine, too. In that case, restructure the cards in the bottom half of your mana curve to include lots of mana ramp. The deck already has green and green is fantastic for ramp.

Just my $0.02 from a tabletop, non tournament perspective.

9

Deck Reviews / Re: [Casual] Goblin Overload

« on: January 25, 2023, 04:12:38 pm »

First off, I like your deck. I like Goblins AND cobbling together decks with random stuff in my stacks. Sometimes those decks turn out to be more fun than my main decks.


If you have a Goblin Chirurgeon or two somewhere in your stacks, I would definitely find a spot for it in this deck. It is an excellent sacrifice outlet that lets you keep half your creatures in the face of a board wipe. Saving Krenko, Mob Boss will frustrate your opponent when you are right back to full strength your next turn.

10

Commander Discussion / Re: Politics cards done right.

« on: December 09, 2022, 05:03:52 pm »

To me, it seems suboptimal to accept deals your opponent offers.

Think about it for a second. Noone offers a deal unless that person believes they will come out of it with a net positive as it relates to their strategy and game goals. That person is not offering any deal out of the goodness of their heart or because they feel sorry for someone at the table. They are using it as a tool to help achieve their goal(s).

When my opponent offers a deal, he is not offering me something where he has a net loss in the trade. I may receive some value in the short term from the deal, but I guarantee my opponent gets something out of the deal that he places a greater value on. He wants something that will help him achieve his goals in either the short or long term. I may not see it or understand it, but it is there.

We both have a job: annihilate each other as quickly and ruthlessly as possible. I dont think helping him do that job by accepting his deals is a good idea.


Now, nothing is absolute. There is an exception to every rule, including this one. On rare occasions, a deal offered will hasten my plans and I will accept. You can also bet that my opponent didnt know this or he wouldnt have offered the deal.

As always, ymmv on this. If you think accepting deals offered to you is the way to go, by all means, Play Lets Make a Deal if you wish.
However, I generally will not.

11

Deck Reviews / [Casual] Death by Ping Deck

« on: November 27, 2022, 06:16:26 pm »

First off, let me say that my playgroup and I are fairly new to MtG. We played a little bit years ago but lost interest. Over the last couple of years, we have renewed our interest and now play semi regularly. So, if this is a scenario that has happened before (and it probably has), Im sorry. I just dont have the depth of card knowledge to adequately answer it on my own.

Here goes:

My playgroup has a player who has developed a Sliver deck that pumps up creatures through life gain and then rides roughshod over everybody with trample through general combat. His deck has about an 80-85% win rate right now.

We are all trying to develop decks that can beat it.
One player has a mono black with heavy removal. Two other players have blue based mill and counterspell decks.
These decks can beat the Slivers, but don't do so consistantly.

Since his main win condition is direct combat, I want to develop a (not blue) deck to counter it. My idea is a black and red Death by Ping deck.

As a base I want to use Will o' the Wisp, Fog of Gnats, Gurmag Swiftwing, and Goblin Sharpshooter.
I then want to use cards like Viridian Longbow, Fire Whip, or Power of Fire to give the creatures ping abilities. I also considered Wolfhunter's Quiver, but the 5 mana equip cost seems steep.
Lastly, I want to use Void Beckoner as a cycle card or Call of the Death Dweller to dig and give the pingers Deathtouch counters. Maybe Rune of Mortality if needed.

Toss in a spattering of dig spells like echoing return or forever young just in case I need them.

My thought process is this:

Overall objective is to give my creatures deathtouch and ping ability to wipe out his creatures without having to engage in direct combat in order to avoid his trample.


Will o the Wisp and Fog of Gnats: cheap flyers for one or two black, both regenerate themselves for one black. With a deathtouch counter, that could be a formidable direct combat defense, but still subject to trample, if I get starved for stuff that grants ping.

Gurmag Swiftwing (1B): Flying, first strike. Give him a deathtouch counter and I can avoid the trample effect in direct combat.


Goblin Sharpshooter (2R): Creature has ping organically and untaps itself when a creature dies. With a deathtouch counter, this guy could literally do it all himself.

Void Beckoner (6BB): an 8/8 creature that cycles for 2B and grants a deathtouch token. Use strictly as a cycle card for its deathtouch counter early in the game. As I (hopefully) ping my opponents creatures to death and do a few damage to the player in the process, I can build up enough mama to drop Void in as a finisher.




Is my thinking/strategy way off base? What cards should I consider that I havent listed? Can it be more efficient?

Long winded, but thanks in advance for any help.