Messages

2956

General Magic / Re: Favorite Combos

« on: October 29, 2015, 07:50:33 am »

True but with the amount of value people put into using shock lands and fetch lands for mana fixing nowadays it would be safe to say that deck searching for "better lands" is a self made player mechanic that competitive players use often. Also you could play with ghost quarter and constantly destroy their lands to the point where if they don't search for any then they're struggling for mana every other turn. Also his effect does not have to be a game winner but rather a deterrent for those who want to use cards like diabolic tutor and such to look for certain situation based answers. If you think about it, if you kill enough creatures in a single turn then you just might force your opponent to search their deck for something to stop him. If they do then they get hurt and if they can't then they get hit in the face with a flying trampler whose probably a 10/10 if you're using bone splinter on tokens or on creatures such as festering goblin to kill other creatures in the process. It may not be the greatest combo in the world but it does leave room for creative deck ideas. 

2957

Deck Comments / Re: Mono Black Vampire drain life / gain life - Comments

« on: October 29, 2015, 07:33:24 am »

If your deck mostly emphasizes on the creatures' effects then you need to add cards that will keep them alive in combat, allow for them to reuse their effects and/or come back from the grave. However, if you're just going for the theme of vampires and you want the spells to do most of the work then make sure that they have long standing effects. Deck ratio wise I suggest starting the deck out with a little more than a 3rd of the deck being mana (this way it cuts down on mana droughts if you don't have the mana ramp going).The creature to spell ration depends solely on how you want to run the deck. I'd say 35% mana, 35% creatures, and 30% spells. Adjust this accordingly based off your play style. I always use more than 60 cards in a deck because I don't like using the minimum (but i never go over 70 cause that's too much in competitive play). But if it's mono vampires you want then shape up the deck based off the effects you're trying to use most often. For example, in my Esper (U/W/B) standard vampire deck I use black vampires and white kor allies. Though i had two creature types mostly and three colors I kept to the theme of kalastria healer with nirkana assassin, bloodbond vampire, and malakir familiar accordingly. I also combined these creatures with retreat to hagra, tandem tactics, pathway arrows (because a deathtouch creature dealing creature damage to another creature is still deathtouch damage even when using an artifact or enchantment to do so). So no matter what colors you choose, make sure the spells help the creatures or have the two work in unison.

2958

General Magic / Re: Favorite Combos

« on: October 27, 2015, 01:40:55 am »

Ok. But i just noticed that it says when the opponent searches their deck so that would would work if they use fetch lands and cards like evolving wilds right?

2959

Deck Reviews / Re: [EDH / Commander] Phenax mill control

« on: October 26, 2015, 06:59:38 am »

I recommend actually using some of the black zombies from theros and the blue and/or black zombies from innistrad. Creatures that have "when this creature enters the battlefield" effects and "when this creature dies" effects would go great in this deck. For instance: Geral'f mindecrusher, rotcrown ghoul, returned centaur, returned reveler. Also some note worthy cards are  escape from the underworld, mnemonic wall, and wspecially ghostly flicker which is a must have in a deck such as this. try playing ghostly flicker with geralf's mindecrusher after it has already used its undying effect. Instant repeat from a wonderfully dangerous creature. Food for thought though, creatures that make your opponent mill and/or discard by just being played (or dying in drainpipe vermin's case) serve a dual function. 

2960

General Magic / Planeswalking- Tips from Zendikar

« on: October 26, 2015, 06:49:19 am »

Hello fellow planeswalkers, I've been traveling on the plane of Zendikar for quite some time now and it appears (from the meta that I've been playing at least), that Tri-color decks are vary popular. An occasional four and five color deck has been seen but not in large quantities. Just a tip to all those playing Gruul (R/G), Jund (R/B/G) or just any deck that uses the theme of LAND DESTRUCTION: target the lands that the deck mostly pivots on. I know this may seem like a no brainer to most people but when you're playing against a 3-4 color deck blowing up or using  demolish on the correct land can be crucial to a mid-game swing for your victory. There are two very effective ways to make land destruction work in your favor:
   1. If you know the colors of the deck then destroy the colors that the deck pivots off of. For example, If its your JUND (R/B/G) deck against their ESPER (U/W/B) then 9 times out of ten you're gonna want to destroy their BLUE mana first to prevent them from playing cards such as cancel, dispel, spell shrivel, ulamog's nullifier, and even their creatures that have the blue devotion. This can save you from a lot of trouble  later and keep your opponent from interfering with your deck's main goal.

  2. This one may take a bit of skill and practice but if you don't actually know what the color focus is (if one exists) or how their deck seems to be running then begin color wiping. Even if the opponent is playing a lot of fetch lands and dual color lands then the match won't run as smoothly for them if their deck is running on only 1 or 2 colors when it's initial design was for 2 and 3 colors. Back to the Jund vs. Esper match up; even if Esper is using three colors, wipe out all of ONE color first and persistently. I usually do this by taking out the color that is in the least amount of quantity. This way their deck falls to being an Azorius (W/U), Orzhov (W/B) or Dimir (U/B). Different decks work in different manners but if you can cut off their resources and force them to use a particular color pair that you are familiar with then the odds will be more in your favor.
     I chose Esper as my target because the colors are mostly used in CONTROL based decks. Also referring back to those particular guilds (for anyone familiar with the RAVNICA block, those three guilds were highly proficient in stalling, life draining, and milling. All of which could be in any deck that uses those similar colors so forcing a person to one color color pair in a way limits their options which should give you an advantage over your opponent.Stay strong fellow planeswalkers, and I hope my advice is well received. 

2961

Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Sultai Eldrazi (WHAT DO YOU THINK?)

« on: October 26, 2015, 06:07:55 am »

Unfortunately the Agent is right, and I say this from experience playing at standard tournaments this month. I've played against a mono-white, Abzan, Mardu, Esper, grixis, four color and domain deck. The one thing that they all had in common was small creatures that hit for big damage or had board controlling effects. If you're going to run eldrazi which are either typically very big or very little then you'll need something to balance you out in the mean time. My recommendations are: Hedron archive (for mana ramp and for drawing), Carrier thrall (as a low drop creature that also makes eldrazi tokens), bone splinter (to kill creatures with your tokens and carrier thrall without actually fighting or swinging), kozilek's channeler (once you get the mana to make a creature that gives even more mana), youthful scholar (to let you draw cards even after he dies), retreat to coralheim (so you can scry as you play lands-best with evolving wilds for a double landfall trigger), swell to growth (to make small creatures large and to get some landfall triggers/ mana ramp going), rot shambler (to grow large as you sacrifice your eldrazi tokens), cancel (.....because why not?), Oran-Rief hydra (if the deck is mostly green then it'll get double +1/+1 counters for forest landfall), natural connection (to pull any basic land you need from your deck to the battlefield and to thin the deck more), reclaiming vines (to destroy lands primarily to slow down the opponent). Hopefully these suggestions help out the deck a bit.

2962

General Magic / Re: Abzan Zendikar Deck Idea

« on: October 26, 2015, 05:38:04 am »

Well I've finished building the deck and it actually did pretty well against a Jund elemental deck W/ land destruction. I busted out a couple of wins cause my rot shambler pulled through for me. Also I have two zulaport cuthroats (that I'm trying to get up to 4 of in my deck) so that I can combo those faster with my Kor ally tokens that are being eaten by the null.

2963

General Magic / Re: Favorite Combos

« on: October 26, 2015, 05:33:57 am »

Are there any black instances or sorcery cards from theros or tarkir that also have that capability? I probably have some cards from the older sets but I want to try and stay as up to date as possible.

2964

General Magic / Re: Favorite Combos

« on: October 24, 2015, 08:47:26 am »

Ob Nixilus unshackled + stain the mind.
Butcher of the horde + unified front.
Howlgeist + wreath of geists.

2965

General Magic / Abzan Zendikar Deck Idea

« on: October 24, 2015, 08:42:39 am »

Hey everyone I had an idea for a deck I planned on building and I thought that maybe someone might want to throw some ideas into the mix. The deck is going to be named "omnivore" and is going to utilize the voracious null combo with the retreat to emeria and grovetender druids. This way creatures are constantly being produced to be eaten quickly and the growth of my zombies will be insanely fast. This coupled with spells such as feat of resistance will ensure board presence and protection from most colors. Also by having rot shambler in the mix it would create quite the power creep. The deck has not been designed yet but some constructive feedback would be appreciated.

2966

General Magic / Re: Athreos question

« on: October 24, 2015, 08:30:07 am »

It would go to the graveyard first, then to your hand unless they pay the price. On the card (if you read carefully) it says "when another creature DIES...RETURN it to your hand. That means the creature died, went to the graveyard, and is now being placed back into your hand. So really the creature does not go directly from the battlefield to your hand.

2967

Deck Comments / Re: Budget Vampires BFZ - Comments

« on: October 24, 2015, 08:21:22 am »

A solid plan. Also you probably would want to sideboard some enchantment hate since vampires tend to be aggro and simple things like "tokens get -2/-2" could mess up a strategy like this.Safest thing is to make sure that you're getting the most out of your tokens because once they're gone it's bye-bye kor allies.

2968

Deck Comments / Re: Budget Vampires BFZ - Comments

« on: October 22, 2015, 08:05:04 am »

Hey an idea you might not have thought of yet would be to utilize tokens in your strategy. If you played the retreat to emeria (the white enchantment in case i misspelled) with your evolving wilds then you'd have a double landfall trigger which would give you 2 kor tokens. You could then sac those tokens to gain health, boost up your bloodbond vampire, give yourself more health, and give you card advantage if using the vampiric rites. just food for thought.

2969

Deck Reviews / Re: [Modern] Galadriel's Will

« on: October 22, 2015, 06:53:58 am »

I'm glad you like it so far. For enchantment decks i usually just look towards theros for any card ideas, that's where the majority of them can be found.

2970

Deck Comments / Re: Mono Black Vampire drain life / gain life - Comments

« on: October 21, 2015, 07:17:43 pm »

A couple of suggestions for this deck can be found in the new battle for zendikar set and I think that you would like them very much. If you use defiant bloodlord then every time you gain any amount of health your opponent automatically loses that much. If you don't mind giving your opponent some extra cards you could play damnable pact to reduce their health quickly (if you have the mana to spare). Also bloodbond vampire keeps gaining +1/+1 counters every time you gain health so it'd be easy for you to have your vampire turn into a 5/5 on the field in no time flat. Lastly make sure that you have plenty of monster recursion in your deck since I see spells appear to be a large majority of this deck. Adding mortuary mire to this deck will give you the black mana you need AND put a creature on top of your deck. Talking about card advantage.