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Deck Comments / Re: You're an Infinite War-Wizard, Harry. - Comments

« on: July 21, 2017, 02:29:17 pm »

Revision 4

Added/removed cards:
-2 Refuse // Cooperate
+2 Built to Smash
+3 Expedite
+2 Zada, Hedron Grinder

Changed amounts:
-1 Chandra's Defeat
-1 Countervailing Winds
-1 Jori En, Ruin Diver
-1 Soul-Scar Mage
-1 Trophy Mage

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General Magic / Re: Mirage Mirror ruling question--

« on: July 19, 2017, 07:14:55 pm »

Yeah, I think that's the negative I'm finding with this card. I really want to use it, just don't know what for yet.

After the Fraying Sanity copy-failure, I figured maybe I could do equipment copy effects and use Sigarda's Aid to trigger equipment equips without having to pay the cost. However, since none of what Mirage Mirror ends up copying enters the battlefield, that too, seems like a lost idea.

Thanks for the reply! Now, back to the drawing board to try to find where to stick this card...

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General Magic / Mirage Mirror ruling question--

« on: July 19, 2017, 05:46:07 pm »

Howdy folks,

I'm trying to make a deck and I had a fun idea that revolved around the use of Mirage Mirror to copy Enchantment - Aura cards. Essentially what I wanted to do was utilize Fraying Sanity, attach it to the other player and then periodically copy Fraying Sanity with Mirage Mirror. Unfortunately, while doing my due diligence to ensure all cards work as thought, I came across this text for the card-ruling;

"6/27/2017 If Mirage Mirror becomes a copy of an Aura, it’s put into its owner’s graveyard unless it’s somehow attached to an appropriate object or player already. If it becomes a copy of an Equipment and is attached to a creature, it’ll become unattached when it becomes a non-Equipment artifact again."

So, if I'm understanding this correctly if I have Fraying Sanity copy an Aura, it won't be attached to anything, so it'll go directly to the graveyard? That's how I'm reading the text right now. May I get a second opinion on this part?

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General Magic / Re: Deck Changes for Hours of Devastation

« on: July 16, 2017, 07:54:15 am »

I'm adding in a very satisfying interaction from the new set that's made me quite happy! Trophy Mage ---> Gate of the Afterlife --> God Pharoah's Gift. I ran this interaction in a deck on Friday and it's satisfying to start grabbing crap from people's graveyards on turn 4. Turn 5 if you have to get Gate of the Afterlife with Trophy Mage. Also my favorite fun interaction for the night my opponent wasn't expecting, thanks to some Mirage Mirror action! Glorybringer swoops in on his turn, attacks, doesn't exert. On my turn I mirage mirror Glorybringer, attack opponent, exert to do the additional 4 to kill Glorybringer. Mirage Mirror pops back to being an artifact again at the end of turn. Pure happiness.

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General Magic / Re: Hour of Devastation SPOILERZ

« on: June 29, 2017, 04:54:22 pm »

Welp, just thought about cloning Crested Sunmare with multiple Mirage Mirrors to create multiple tokens during life-gain. That shouldn't be a super hard condition to accomplish. Goodbye horses.

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General Magic / Re: Hour of Devastation SPOILERZ

« on: June 27, 2017, 02:33:56 pm »

-1/-1 has been my favorite mechanic, so I'm excited to see all these new cards that support that style of play. I haven't had much time to experiment or build my -1/-1 deck since Amonkhet was released (how the 'eff is Hour of Devastation almost here? I've played like 3 times), but Scorpion God and some of the new black spells look amazing!

I think the card I'm most excited about for possibilities is the Mirage Mirror. 3 cost artifact with a 2 cost ability that allows it to copy a target creature, artifact, enchantment or land until the end of turn. The possibilities here are really cool, especially since it doesn't specify just things you control. I haven't given much thought to what I could possibly do outside of just copying a Nest of Scarabs enchantment or even a card with "X" ability, but it still makes me excited! Definitely one I'm hoping to pull/play with on prerelease.

Any other cards from the set you guys are just dying to try?

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Deck Reviews / [Standard] Enter the Battlefield Copy-Cat

« on: May 12, 2017, 04:17:26 pm »

Enter the Battlefield Copy-Cat

This deck is built around the idea of copying enter the battlefield minions; Combustible Gearhulk/Verdurous Gearhulk ideally, but also to copy any creatures your opponent might use.

This is all about fun little combinations to make this deck work effectively, you have the flicker options to enter the battlefield and save key component cards and trigger more of these copycat abilities.

Geistblast is to do a little bit of damage while at the same time, being able to exile it from your graveyard so you get another flicker trigger with some of the spells--that or duplicate Harnessed Lightning for effectively more damage.

Plus when a creature is cast with Kefnet Monument on the field, an opponent's creature can't untap until next turn. I'm hoping the early game with Greenbelt Rampager, Channeler Initiate can carry me into the mid/late game where this deck just becomes more powerful thanks to the combinations.

The sideboard is for drawing a bit more with the cycling ability for censor, cartouche to give +1/+1 flying and drawing abilities.

I thought this could be a fun idea. If there's anything you recommend, please, feel free.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Jund Scarabs--oh my!

« on: May 08, 2017, 04:14:57 pm »

Grixis is sounding better and better for this deck. I've wanted to test the embalm mechanic out ever since I first saw it (I like testing just about everything actually), so that would be awesome. I'm a lot more comfortable using blue than most of my colors. Splendid Agony was something I was originally running and it worked wonderfully! Then I came across Make Obsolete and thought it would be a better fit due to -1/-1 all your opponent's creatures, then I could just black 'en mass with the generated scarabs. I just misread the card due to it not actually triggering Nest of Scarabs. It made me so sad. On the turn I was trying to play it I would have generated 16 scarabs; 2 Nest of Scarab enchantments were on the battlefield, it would've been amazing.

I've always been a bit more comfortable with blue compared to anything else. The utility in the draw and combat tricks suit my more passive/indirect play-style, so I think I'll go for Grixis!

That combination for Scribe of the Mindful and Supernatural Stamina looks great! Supernatural Stamina in general looks like a great way to save a card that helps with the total engine. I'm all for trying this deck when I get the next opportunity to play.

Well, with this build--aside from my issues with -1/-1 and -1/-1 counters, most of the cards combo'd or interacted off one another in a very cohesive way, or so I thought. I really, really did not expect to have my ass handed to me so thoroughly with my current generation build. Almost none of the combos effectively worked--there were small, shreds of interaction light that came through on occasion, like the Soul Scar Mage/Harnessed Lightning combo, but overall it just had no real good win-con. Even flipping Westvale Abbey wasn't the game-ender I thought it would be since there weren't really any cards to help support it.

I think my theory on how the deck was built was mildly correct, I just really tried too hard to support the engine production itself, rather than supporting the conditions the engine could thrive in.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Jund Scarabs--oh my!

« on: May 07, 2017, 07:21:58 pm »

I think the colors i chose might have been wrong for it.

The cycling isn't enough to make it workand since you need very specific cards to kick the engine into high gear, it mivht be more beneficial to run in a blue/black environment. I went very light on my curve, only 3 4 drops and that was the highest cost i had. I ran 24 lands, which was probanly a big mistake given the curve i had. I loved the red aspect of the deck, trigfering prowess on a Soul Scar Mage using Harnessed Lightning to -4/-4 on a Gearhulk, then kill it during combat felt incredible. After that, making 4 insects with Nest of Scarabs was fantastic.

I had a few hiccups Make Obselete doesn't place -1/-1 counters on an opponent, so no Scarab trigger. Really, really killed me there lol.

 I genuinely believe that since indestructible is being more prevalent  (the gods and Gideon still being massively played) that Soul Scar Mage will be an incredible asset to have in the future. I want to use him more, so red is definitely more of a component of my future deck. I was debating going red/blue/black, using Soul Scar and the aggressive red prowess creatures to trigger the -1/-1 counters while splashing black solely for fatal push/nest of scarabs.

Not sure though, those were my initials thoughts after just getting my ass kicked.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Jund Scarabs--oh my!

« on: May 06, 2017, 06:05:12 pm »

I got rekt on Friday night with this thing lol, 4 matches total after i got off work and only the first one came close (got him down to 6, he was playing Sultai Delirium again!). The rest of the games were me struggling to get the scarab engine online.

Westvale Abbey flip in 3/4 games so that worked consistently. In the turn i flipped he had a sacrifice a creature spell, so, didn't expect it. I had to sac Westvale Abbey. Another was a grasp of darkness x2, one from his hand and one from using the new Nissa to flash it onto the battlefield. Overall, very nasty stuff.

I did find quite a lot of fun in Soul Scar Mage though. I think that card is just incredible. I bought a playset since i enjoyed it so much. Overall, by the end of the night i was pretty frustrated with how it turned out. The deck arguably has so many 1/2 drops it should have been relatively aggressive with consuming fervor, yet each time i couldn't play a creature(never saw any of my 2 drops in all 4 games, except Hapatra and one Channel Initiate).

I even rebalanced the deck, took the count down to 60, removed outnumber and Kozilek's return in favor of more cycling options and more creatures. Nadda. I'm still just confused about what happened lol, theoretically this ans the modified deck should have at least been a small force to reckon with. My last week 1st build of the deck did better than my built version!

When the engine came online it was really great, but it just wouldn't run consistent. It was a 4 cylinder car running on 1. I have 3 4 drops in my deck, all Soulstinger, i drew 2 of them on round 3 and couldn't play a creature till turn 4.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Jund Scarabs--oh my!

« on: May 04, 2017, 07:43:29 pm »

I guess that's a good way to go about ensuring the deck works. I think my issue is I get too wrapped up in the idea of how do I make X work, rather than what are X's weakness and how I can support it?

I know it doesn't have to be competitively viable, but that wonderful part of my brain that says 'you can do it, man!' chimes in to remind me that viability of the cards in Magic is what drew me to the game to begin with. I made this deck while working (I am right now!) so I can piece together the small card pieces in a small, minimized window while I do other work--but play-testing or balancing them is another matter. Aside from that, I've run out of time, tomorrow is the big 1 on 1 game where I get to see this thing in action!  Thanks a lot for the help, G.Moto! That's a lot of the reason why I started coming on here, so many helpful/informative people to help you carve out a solid foundation for an idea.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [Standard] Jund Scarabs--oh my!

« on: May 04, 2017, 02:37:01 pm »

I did really enjoy using Soulstinger the last time I played! I think I minimized the amount to account for some of the more aggressive decks that my friend told me about. He's played me with something like Mardu Vehicles before or the token deck, and both of those were alarmingly aggressive to the point of not being able to breathe for a turn.

Since I was using Soul-Scar Mage for the -1/-1 board wipe idea, or the hammering home with some of the instant-pain spells, I wasn't going to play it very often as an initial start of the game. I do love Soulstinger quite a bit though. God it was fun to play with, so I might say screw it and throw it in for play-testing this Friday anyways.

I'm glad I'm on the right track--the clearing up of Soul-Scar Mage helped me out with a lot of ideas! I wanted to originally use Heaven/Earth, but I was afraid of the double-cost red. I still think I'm missing some more removal, so I was going to spot Fatal Push into the sideboard? If I don't have board control my engine won't be very good at getting the Nest of Scarabs triggers online.

I'm really, really bad at finding out what works/what doesn't without playing though. I wish I could visualize how the deck would work in my head, but the only reason it's built like this to begin with is because this is the bones of the deck I played last week in real life.

Sideboard would probably be a bit more spot removal; Fatal Push, potentially Grasp of Darkness (though I hate the double B for a tri deck!), Soulstinger additions and uhhh...that's all I can think of. I'm not a very strong player, so making the ideas work hardly ever works out well for me. >.< I'm getting better at it, but not enough to make them tier 1.

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Deck Reviews / [Standard] Jund Scarabs--oh my!

« on: May 03, 2017, 08:55:37 pm »

Jund Scarabs--oh my!

Generate -1/-1 tokens with Nest of Scarabs out! Due to the nature of how this deck operates, it will utilize very low powered minions to get damage across to an opponent, which means you need to overwhelm your opponent with outright numbers.

As long as Soul-Scar Mage is on the field every bit of damage outside of combat deals -1/-1 counters, which means Harnessed Lightning, Kozilek's Return, Outnumber, Deem Worthy--all these damage spells yields -1/-1 counters whenever Soul-Scar Mage is on the board. You can wipe your own Scarab board and your opponents with Kozilek's Return while at the same time generating a higher number of scarabs per round! Fantastic!

The ultimate goal is to flip Westvale Abbey off the token sacrifice while at the same time having a decently aggressive early game in Greenbelt Ravage, Consuming Fervor, Hapatra, Channeler Initiate, etc.,

There is minimal counterspell/remove -1/-1 counters in Hapatra's Mark, just in case you want to save something specific for the engine. I didn't do the lands because I don't have dice in front of me and I need to see it in action first.

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General Magic / Re: Most promising deck in Amonkhet standard?

« on: May 03, 2017, 02:39:31 pm »

I think you both definitely just convinced me to go for a full Jund build this upcoming weekend. I've always been a bit wary of tri-colors, but I'm going to give it a shot when I play on Friday.

Yeah, Soul-Scar Mage makes a lot more sense now. I thought Source implied something static on the board, like a permanent or something to that effect. I was thinking Glorybringer or Walking Ballista triggers would be the thing to apply the -1/-1 counters. I guess they technically count but the conditions to apply the -1/-1 counters are a lot easier to meet when I can factor in the utility of instants or sorceries! It just made Soul-Scar Mage much more palatable.

I took a look at both of your decks, G. Moto! Definitely gave me some inspiration about how to format my own, thanks. I have quite a bit of building/modifying today and tomorrow. Ironically my friend is dropping the blue in his Sultai deck, now he's back to just straight Jund Delirium. Boo.

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General Magic / Re: Most promising deck in Amonkhet standard?

« on: May 02, 2017, 05:59:42 pm »

I'm very interested in using Consuming Fervor--we opened a full box, but only managed to pull 1 somehow? That confused me to no end. Anoiter Priest is one I haven't considered yet, awesome idea!

I'm debating more going black/red, both for Consuming Fervor (we're heading to our LGS to pick up cards we want for our decks and Soul-Scar Mage. Unfortunately I don't play very often, so attempting to decipher the wording on Soul-Scar Mage confused me a tiny bit. Actually going Black/Red/Green sounds fantastic to me as well. I can't make up my mind lol. I've been going through Deckstat's card database to try and narrow it down before I play this upcoming Friday.

Any recommendations from your experience?