Is Smothering Tithe a good card when it is a 4 mana do-nothing until your opponents next draw phase? It doesn't break even until your opponents collectively draw 4 cards. But I think we can agree that in practice it is more than worth the investment. The tax is twice as much, the payoff is mana ins...

How does this combo run? Requires a moving pieces to get going, but a mix of-- * some number of cycling lands maybe (to help with topdeck tutors) * Takenuma, Abandoned Mire can play a role in here too (since you can dredge it back with a cycling land or a draw trigger and use it to recur analyst) *...

The forthcoming is a bit of a rant. Feel free to try to convince me but I really don't care, I'm just venting. :D A small legend SP - Study player Rhystic Study This card is not good in most scenarios. The only reason it's "good" is because your opponents are making poor play decisions, an...

Ripples of Undeath too - highly playable and synergistic. How is it too much mana? 2 to cast, and 1 to draw? Mill 3 every turn for free. Think hard about what percentage of the time this is worse than Night's Whisper -- it's like..almost always. We just have way better options to be playing. Hell, ...

Anyone want to discuss a couple other relevant spoilers? Links to spoilers in bulleted list below: Warren Soultrader (obvious staple is obvious) Spymaster's Vault (New connive utility land) Ripples of Undeath (Black Sylvan Library ) Chthonian Nightmare (Fixed Recurring Nightmare) Final Act (New bla...

I don't know that I like 5 mana payoffs ( Skirge Familiar Bone Miser ) - really just not necessary. You can win the game handily by just beating face with swampwalking zombies without having to spend 5 mana, just Entomb Filth , or draining the table out, or more mana efficient resilient combos made ...

The land is a little rough, but doesn't look too bad in this first draft just editing off my existing deck somewhat: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/BpoC7xBO2EKyghmhu6-8fw Can certainly include several combos. Ashnod's is only $5. That looks massively rough and I don't like your chances of hitting V...

Thaumatic Compass // Spires of Orazca makes it look pretty bad, and then like actual cards make Thaumatic Compass // Spires of Orazca look pretty bad. :D

The game is so, so, so, so far past where you can spend 5 mana to draw a card.

I have found The Meathook Massacre to be an exceptional finisher-answer for a Field deck. You can just hook for x=2 and kill everyone after attacking usually.

Any of you folks have a budget version of Varina? There's a weekly league that I am considering with a $150 budget cap. I was thinking Yuriko, but then thought Varina could probably get under that cap without giving up too much of the game plan. The biggest pain is losing a lot of untapped fixing, ...

To be honest, lands like this, and Field of the Dead, are precisely why I still have Strip Mine , Tectonic Edge , and Demolition Field in my decks. When you do strong things, can't be salty about opponents wanting to stop them. ;) I don't find myself striping lands much at all, so little so that I ...

Dunadain wrote: ↑

1 day ago

Stickers are banned in legacy and vintage! 🎉🎉🎉

Good lord what a stupid ass idea stickers were.

This is the kind of stuff that causes my interest in Magic to fluctuate so wildly. I hope this set tanks...but it won't. Yeah, it's at the point where almost every new set completely obsoletes a variety of old playstyles and strategies, so if you're playing out in the wild like I often do, you're b...

The only enchantress I play much anymore; 3 mana is too much for the effect for me. I play this one and Sythis, Harvest's Hand and sometimes Eidolon of Blossoms (since it can be Open the Vaults'd)

My god, they seem absolutely dead set on invalidating any card not made in the last 5 years.

I really do not understand how you can possibly walk back from the kind of power creep going on.

Hi all! I've been lurking for a while understanding card decisions and making some changes my varania. Couple of questions I have while learning to pilot what do you all typically tutor for with enlightened and vampiric/diabolic? Also, what are your thoughts on raise the palisade? Would love some t...

Hi all, its been a while. Today we got a very promising zombie sacrifice outlet [Warren Soultrader] from an unofficial leak. 2B - 3/3 zombie goblin wizard Pay 1 life, sacrifice another creature: create a treasure token. This seems very easy to abuse and interested to hear your thoughts. Hopefully w...

materpillar wrote: ↑

2 days ago

Speaking of random meetups. Anyone going to GenCon this year? I'll probably be there some.

We are planning to go next year when kiddos a little older and has had some time to learn dnd (she's starting a club for it at the library this summer :D).

Had an interesting game with this deck against decks I forgot; one of them was an The Ur-Dragon dragon tribal that friggin Balefire Dragon 'd me which was very unpleasant, on the eve of me cutting Nylea's Intervention :( A Haktos the Unscarred deck finally won the day by killin us, and I couldn't qu...

Had a pretty good game with Ephara in which, was is becoming typical, at least one player starts shuffling up out of sheer demoralization. Against Tivadar of Thorn , Zask, Skittering Swarmlord and Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist in which I dunno stuff happened. I can't pretend to remember everything tha...

I also have this funny section of my brain going "you need to crank the powerlevel of your decks some to match that meta" which I don't want to do because most of them are perfectly placed in my current meta. Yeah games like those make me feel like I should crank it up honestly (except fo...

materpillar wrote: ↑

3 days ago

I feel like my internet credibility might have taken at hit from the absolute shlocking I got. Maybe not.

No way, commander is just too big of a random factor to make any assumptions like that.

Can confirm Anzrag, the Quake-Mole is great at least. I popped him off a Mosswort Bridge on turn 5 or 6 and won off activating his trigger the next turn even though he died (since he untapped my 12/12 Bloodthirster who had been tapped by a Koma, Cosmos Serpent who ran out of sneks). My read on that ...

First of all materpillar it was awesome hanging with you, thanks for makin the drive! I really enjoyed getting to see some decks I've followed for years in person. I'm now very much on team ban Sol Ring. Same, it ruins every game it shows up in pretty much. Adds very little to the format. But if you...

Man I just really like Tymaret, the Murder King. No real great reason for it. It's a bad card for the most part. :D