Had an amusing (and durdley) game yesterday. Drew a bunch of cards, combo'd with Urza, Powerstone Prodigy + Artificer's Intuition to make a bunch of powerstones, and gained 40 life with Fumigate . Swapping around a few cards to try out some new tech. Sculpting Steel → Synth Infiltrator - not sure ab...

Swapping around a few cards to try out some new tech. I'm expecting the next update to be a bit larger - I'd like to try out all of the gold OTJ cards, plus I noticed Loyal Retainers is now a budget card, which has some interesting implications. Dictate of Erebos → Kaya, Spirits' Justice - Dictate i...

I saw someone use Map the Frontier to fetch Arid Archway yesterday and was inspired to start this thread. I feel like conventional wisdom is to focus on untapped lands and lots of fixing when building a manabase, but we have received some interesting land types over the years that allow for more int...

and Simic Growth Chamber are my current top picks. I have been really warming to the karoos lately. The virtual card advantage plus extra landfall they provide is often really good. :D Indeed. They can sometimes feel a bit clunky, but they're a fantastic way to make up for a mulligan and avoid miss...

Got in two games yesterday. The first one went pretty terribly due to a mull to 5. I technically won, but it felt pretty undeserved - my opponents effectively ignored me and took each other out. The last opponent took out another player instead of me, but ended up at three life while I had a Creepin...

Sliver Queen is alright, but too expensive for most people to consider running. The oversized version is technically cheaper, but still pretty expensive ($80 or so). Her token-producing ability is quite efficient and capable of churning out more slivers, especially if you have Manaweft Sliver or an...

There are a couple of creatures that can repeatedly blink stuff, and Galepowder Mage ... is one of them. In the context of uw blink decks, you have Brago, King Eternal , Meneldor, Swift Savior , and Soulherder as options, plus stuff like Thassa, Deep-Dwelling and Teleportation Circle . I think Galep...

Of the various one mana cantrips, I would say Brainstorm is pretty high-variance in terms of deck construction. It's hard to go wrong with Ponder or Preordain , and I love Thought Scour and Consider for graveyard-based decks (which is most of them). But Brainstorm? In a vacuum, I don't think it's ve...

Yes, you can. 406.3. Exiled cards are, by default, kept face up and may be examined by any player at any time. Cards "exiled face down" can't be examined by any player except when instructions allow it. However, if a player is instructed to look at a card and then exile it face down, or on...

Changes! I ordered a bunch of singles to spruce up the deck and replace some of the more questionable inclusions. Obnoxiously, half of my order was stolen (which included Vaevictis and all the cascade stuff. I got everything refunded, at least), which means I can't fully shift into the Glimpse of To...

This seems like a reasonable moment to acknowledge @3drinks dedication. On Salvation, there were 3 RCotD threads from November 2013 → July 2019, passing from Cryogen to LouCypher to me, 5 years and 8 months, a little less than 2 years per person. This thread has been going for 4 years and 9 months,...

Changes! The main highlights are: cutting some of the ur spellslinger cards in favor of more artifact support. adding a few more enchantments in bg mixing up the colorless options a bit, and trimming some of the draft-matters cards. I'm planning to add a little more enchantment support in black. Not...

3drinks wrote: ↑

5 days ago

Did we? %$#% there's so many new cards i can't keep up anymore 😛

Right here

...but yeah, there are a lot of new cards these days.

Based on my analysis from a few months ago , I have Recurring Nightmare as 'might be unbanned someday'. My primary concerns are that it tends to lead to repetitive gameplay and that it is difficult to interact with outside countermagic. The fact that is an expensive RL card (and likely to explode in...

Xenic Poltergeist is theoretically black artifact removal - turn an artifact into a creature, then kill it with Doom Blade or whatever (but not Terror ). Not particularly efficient, but it works if you're desperate. I think black has better options these days though... not necessarily good options,...

Swapping around some stuff in the interest of testing new cards. I've recently felt like I have a little too much air in the deck - ramp is great, and Tasigur is a great mana sink, but four mana for a card can feel painful at times. I'm adding in a little more card draw to offset this. Adds: Up the ...

Screeching Scorchbeast seems like one of the stronger support cards in its precon - even with a once per turn restriction preventing it from going infinite with Altar of Dementia , I could still see it generating 6+ tokens per turn cycle just off its attack trigger. It is six mana, and you probably...

Swapping around a few cards and improving the manabase a bit. Adds: Melek, Reforged Researcher Lórien Revealed Evacuation Restless Spire Fiery Islet Thundering Falls Cuts: Path of the Pyromancer Immolating Gyre Izzet Guildgate Swiftwater Cliffs Wandering Fumarole Evolving Wilds Path of the Pyromance...

Making two small swaps - one minor, one major. Hedron Archive → Fellwar Stone - the minor change. I lost a game recently due to having no off-color mana to activate a stolen Selvala, Heart of the Wilds , so adding another source. I think Hedron Archive is currently the most replaceable mana rock in ...

Swapping around a few cards. Perilous Forays → Elvish Piper - Perilous Forays has always had a bit of tension in this deck because I don't have a token or sacrifice theme. Sacrificing nontoken creatures is a pretty hefty cost. Indeed, I feel like the average cost of my creatures has crept up over ti...

Outlaws of Thunder Junction spoilers out! I think the mechanics are a bit of a miss for this deck - I only have 6 or so cards that are crimes, and a single outlaw. The Bg creatures in graveyard theme sort of works with this deck, but I'm a bit creature-light to fully benefit from it. Still, plenty o...

How to fix Sen Triplets , 2024 edition: now has 'Ward [sym=3]'! Sen Triplets are pretty meh, IMO. They were never particularly powerful, but people hate having their things stolen, which means they tend to draw a lot of hate. Not necessarily as immediately powerful as (insert scary broken commander ...

Outlaws of Thunder Junction spoilers are out, and it brings some very interesting things for this deck, both in the main set and the Desert-focused Naya precon. There are also a surprising number of creatures in the set with tap abilities, plus a number of cards with 'whenever this becomes tapped' o...

Ezrim, Agency Chief is certainly sweet - 5/5 flyer for 5 with multiple potentially keywords, plus he's a sac outlet for artifacts and can do all the clue synergies. There's definitely some tension though - you'll want to hold open both mana and expendable artifacts if you want to protect Ezrim, plu...

Outlaws of Thunder Junction spoilers out! Lots of interesting stuff in the set, both for this deck and others. I counted my creatures, and I somehow have eight outlaws in my current build (mostly rogues and warlocks). I don't think that's enough to support any outlaw synergies, but certainly higher ...