MTGNexus

There were multiple guys in my group who'd get all the decks each year. And then they'd just sit there and collect dust. Five years later, I wonder if anyone's picking up the set this time around.

I'll actually score the populate deck and embark on a "precon improvement quest" - fiddle with the constituents using my existing card pool and trades. I did that with Daxos in 2015, and even though the deck was pitiful for ages it's some of the funnest building I ever had. I think back fondly on how the deck slowly figured out what it wants to do and started playing like an actual deck. That said, the populate list does not seem super heavy on trash at first glance...

Yea, I bought all of the decks every year up through the year they did experience counters. After that one I stopped buying all of the decks and looking more to see if there were decks I felt justified purchasing instead of assuming I wanted them all.

For the most part, I really don't need the reprints of much anymore unless its just a value buy on my end. Generally speaking if a deck has a $10+ new card and other new singles I want I will usually buy the deck (assuming MSRP) because the cost of one card just ends up being too much.

I have purged excess sol rings a few times at this point to cardkingdom lol.

I've been on vacation so I'm only seeing what passes through my Twitter feed, but I think the legendary creatures this year are for the most part a slam dunk. A number of them have me excited to build decks around.

Unrelated, did you read Sheldon's SCG article this week featuring a play by play of the four RC members playing a game at gencon? Gavin dropped a turn five "set you to 10" Sorin Markov. Brutal. I didn't show up until later kn so I missed that, but I did see him in the second game have Scott and Sheldon under a pretty strong Torpor Orb lockdown. I really wish i had been there sooner to hear the discussion that Sorin prompted.

Gavin clearly metagamed better than we did. Torpor Orb for me and Toby, Night of Soul's Betrayal for Scott. Clever and devious.

Sheldon wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Gavin clearly metagamed better than we did. Torpor Orb for me and Toby, Night of Soul's Betrayal for Scott. Clever and devious.

Oh, did he actually tell you he built stuff specifically for the game? Because that would make sense, even if it takes some of the fun out

Metagaming is more fun imo.

I am really tempted to buy Flashback and Madness decks. [mention]SocorroTortoise[/mention] create a Greven thread pls :D
EDIT: Nevermind, I didn't have my first coffee, I just saw the thread

bought a few cards for the first time in a while, got a Chromatic Lantern and a shiny Cry of the Carnarium out of the latest deckbuilder's toolkit! plus there's naturally interesting cards seeded in it like Risen Reef and Moldervine Reclamation. Didn't get any new legendaries, though, so I'm wondering what to build :3

someone told me I'd enjoy building a Shizo deck, anyone had any experience with that?

vandertroll wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I am really tempted to buy Flashback and Madness decks. SocorroTortoise create a Greven thread pls :D
EDIT: Nevermind, I didn't have my first coffee, I just saw the thread

I tallied up what cards I wanted from what decks, and Jeskai was the winner. I ordered that one, personally, and will just pick up the singles from the other decks.

folding_music wrote: ↑

4 years ago

bought a few cards for the first time in a while, got a Chromatic Lantern and a shiny Cry of the Carnarium out of the latest deckbuilder's toolkit! plus there's naturally interesting cards seeded in it like Risen Reef and Moldervine Reclamation. Didn't get any new legendaries, though, so I'm wondering what to build :3

someone told me I'd enjoy building a Shizo deck, anyone had any experience with that?

I could very well be wrong, (yup, 600+ creatures to look through for mono- alone) but I'm not sure there's a lot for Shizo to work with in mono-. If I was gonna build that deck I would use a multicolor general and have a tutor for Shizo, so you have more of a suite of effects.

So today while playing, another player and I ended up waiting for a game, so we played a few 1v1 to test out running a game on a turn timer. Kind of like chess, it's an idea to keep attentive and keep the pace moving.

We tried two 1v1's, one with a 2:30 timer that reset every start of natural turn (so you get 2:30 for you turn, + responses during other turns), and the second game we tried with a full-game 20 minute timer per player.

I've been intrigued by the idea of a timer, but I've had concerns about adding stress into the game, and the distraction it would add of fiddling with the phones every time you want to take priority - but honestly, it wasn't that bad.

I definitely found myself playing faster, in the first game, even with 2 and a half minutes to take, none of my turns took more than 30 seconds, and even my responses tended to take less than 30. I think the lowest I dropped to was around 1:45 on the timer on a particularly complex turn.

Our second game ended with me having 7:30 remaining, and him at around 8:30, though I had more responses on opposing turns.

This was 1v1 though, which simplifies things a lot, but it was interesting, and I feel better about giving it a try in a larger game.

I feel like having waited like a week since spoilers stopped for commander 2019 my hype level has dropped a bit. I don't actually have a commander I am ready to build as of right now of them. I still think maybe I would pick up the RB and Jeskai decks if I can get my hands on them at reasonable prices but like..... I don't really mind if my LGS doesn't have copies left for me when I get there.

I feel bad though that my LGS still has his first stocking of commander 2018 in stock though. I guess we will see how things go.

I'm not particularly hyped for this release. There's a general or two I'm interested in building and a couple cards I'll definitely run somewhere, but nothing that I'm frothing at the mouth to get my hands on.

I will admit that Fire Emblem is probably more to blame for that than anything else, though. I've played a lot of that in the last week and a half so my nerd brain hasn't spent much time on MtG in general.

SocorroTortoise wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I'm not particularly hyped for this release. There's a general or two I'm interested in building and a couple cards I'll definitely run somewhere, but nothing that I'm frothing at the mouth to get my hands on.

I will admit that Fire Emblem is probably more to blame for that than anything else, though. I've played a lot of that in the last week and a half so my nerd brain hasn't spent much time on MtG in general.

I love Fire Emblem but to be honest, the last three nintendo platforms I have owned I owned solely for those games. I just can't keep justifying that. I literally don't care about essentially any of their other franchises.

ISBPathfinder wrote: ↑

4 years ago

SocorroTortoise wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I'm not particularly hyped for this release. There's a general or two I'm interested in building and a couple cards I'll definitely run somewhere, but nothing that I'm frothing at the mouth to get my hands on.

I will admit that Fire Emblem is probably more to blame for that than anything else, though. I've played a lot of that in the last week and a half so my nerd brain hasn't spent much time on MtG in general.

I love Fire Emblem but to be honest, the last three nintendo platforms I have owned I owned solely for those games. I just can't keep justifying that. I literally don't care about essentially any of their other franchises.

When I bought the SNES classic the only game i cared about was Earthbound even after putting other roms on it, I was like "what now?" so i flipped it for store credit at game stop.

SocorroTortoise wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I will admit that Fire Emblem is probably more to blame for that than anything else, though. I've played a lot of that in the last week and a half so my nerd brain hasn't spent much time on MtG in general.

Three Houses has quietly killed what remained of my social life, and I'm pretty okay with it.

Airi wrote: ↑

4 years ago

SocorroTortoise wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I will admit that Fire Emblem is probably more to blame for that than anything else, though. I've played a lot of that in the last week and a half so my nerd brain hasn't spent much time on MtG in general.

Three Houses has quietly killed what remained of my social life, and I'm pretty okay with it.

Borderlands 2 is doing that to me at present - nice to have co op action with the wife, and with the new release in less than a month we're pretty hyped. We've......actually taken most of a week off work to dungeon up the house and shoot things.

ISBPathfinder wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I love Fire Emblem but to be honest, the last three nintendo platforms I have owned I owned solely for those games. I just can't keep justifying that. I literally don't care about essentially any of their other franchises.

I'll admit that I bought a switch mostly for Fire Emblem, but I'm also enjoying Zelda and SSBU. I'm typically more of a PC gamer. Nintendo has definitely kept up the quality on their handhelds though.

Airi wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Three Houses has quietly killed what remained of my social life, and I'm pretty okay with it.

I suspect my wife is very tired of how much time I've been spending playing that game by now.

On the magic side of things, some of the speculative buyouts make no sense to me. All I wanted was every hexproof dude at 3 CMC or less for a terrible Kestia, the Cultivator bogles list and stores are looking for hundreds of dollars for Zuo Ci, the Mocking Sage? How does anyone think they're going to unload those?

ISBPathfinder wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I feel like having waited like a week since spoilers stopped for commander 2019 my hype level has dropped a bit. I don't actually have a commander I am ready to build as of right now of them. I still think maybe I would pick up the RB and Jeskai decks if I can get my hands on them at reasonable prices but like..... I don't really mind if my LGS doesn't have copies left for me when I get there.

I feel bad though that my LGS still has his first stocking of commander 2018 in stock though. I guess we will see how things go.

SocorroTortoise wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I'm not particularly hyped for this release. There's a general or two I'm interested in building and a couple cards I'll definitely run somewhere, but nothing that I'm frothing at the mouth to get my hands on.

I will admit that Fire Emblem is probably more to blame for that than anything else, though. I've played a lot of that in the last week and a half so my nerd brain hasn't spent much time on MtG in general.

I'm excited for most of the generals, and as much as it pains me to say, the Naya deck in particular. I'm going to end up buying two sets of all the decks mainly to support my LGS. I also think since I spent enough time %$#% on the precons I'm going to attempt an experiment where I play the deck untouched for two weeks, rebuild it how I think the precon should have been built (keeping all the new cards in the deck) and play that for two weeks.


=================

In unrelated news I got a peek at the new features that will be built into the DECK tag (meaning when it goes live you won't have to make any changes or make a new list) and oh my god. HYPE.

cryogen wrote: ↑

4 years ago

In unrelated news I got a peek at the new features that will be built into the DECK tag (meaning when it goes live you won't have to make any changes or make a new list) and oh my god. HYPE.

Like, literally all of the hype. I cannot understate it.

I'm having trouble understanding what was implied (no changes/new list?), but nevertheless your enthusiasm has me optimistic. Feel free to elaborate if you want

Rumpy5897 wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I'm having trouble understanding what was implied (no changes/new list?), but nevertheless your enthusiasm has me optimistic. Feel free to elaborate if you want

Tools to sort by cmc or quantity, pricing tools, mana curve, hand sampler... all embedded in the traditional DECK tag that you're already using.

Ohhhhh, shiny. Gimme!

Feature request - allow reverting to whatever original categorisation was featured in the list. As you can currently sort by type, but then you can't go back.

cryogen wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I'm excited for most of the generals, and as much as it pains me to say, the Naya deck in particular. I'm going to end up buying two sets of all the decks mainly to support my LGS. I also think since I spent enough time %$#% on the precons I'm going to attempt an experiment where I play the deck untouched for two weeks, rebuild it how I think the precon should have been built (keeping all the new cards in the deck) and play that for two weeks.


=================

In unrelated news I got a peek at the new features that will be built into the DECK tag (meaning when it goes live you won't have to make any changes or make a new list) and oh my god. HYPE.

I think the value of the product is fine, its more that the commanders aren't really speaking to me personally. Beyond that I have been hearing about all of the shortages of this product and price hikes and it makes me kind of ok if I don't get my hands on it.

Looking forward to those improvements.

The appeal of Commander decks to me personally just keeps dropping year after year, although that's majorly my own fault since I want foils, but at the same time it's hard to be excited for them when the only foil cards are the Commanders (which is further compressed by the fact I already locked-in the color combinations of the decks I want to maintain, so almost all of them can't make the cut)... and the regular new exciting cards I need to guess which one gets the Judge Foil treatment 1 or 2 years later (I remembered being sarcastic about Teferi's Protection during previews saying how I excited I was to get the foil a year down the road since it was an easy predict).

I'm actually used/numb to it already, but turns out WotC has new ways to inject the same pain over again - announcing Brawl decks will great staples like Arcane Signet, announcing there's a way to get them without having to buy precons (Collector's Boosters) and then announcing those ancillary cards can never come in foil.

That being said, that Legendary Wall was probably the most appealing card to me this year, the only reason I'm not getting it is because I'm unwilling to let go of Ryusei due to the way I structured color balance in the deck (long story cut short I need to take out Alesha for Pramikon in the 3C slot and exchange Isperia (since Pramikon's taking its function role) for a BR deck since I have now lack the color pairing among my decks... which in turn means I need to exchange Ryusei for a Mono-W deck to rebalance how many times each color appears across all decks).

Wall strikes particularly hard because before I used to run Narset (when I was still experimenting) in an attempt to have pillowfort (which Pramikon is ideal for) but it didn't feel thematic flavor and mechanical-wise, so it eventually split into Alesha and Isperia whilst I was planning the structure for my decks. I didn't prefer Mono-Colored decks back in my experimental stage so I purposely made my structure include them, which was how Ryusei came in for color balance and now years later I enjoy the deck itself too much to let it go when they finally printed the ideal commander for the ideal color combination I wanted years back then.

Man, that new deck functionality is great stuff. Can not wait to have a play around.