Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Considering a new set and faster rotation is just around the block I figured now is a good time to reboot MtG discussion.

Looking back what dakkanauts are players, we're all pretty well spread out among formats so I'll start us off with some generic questions.

-What formats do you play?

-What decks do you use?(Outside limited of course)

-What's your worst matchup, and how do you prepare your sideboard for it?

-Do you look forward to drafting Battle for Zendikar?

-What cards interest you the most from the set?

-What are your thoughts on the Expedition cards(with a rarity of Mythic Foil)?

-Do you think any of the cards in BfZ will see play outside of Standard?

-What's your opinion of the faster rotation for Standard?

-What formats do you play?
Paper I play Limited and Modern.
On MTGO I'm getting into Standard, Modern, Pauper, and Limited.
-What decks do you use?(Outside limited of course)
Paper Modern-
Affinity and Dune Burn. building R/G Tron, Merfolk, and maybe Infect.
MTGO-
Standard-
RDW
Modern-
RDW
Pauper-
RDW and white equipment.
-What's your worst matchup, and how do you prepare your sideboard for it?
As Affinity it used to be American control, now it would probably be Grixis but no one plays it at my shop that I know of. I'd probably side in Thoughtseizes, Blood Moon, and Spellskites
With Burn, I haven't really had a match that I felt disadvantaged at yet, so I can't really comment on it.
-Do you look forward to drafting Battle for Zendikar?
I'm hesitantly looking forward to it. Seems a little underpowered.
-What cards interest you the most from the set?
Retreat to Coralhelm for now. Kiora looks fun.
-What are your thoughts on the Expedition cards(with a rarity of Mythic Foil)?
I wish they were actually full arts and not 1/3 still obscured by a text box. How rare they are doesn't affect me since I don't pimp out decks, but if I open one I'll gladly get the store credit for it.
-Do you think any of the cards in BfZ will see play outside of Standard?
Maybe the Tangolands will see some fringe play, such as splashes for Merfolk.
Not really anything else I don't think.
-What's your opinion of the faster rotation for Standard?
I don't play standard much, so it doesn't really bother me.

I don’t play MTGO online at all.

For Paper magic, I play Standard, Modern and Commander.
My most recent Standard deck has been Abzan control. Generally I’ll wait a bit, or play booster drafts at the beginning of every set until the top decks have been established. Then I just copy and adjust for my meta.

I play standard the most though, usually 2 times a week, sometimes more if there is a GP or special event nearby, and things like gamesday.
I play modern usually once a week, in which I have Affinity, and RUG/Grixis Delver. I’m currently working on getting a Junk/Abzan deck.
I play commander quite a bit too. Currently the only “serious” Commander deck I have is a Marath deck. I have all the prebuilt ones, though I generally don’t play them that often. I haven’t decided on my next Commander yet. I’m looking a Ghave, Oloro, or Nekusar.

I've been playing Magic since Invasion dropped in 2000. No MTGO

I avoid Standard. I play Modern, Commander, and getting into Legacy

For Modern, I play a mono black discard deck. 15 Lands, mana curve of 2. I rarely play the deck at events due to school taking up my weeknights
I'm building a Legacy Reanimator. All I need now to finish the deck are playsets of Underground Sea and Force of Will. Testing the deck vs a bunch of players who play Legacy at my store has me very consistently winning turn 2-3.

My real time sink is Commander. A few months ago, my store began running commander tourneys on Sundays. So far, in a few months of not missing a night, the lowest I've placed is 3rd.
For the most part, I only play Stax decks. The idea of playing scorched earth tactics and watching my opponent struggle to play their deck appeals to me, and sacrifice removal is by far the most powerful type of removal in the game.
I try to play in a way that would make my playmat proud:



My pride and joy Commander deck is my Thraximundar Zombie Tribal Stax deck. The deck has been tweaked and worked now for 4 years, and it's at a point where I'm comfortable playing the deck vs any other deck.
For the 1v1 tourney though ( not French list), I play Zur the Enchanter. In the event that my store switches to the French list, I've got a Braids, Cabal Minion deck in the wing since she was unbanned.
Right now I'm building Ghave Stax. A month ago, I managed to pick up a Tabernacle of the Pendrall Vale in a yard sale. It will be joining in with cards like Living Plane, Humility, and Moat. I'm planning on this being my WMD deck.
I've got Chainer, Marchesa suicide deck, and Nekusar being constructed right now too. Slightly less competitive builds. Slightly.

The card that interests me most is Smothering Abomination. Thrax, Marchesa, Chainer, and Ghave are all Sac Engines. And having the effect be on a creature is good for me because I tend to have a habit of going light on creatures, which can make facing some aggro decks a little bit harsher than I like.

Sigarda and Tajuru Preserver are now commonly meta'd in all green decks against me. I am forced to get around Tajuru Preserver with removal, and Sigarda with board wipes.

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Considering a new set and faster rotation is just around the block I figured now is a good time to reboot MtG discussion.

I am completely out of loop when it comes to MtG but: faster rotation? Does that mean even faster rotation of sets than currently? Wow.

Backfire wrote:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Considering a new set and faster rotation is just around the block I figured now is a good time to reboot MtG discussion.

I am completely out of loop when it comes to MtG but: faster rotation? Does that mean even faster rotation of sets than currently? Wow.

IIRC, it's not a faster rotation, just more constant. Instead of the third set in a block spending less time in Standard than the first set in a block, they all spend about the same amount of time in Standard.

I'm pretty much out of Magic myself, and the gross incompetence shown by WotC's digital team is not helping. The WotC forums used to be great, then they changed services and threw out the old forums, then they moved to another new service which was even worse, then they broke comments on Gatherer and never bothered to fix it, then they deleted two weeks worth of posts, and now they're just abandoning the pretense and deleting the whole thing.

So, with the Battle For Zendikar spoilers, what does everyone think?

The format is slowing down, and it is a weaker set for sure. But the power curve had to come down sometime, it was escalating too much.

Overall, it still looks like Abzan is going to be top dog, but we will see.

 Sasori wrote:
So, with the Battle For Zendikar spoilers, what does everyone think?

While they are not the worst idea ever to come to Magic (that would be Innstrad's Double-Faced Cards), I hate the Processors. Time Spiral's cards that apply only to suspended cards were good, and I'm fine with that griffon that could come back from exile on its own, but mass interference with the exile zone regardless of source is a stupid idea that should never have been printed.

And in general, I liked the original Zendikar idea of the Plane of Adventuring a lot more than what it turned into after the Eldrazi showed up.

Have to agree with folks here. The original idea for Zendikar was much better than the current theme.

I'll be glad to see the second set, and hopefully a higher power level.

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Have to agree with folks here. The original idea for Zendikar was much better than the current theme.

I'll be glad to see the second set, and hopefully a higher power level.

I don't think the power level is going to go up during the second set. It seems to be that they are trying to drop the power level quite a bit, so that creep doesn't get out of control. I imagine for the next several blocks we'll see it around the same level, with only marginal increases for a while.


I actually really enjoy the Ingest/Procecessor mechanics. I think they are very flavorful for the Eldrazi.