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How does Lavinia of the Tenth work against Token creatures? When she enters play, she Detains all creatures with a CMC of 4 or less.

Do Tokens use the CMC of the card that created them, or do they just count as having a CMC of 0?

 Slarg232 wrote:
How does Lavinia of the Tenth work against Token creatures? When she enters play, she Detains all creatures with a CMC of 4 or less.

Do Tokens use the CMC of the card that created them, or do they just count as having a CMC of 0?

Tokens have a CMC of 0

Alright so I've just started playing this with my mates. We pretty much only play near-pauper multiplayer (mostly commons with a few rares in each deck) and I'm wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of some decks or playstyles or whatever that are good fun?

Currently run some variation of a Red Goblin spam deck, generally with a bunch of "tap, 1 damage to target player / all opponents" type cards. Either bum rush them with heaps of boosted Goblins or sit back, build up a huge defense, and grind everyone down all at once with my tap/player damage cards.

I've always been a fan of green, and trample decks are my favorite go-to. Good ways to learn different deck types are either looking at decklists people have posted online, or by playing people and seeing how they make their decks. Challenge yourself- go look up a few deck lists, and see if you can piece together how they work (try playtesting them if the site supports that) just by reading through the card list!

So I bought the Tibalt vs Sorin duel deck. Even looking at Tibalts deck makes me feel like an donkey-cave.

So, who is going to the M14 pre-release this weekend?

It'll be my first one, so I'm not quite sure what to expect.

Also, with a 40 card deck, are you even allowed to have a sideboard?

I'm going to one on the thirteenth, but am not sure how to go about doing it. Since most of my decks aren't complete yet, I'm not sure how to go about it.


What is "Standard" magic anyway? 60 cards?

 Slarg232 wrote:
I'm going to one on the thirteenth, but am not sure how to go about doing it. Since most of my decks aren't complete yet, I'm not sure how to go about it.


What is "Standard" magic anyway? 60 cards?

For a Pre-release like the one on the 13th, you don't bring a deck (well, I guess you could, but you can't use it in the tournament).

You're given 6 booster packs of the new m14 cards and all the lands you want. Using these cards, you have to build a 40 card deck and play with that.

I think that they could be the most balanced magic event because nobody can spend $100 dollars to get the best cards for a deck. Instead, they could only have up to 6 rares/mythic rares.

Oh, so it's the old random drawings me and my friends used to do; boosters and what you get is what you get. Lovely

My store is doing it Friday night at Midnight (so technically Saturday). I'm seriously tempted to do it, I'm not very good with deck construction, but I figured 6 boosters for 25 bucks isn't that bad of a deal, though normally my FLGS has a buy 3 packs for 10 bucks (instead of 3 packs for 12). I'm pretty terrible with deck construction though . Though obviously everyone is limited to what they get in their boosters

Edit: Standard Magic is the 2 current blocks in rotation and the latest year Core. So until July 19th, the current "standard" is 2013, Innistrad Block (Innistrad, Dark Ascension, Avacyn Restored), and Return to Ravnica block (Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, Dragon's Maze). And then once 2014 comes out, 2013 drops out of Standard.

I believe rotation happens the first weekend of October, so Innistrad block and M13 will be dropped from standard at that point.

I don't think I'm going to prerelease. The funds just aren't there, and for Dragon's Maze I did two, so time to balance out.

m14dude wrote:
I believe rotation happens the first weekend of October, so Innistrad block and M13 will be dropped from standard at that point.

I don't think I'm going to prerelease. The funds just aren't there, and for Dragon's Maze I did two, so time to balance out.

Rotation happens when the next expansion is released, in this case Theros. This is normally late September.

September 27th is the date for Theros.

So anybody else going to play magic at Gencon? I was interested in the Modern Championship qualifier- is anyone else interested in the Modern format?
I've just recently gotten back into it from a hiatus(Started at Scourge/8th edition and stopped at Zendikar). Was also curious if anyone plays around middle or west Tennessee, north Mississippi, or northwest Alabama and know of a good shop or two.

So for my tournament play, I was thinking about a list that goes something like this: (Prepare your Donkey Caves). I'm also looking to improve this list lol.

Chavest Suicide Squad Domination

Creatures (17)

4x Spark Trooper
4x Sewer Shambler
4x Drainpipe Vermin
4x Ravenous Rats
1x Sire of Insanity

Enchantments (14)

3x Blind Obedience
4x Contaminated Ground
4x Ethereal Armor
3x Shrieking Affliction

Spells (8)

4x Boros Charm
3x Mental Vapors
1x Unburial Rites

Lands (22)

- Vault of the Archangel
4x Mountain
4x Plains
4x Swamp

9x Assorted Dual Lands

Why not drop the red? Focus more on discard, and add in more removal? Orzhov charm would be a straight swap for Boros charm- can kill a creature, bounce a rat(with a possible ethereal armor), or return a drainpipe vermin. Purge the profane seems a straight up better card than mental vapors- it guarantees 2 discarded cards and gains you two life.Duress stays in standard with M14, which would seem to be a good fit for your deck.

I'm keeping red because I want to keep Spark Trooper and Boros Charm. I can deal 10 damage and gain 6 life by turn 4.

I was thinking about putting in Infernal Plunge as well to accelerate this and pump out 12 damage and 12 life gain by turn 4. This damage is amplified to 16 and 16 if I can get out Blind Obedience, Contaminate Ground, Shrieking Affliction, and Ethereal Armor - putting them in range of instant death from a Boros Charm.

If I put in Vexing Devil until the change up, that's 20 damage and 16 lifegain by turn 4 with another 4 damage (or another Spark Trooper for between 6 and 10) for insurance on turn 5

Not even Thragtusk can do that.

I will definitely consider purge the profane and duress though - removing counters is a must for this deck.

What dual lands do you have? The way I count it- you have 13 red, 24 black, and 16 white symbols in your deck- depending in your duals you might shift your basics around to reflect that. Not to mention, most of your red and white come on during later turns. (Most of the red comes from spark trooper itself)

I love the new page they posted on the main Magic website with all the core cards, so much great art!

Here it is if you haven't seen it: http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/magic2014coreset/cig#

I'll make sure to take a look at the Magic being played at gencon while I am there.

Yeah, with WotC being a big sponsor, they have a TON of magic goings on. You can draft for 90 hours straight if you have the stamina. While I'm there I might try a draft or two, if I'm not worn out or discouraged after the Modern tournament.
Here's my Modern deck I've been playing around with- I would appreciate any feedback on it.

So far, I average a turn 4 "win" very consistently goldfishing. Dream hands can be a turn 3 win. The biggest concern is my sideboard- I'm not sure Figure of Destiny and Guerrilla Tactics are the best fit. Any ideas on something that might help against something like Jund or another creature heavy deck?

I've done some playtesting, and attrition and heavy creature based decks are trouble for me. I can easily race control/combo usually, but that could just be a flaw from playing against myself(most of my friends quit magic/moved away/ or aren't interested in Modern.

I think tonight is the night of a thousand losses .

We've got our pre-release going on tonight at midnight. So I'll play in that event (6 boosters plus unlimited lands), might pick up an intro pack because why not (depending on price), and I'll have to find something to do for 2 hours between when the store "closes" and my 40k buddies leave and when the event starts.

Any cards you(or anyone )hope to see in your packs? I'm itching to get my hands on the new Chandra and start throwing her in decks.

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Any cards you(or anyone )hope to see in your packs? I'm itching to get my hands on the new Chandra and start throwing her in decks.

I'd love to get my first planeswalker (preferably not this Garruk as he's meh), just to say I got one.

However, the Xathrid Necromancer would work really nice with my White Angels/Humans deck (I'll modify it to Black/White Zombies and Humans).

I'd like sign in blood... technically the ones I have in my burn deck are fine as is since it's being reprinted, but I'd like more .

The Necromancer seems really cool. I also like Grim Return. Doom blade their big bad, then Grim Return it under your control!

*They aren't reprinting Sign in Blood are they? I know they're putting Altar's Reap.(which can work with grim return )

*drops to knees* NOOOOOO I thought I saw somewhere it was being reprinted... Now I have to find a decent replacement for my deck :-\

Edit: Might have to change it out for Wild Guess instead... which does almost the same effect but it's discarding a card instead of losing 2 life.

Edit: Is anyone planning on picking up an intro pack? I think just because of my old vampire deck that I had forever ago I'm going to pick up the Death Reaper intro pack.

It's basically replacing 2 cards in your hand for RR. Altar's Reap might work. 1B, Instant. Sacrifice a creature as an additional cost. Draw 2 cards. If you're about to lose a creature anyway, or use something like Spark Elemental it might be a fit

EDIT: I am. The Death Reaper as well. I really like the new rare zombie.

 Sinful Hero wrote:
It's basically replacing 2 cards in your hand for RR. Altar's Reap might work. 1B, Instant. Sacrifice a creature as an additional cost. Draw 2 cards. If you're about to lose a creature anyway, or use something like Spark Elemental it might be a fit

EDIT: I am. The Death Reaper as well. I really like the new rare zombie.

I'm unsure of how many creatures I could potentially afford to lose... There is the dual card from Gatecrash that has the effect for 1 more colorless... The only problem the added mana cost. I have some Toil//Trouble cards and I'd probably rarely use Trouble (as I hope to not have a need for 6 mana (i.e. the deck wants to win before it gets to that point).

Is it worth swapping out Sign in Blood to stay Standard compliant with a card that costs 1 more mana to do the same exact thing?

I thought I saw sign in blood in the spoilers.

I'd want to run 4 Necromancers, 4 Cathedral Sanctifiers, 4 Borderland Rangers, then whatever the heck I have for humans/zombies remaining.

 Dr. What wrote:
I thought I saw sign in blood in the spoilers.

I'd want to run 4 Necromancers, 4 Cathedral Sanctifiers, 4 Borderland Rangers, then whatever the heck I have for humans/zombies remaining.

I thought I did too, but mtgsalvation doesn't have it, and neither does WoTC