MAGIC THE GATHERING

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**Desubot**

Wilytank wrote:

And he looked like he was about ready to rage. His board state on the top of his turn was the Lighthouse and the Snapcaster. Didn't draw a land. Back to me, Seismic Spike the Lighthouse to Pyroclasm the Snapcaster. Following turn, Magnivore goes out. He scoops after he didn't like his draw from Gitaxian Probe. Now Splinter Twin is not a cheap deck and it lost to one that cost less than $40 which I also believe kept him from placing. I was unable to keep the smug grin and chuckling contained. I didn't place either, but instances like this make me not care. This is what I had in mind when I first looked up this deck.

Man reminds me of the time i beat a 5CC in standard durring i think shards? (butt load of cryptic commands and stuff) with a no rare deck worth 50 cents at a i think reigonals.

the look on his face

my Mono Red (but with blue) red deck with riverfall mimics is silly.

**RivenSkull**

frozenwastes wrote:
What ramp is there in this land destruction deck? Seismic Spike adds 2 red mana to your mana pool but costs 4 to cast.

If you have a bunch of 4 cmc or lower cards and then have a stretch up to 6 cmc for wild fire and lots of the cards also necessitate sacrificing your own lands, how reliably are you ever getting to 8 mana in this deck?

There will be games where things go long and you'll get 8 land out and love the idea of casting this, but for every other game that doesn't get there, it's a dead card in the opening hand and a dead draw along the way. Having 2 6 cost spells when your curve reliably goes to 4 is stretching enough without adding 8 cost spells as well.

It looks like a big cool land destruction effect but with no ramp and the rest of the deck being cheaper spells and sacrificing land, I'm not sure it fits. Seems to be it'll be a dead card in most games you see it.

Well, it depends on what format you're going to playing. If you are able to play old cards, the best option for land screw is Armageddon (4cmc) mixed with either things like mana rocks or creatures that produce mana (elves come to mind) coupled with Winter Orb (2cmc) can really shut down a lot.

You seem to be ready to pick up one of the absolutely funnest deck archtypes in Magic: Stax!
Here's a good list of Stax cards

**Bran Dawri**

Wilytank wrote:
I think I'll actually replace my Wildfires for Obliterates.

Sure it's even more expensive, but it also kills creatures and artifacts. Plus I won't have to sac any darksteel citadels. I also like the word obliterate.

But can't be countered is probably the big thing. With what's going on on the cover art, I can just think of this happening: http://youtu.be/7VG2aJyIFrA?t=1m57s

That shouldn't be something you can just Remand away.

If you can find some way to either recur it or sac it at will, I'd use Sundering Titan, instead. It kills multiple lands (especially if your opponents have those juicy, expensive Rav duals), doubles as a huge beatstick, and is also 8 mana (except entirely colourless). Trash for treasure maybe. Is the Living Death for artifacts Modern legal?

Also, where are the avalanche riders?

**frozenwastes**

RivenSkull wrote:
Well, it depends on what format you're going to playing.

Definitely. My comments were specific to that one posted land destruction deck though.

You seem to be ready to pick up one of the absolutely funnest deck archtypes in Magic: Stax!
Here's a good list of Stax cards

I had a wb "attacking me is a bad idea' deck for edh. Basically where attacking me costs the attacker (life, creatures, mana, whatever) and I end up with more life than if they hadn't attacked. More of a pillow-fort than stax. Maybe it is time to look into going full stax though.

**RivenSkull**

frozenwastes wrote:
RivenSkull wrote:
Well, it depends on what format you're going to playing.

Definitely. My comments were specific to that one posted land destruction deck though.

You seem to be ready to pick up one of the absolutely funnest deck archtypes in Magic: Stax!
Here's a good list of Stax cards

I had a wb "attacking me is a bad idea' deck for edh. Basically where attacking me costs the attacker (life, creatures, mana, whatever) and I end up with more life than if they hadn't attacked. More of a pillow-fort than stax. Maybe it is time to look into going full stax though.

Well, a few years ago I threw together a R/B Land destruction/Discard deck using many of the red "kill one land at a time" cards. The 2 problems with those red land destroy cards are 1) they are not win conditions on their own, and 2) they don't kill enough lands fast enough. If you put 16 land kill cards in the deck, you'll kill maybe 6 lands every game.

Using something like Armageddon (which is a cheap card) allows you to hit all their lands in one blow. Having a deck built with the notion of surviving that makes losing lands not an issue.

Either way, you ramp is going to want to be around 3/4 cmc.

**Wilytank**

It's coming back!

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/announcing-modern-masters-2015-edition-2014-12-08

**frozenwastes**

GP Vegas is going to be huge again.

I hope the Zendikar fetches are reprinted in MM2015. The Onslaught ones were in Khans and I think Modern could really use all 10 colour combinations being more available.

**RivenSkull**

frozenwastes wrote:
GP Vegas is going to be huge again.

I hope the Zendikar fetches are reprinted in MM2015. The Onslaught ones were in Khans and I think Modern could really use all 10 colour combinations being more available.

I expect they will be reprinted in the next Khans set

**Bran Dawri**

I'm not so sure. Zendikar wasn't that long ago. Or I'm really old.

**frozenwastes**

Zendikar was only 5 years ago, but with Modern Masters, Modern Masters 2015, the Modern Event deck, etc., it looks like Wizards is trying to support modern, so maybe they'll reprint them just so modern is more accessible as a format. I'd like them to be in Fate Reforged, but I think if they're not there they definitely should be in MM2015.

**Wilytank**

Well, that very Wizards article did bring up Zendikar so it's not totally out of the picture. And if the Etched Champion is any indicator, Scars might be part of it too.

Also, this has crept up already:

**pretre**

Anyone else pick up the anthology?

**frozenwastes**

I thought about buying it for a friend for a present, but it was way too high for what we usually get eachother. He loves preconstructed decks and would definitely play them a lot, but it's outside my budget for this year.

**Bran Dawri**

I ordered a copy of the anthology along with a box of the commander stuff, but I'm stuck abroad for the foreseeable future. due to work and the birth of my son in Brazil.

...

I need to get three more copies of that red Living Death for artifacts. I have evil plans with it, a couple of big artifacts/monsters like the above mentioned Sundering Titan and Artificer's Intuition/Thirst for Knowledge. Maybe throw in a few Welders and a Liquimetal Coating or two for good measure.

**pretre**

frozenwastes wrote:
I thought about buying it for a friend for a present, but it was way too high for what we usually get eachother. He loves preconstructed decks and would definitely play them a lot, but it's outside my budget for this year.

Buy it and split it.

**Sinful Hero**

Hopefully they'll reprint Tarmogoyf again.

**Howard A Treesong**

Modern Masters 2 sounds great, but $10 per pack of cards. Dollars converts straight into pounds in the UK. It's going to be £40 to do a draft including prize pool. That's half the cost of a regular booster box from most suppliers. There's no need to make this such a limited product and slap such a high premium on it. Twice the cost of a regular booster would be more than enough, but three times? Jeeze.

**frozenwastes**

I'm not going to be involved with modern masters packs at all. They're a high demand, high price premium product for a format I don't play. I like thematic sets like Innistrad and Return to Ravnica, making common/uncommon only cubes and playing budget standard.

The thing to remember about Modern is that if you want a full playset of all the different lands so you can make the various decks and fully play the format, you're looking at $1000 for just the mana base to play all the decks. Modern is for people with money and MM2015 is a straight up cash grab reprint set.

If the last modern masters set is anything to go by though, it'll be a fun draft format and people will be excited by the cards they open in terms of the secondary market.

**Bran Dawri**

Although I do enjoy the other eternal formats, Modern employs the banhammer far too readily, IMO.
If it so much as remotely looks like a combo deck is creeping towards tier 3, it's hit with the banhammer.

...

I didn't get into Vintage and Legacy because I want to smash creatures into each other until someone falls over.

Magic is supposed to be about two wizards slinging spells at each other, not two generals building armies to fight in their stead.

**Sinful Hero**

What cards do you feel shouldn't have been banned so easily? It was my understanding they use the banlist to prevent consistant turn 3 wins/combos, or cards that start to warp the meta too much.

**orkkiller21**

I want ponder and preordain back, for whichever formats they were banned in, I think it was just pauper and legacy and modern though wasn't it? Otherwise.....I might be thinking of the wrong format.......hmmmmm.......

**Sinful Hero**

orkkiller21 wrote:
I want ponder and preordain back, for whichever formats they were banned in, I think it was just pauper and legacy and modern though wasn't it? Otherwise.....I might be thinking of the wrong format.......hmmmmm.......

Banned in modern last time I checked- way too much consistency plus supercharging Storm decks.

**Bran Dawri**

Ponder is also restricted in Vintage, although whether it should be is debatable...

But looking over the Modern banned list, two cards jump out immediately as not allowing for consistent turn 3 combo-kills:

Ancestral Visions and Sword of the Meek, although I'm not entirely sure about the latter.
I also see no point to Dark Depths being on that list; There are plenty of answers to large monsters in the format, even on turn 1, and one of the red rituals could probably come off as well; I like Dragonstorm. Taking both off would probably supercharge it too much though. I'm also not sure Affinity is totally busted in a format that big, but I'm no expert on Modern.

**RivenSkull**

Sword of the Meek/Thoper Foundery Combo
Dark Depths can go off on turn 2 with consistancy using Vampire Hexmage and Urborg

**Sinful Hero**

Exactly how many answers are there for a 20/20 Indestrucible anyway? Path to Exile is the only one I ever see, and few decks even run that.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Although I think it might be better to just ban the Thopter Foundry so other decks can make use of the Sword. I may just be partial to equipment though.

**Desubot**

Pacify and bounce cards always make me laugh.
There are also a few random blue that makes it so they do no damage IIRC.

Also if you can force them to sac a creature.

**Sinful Hero**

Desubot wrote:
Pacify and bounce cards always make me laugh.
There are also a few random blue that makes it so they do no damage IIRC.

Also if you can force them to sac a creature.

Of course they exist, but what actually shows up? I don't see Pacify and Unsummon too much where I play.

**Desubot**

Oh wait is this supposed to be for competitive magic?

I think cryptic command has a bounce option.

**Sinful Hero**

Desubot wrote:
Oh wait is this supposed to be for competitive magic?

I think cryptic command has a bounce option.

Yeah, we're talking about why Dark Depths is banned in Modern.

And I don't think anyone is going to Cryptic Command on turn 2.

**Desubot**

mmmmm Thats true

I haddent dabbled in competitive MTG in a while (nore have i looked at the cards for a while)

But besides from force taping or straight countering the hexmage there isnt much to be done.