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Magic: The Gathering

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Comments

  • StormtroperStormtroper
    It's true that it dampens that aspect of strategizing, but the thing is that even when deckbuilding is done right and your deck has the optimal amount of mana sources, mana screws/floods still happen (and they're not uncommon), in that sense it also takes away from the rest of the game as there's only so much your strategies can do when you don't get to play your spells.
    I think Wizards wished they had done things differently 27 years ago, but at this point the concept is too ingrained in the game to change it. I guess non-competitive MTGA is as far as they're willing to go.
    I know when it comes to getting screwed out of a color's mana, multi-colored lands are very common now (and is a noticeable form of power creep) while for years after the game's release they were super rare and AFAIK only one (City of Brass) didn't suck. (Almost-edit: I forgot about the overpowered no-drawback dual lands, but they didn't get reprinted in expansions so same thing.)
    Speaking of multi-color lands, I just crafted my first card, a Stomping Ground, I checked and it's not currently used very much so I didn't craft more. I thought Amonkhet had fetchlands so I could craft Wooded Foothills to but nope, it didn't and none of the formats with fetchlands are in MTGA.
    As for matches, I went 5/2, once again I got a 750 gold quest. One of my opponents conceded while I was still on the loading screen. Also realized Rimrock Knight // Boulder Rush kinda fits in my deck so I added three, I thought it would help with my lack of creatures but as I was typing this I realized it won't because I replaced three creatures for these. Regardless, I haven't drawn any so far.
    on one hand [...] on the other hand
    lol accidental pun
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    edited 2020-08-23 14:29:51
    Yesterday after changing some stuff on my deck I felt like playing some more so I did, I went 3/1. I think it's slower now but it's more consistent. I was wary of putting in Ilysian Caryatid but I now see that I really needed both the mana acceleration and more creatures, even if small.
    I also played some Forge like I told myself I would, played the GB food deck from earlier before giving up, then I played an Ikoria quest with a UBG deck turned UB aggro-control, I feel it's somewhat less powerful/fun (powerfun?) than average but that's okay, though I didn't feel the same satisfaction from reading the cards' names
    Today I went 4/4, including one who conceded immediately and one who conceded on turn two or so. Among other things I got trounced by a shrines deck, playing all six of them one after another, it was okay at first but after the blue one I could no longer keep up with it.
    I feel my opponents' decks were better this time around. I think I'm reaching my matchmaking level.
    Also somehow I missed the fact that I had a Terror of the Peaks that was screaming to be in my deck.
    Also, I learned that "Bien Joué" doesn't read as "Well Played" on English clients, but as "Good Game", my opponents must've been confused.
    Edit: who taught the Spanish translators how to count syllables?
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    I went 4/2. One of these was against a very interesting deck about stealing my creatures with things like Act of Treason then sacrificing them, e.g. to Witch's Oven, reminded me of one I tried to make when I was new. I thought I had it in the bag until one fateful turn I found myself with few creatures and my opponent with lots of food, I had to play careful after that, but things got better after two Seasons of Growth filled my hand with goodies. Also when deckbuilding I thought Rimrock Knight and Ilysian Caryatid not being easy for me to Shock without killing them would be a hindrance, but this is the first time that comes up and instead it greatly helped me to kill them in response to those stealing spells, and I still got cards out of them.
    I spent a good chunk of my time making an RG Brawl deck before finding out that Quartzwood Crasher is not legendary thus it can't be my commander. I'm not sure why I thought that.
    On the plus side while building it I learned that I already have the two remaining Ram Through I was missing to have four, the four Llanowar Visionaries that I wanted three of, and two Sudden Spinnerets that I didn't even know existed and is strictly better than the Giant Growths I was using. Sometimes I get the impression I'm getting cards without being told.
    With that in mind I feel that I have enough cards to make this deck well-focused, to make all its cards serve the main idea behind it; to target creatures that reward me for targeting them.
    Edit: who taught the Spanish translators how to count syllables?
    Now that I notice, it makes sense if you slur vowels at the end/beginning of adjacent words, which is not what I'd expect in a poetic setting (it's not like in French where that's the "right" way to pronounce words per liaison). I guess that's one issue with drawing analogies between syllables and mora. I wonder how it's done in actual Spanish haiku.
    On my first match of the day I got disconnected, as usual I could not reconnect soon enough but when I got back turns out I had won, or at least it was counted as a victory for the purpose of today's quest.
    I learned that players sometimes concede when they're about to win but their opponent "ropes" them (deliberately takes as long as possible to do (or not do) anything), my opponent probably believed I was roping them. Whoops.
  • fourteenwingsfourteenwings
    There is love everywhere, I already know
    Whoops indeed.
    about stealing my creatures with things like Act of Treason then sacrificing them

    Fancy, and also very much like the manga I was talking about.
    Sometimes I get the impression I'm getting cards without being told.

    Whenever I played RPGs I'd just skip loot screens and check my inventory whenever I needed to re-equip stuff, so this happened to me a lot.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    I do pay attention to items/skills/whatever I obtain, though if I don't equip/set it immediately I'll often forget I have it until I check my stuff later. This applies to MTGA too.
    Today's daily offer was an Amonkhet booster for 700 gold (30% discount), I don't know if I it was a good idea to purchase one but I did, I got a Khenra Groundshaker which I know was good during its era but I doubt it still is. At any rate all boosters increase some counter that gives you wildcards when filled so in a sense they're never a total waste.
    I went 4/2. The daily quest was to play white and black spells, so I played my old BW lifegain deck, which went 1/1 with. I went to see how I could modify it (at the very least it could use multicoloured lands) and realized that I could make a solid monowhite weenies lifegain deck from it, which I did. It's probably better than my main deck. I learned that that's the quintessential nub deck (or is it the BW one?) and it's easy to see why, the base of it is one of the tutorial decks. I've definitely seen it often. Also:
    Sometimes I get the impression I'm getting cards without being told.
    So I found out at some point I got the crazy good card known as Baneslayer Angel. Actually, is it still crazy good? With power creep it's hard to know these days, but at any rate it definitely fits in the deck.
    So I finished the quest after playing with it once, but I tried the deck a bit a bit further.
    In one of these games I disconnected right before I was about to win and had trouble closing the client to reopen it (it's faster and more reliable than having it reconnect), I could've easily not gotten back in time or in some other situation lose the game over it. One reason I'm not confident playing ranked/limited is the possibility that something like that will cost me a real reward.
    In another game I removed my opponent's 11/11 Lorescale Coatl with Tribunal of the Conclave while they had Ugin, the Spirit Dragon with 8 counters and some other enchantment. I knew if they used Ugin to remove everything they'd get their Coatl back and I thought I could deal with it (I also wrongly thought it removed enchantments too) so I thought they wouldn't do it, maybe I could have dealt with it, but not the other thousand million things they played that turn. Should've removed Ugin instead.
    Also I got a second Basri Ket, a mythic rare that doesn't exactly fit in the deck but ehh, good enough for me.
    Anyhows, I've been thinking about something. Recently, starting with Throne of Eldraine*, Wizards made it so that all sets would be standalone, as opposed to the block structure where they'd release two or three sets that followed some continuity in some setting. Something about it rubbed me the wrong way but I couldn't quite tell why, I now realize that with standalone sets it's not obvious from the cards and set premises that there's progression in them like there is in others, e.g. no "there's Mirrodin but the Phyrexians are preparing for something (Scars of Mirrodin) then war broke out between them (Mirrodin Bisieged) then the Phyrexians won and transformed the plane to their image (New Phyrexia)" or "and then Mikaeus was a zombie", Eldraine and Ikoria feel static in a way other sets don't (Theros: Beyond Death (and probably the following Zendikar one) has the benefit of being a continuation of the pre-existing Theros (and Zendikar and Battle for Zendikar) block), they're just places that exist and are there. Reading up a bit WotC is allowing for making back-to-back sets that follow a continuity, so that's good I guess.
    * actually, War of the Spark, but from the setting you can reasonably see it as the third Guilds of Ravnica block.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    Two days ago I went 4/1... or was it 4/2? Again an opponent conceded over my technical issues, this time for some reason the game took too long to load on my end, by the time I got in my opponent had already conceded.
    Yesterday I went 4/3, those three loses were my first three matches so I thought it wasn't going to be my day, but things began to look up afterwards. One of those matches was against a monoblue control that of all things I won over Basri Ket and Mangara, the Diplomat, the latter made me draw stuff I needed to keep up and especially on the final turn that I had Impassioned Orator on hand which resolved, a Healer's Hawk that served to lure my opponent into wasting their counterspell, and finally Basri Ket who thanks to his -2 ability combined with the Orator's, Ajani's Pridemate's and Hallowed Priest's triggered abilities I had the damage output to beat my opponent down from 15 despite having a blocker*. My opponent dominated most of the game so being able to turn the tide in such a contrived way felt good.
    Anyways, I think I'll go back to my RG deck.
    * Actually, after all that I realized that Brazen Borrower couldn't block and I misplayed by not hitting them for an extra 3 a previous turn, thus making the above unnecessary. But still it felt good.
    Today's quest was to play white or blue spells, I could've gone with monowhite liefgain again but I tweaked my UW flyers deck and used it instead, I went 4/1 with it. I almost lost a game due to not noticing a creature attacking me, but I had enough life to survive and win next turn anyways and my opponent conceded, I wonder if they were counting on me blocking, though most likely I would've won anyways. I'd say this deck has fared very well with the three Banishing Light I put in plus some other goodies, II'll give it more tries tomorrow.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    Yesterday my connection was behaving nicely so I thought I'd play some more, the first game I lost to getting mana screwed, the second game I got disconnected something like a second or two after declaring Baneslayer Angel as blocker, which I needed to survive another turn and win, I was worried that serverside it didn't register and I'd die, by the time I got back combat had already happened but fortunately it did register the blocking and then I won, but that taught me not to play more than necessary.
    Reading up on stuff I learned that one should reroll 500 gold quests for the chance of it becoming a 750 gold one. I was aware that one could reroll quests (though I never did) but I wasn't aware that doing so could increase its reward, which turns out is random rather than something like it being on a specific day like I suspected.
    Today I went 4/2 by the time I was done with quests. I felt kinda bad, I lost a game due to realizing a turn late that Baneslayer Angel's protection against dragons protected it from my opponent's Terror from the Peak, which I think is the first time that protection comes up for me.
    In another I cast Feat of Resistance on my Dungeon Geist (which I needed to block Air Elemental), in response my opponent cast Unsubstantiate on Dungeon Geist, so I cast Unsubstantiate on the Feat so I could cast it again on the Geist before their Unsubstantiate resolved. I felt smart.
    Anyhows, I wanted to play past the four required victories, but after six games of which I only won once I think I've had enough.
    lolno, I played some more. I won three and lost one, for a ratio of 8/8 today. Somehow I had a Brazen Borrower in my collection which of course fit perfectly in the deck, though despite playing several games with it I haven't drawn it yet.
    I bought my first cosmetic reward, borderless Banishing Lights for 50 gold (98% discount). I actually dislike borderless cards, but at such a small price there's no way I'm not gonna collect stuff like that.
  • fourteenwingsfourteenwings
    There is love everywhere, I already know
    for a ratio of 8/8 today.

    So 16 games?
    I lost a game due to realizing a turn late that Baneslayer Angel's protection against dragons protected it from my opponent's Terror from the Peak

    This never happens in card game anime, which I find surprising.
  • ZennistradZennistrad
    I'm currently building a Commander deck with the new Mangara, which extrapolates on Mangara being a diplomat and leans fully into being a deck all about playing politics with all four players.

    https://deckstats.net/decks/111746/1671612-cardboard-diplomacy

    Overall I'm very glad to see that Wizards is taking a new direction with mono-white in commander, it seems based on design team comments that white is now getting "taxing draw" effects.

    (Here's hoping we get a Rhystic Study in white someday)
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    edited 2020-08-29 22:47:59
    Hey there, long time no see!
    I kinda wish Arena had Commander support, but there's no multiplayer and few legendaries. There's Brawl, but according to everyone everywhere it's far from the real thing.
    So 16 games?
    Exactly. I'm not sure why I called it a ratio.
    I only learned yesterday about Arena codes you can use to redeem stuff. Besides those for purchasing real-life stuff they're also publicly posted during events and such. Being the bait they use to get us addicted and spend actual money, the rewards are quite generous.
    I got 24 boosters (three of each standard-legal set), 2000 XP (in practical terms it means one booster), some alternate styles (including some tinted glass ones that I think look nice) and for random rewards Izzet-style sleeves and an alternate-style Quartzwood Crasher.
    Some of the rares/mythic rares I got that I think are good are:
    *Incubation Druid
    *Karn, the Great Creator
    *Domri, Anarchist of Bolas
    *Cavalier of Night
    *Temple of Deceit
    *Temple of Victory
    *Discontinuity
    *Stormwing Entity
    *A rare Wildcard
    *2x mythic rare Wildcards
    I didn't notice much that would help my current decks but ehh, whatevs.
    Unfortunately I likely won't get to play today.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    edited 2020-08-30 20:29:46
    There was a "Turbo Draft" going on, an Ikoria/Ikoria/Ikoria draft with the gimmick that spells cost 5 less to play. I joined in out of novelty, the entry fee was 5000 gold which would make it 2/3 to break even (at 1:5 gem/gold ratio), however I'm pretty sure I was deducted 10000 gold instead (as with other draft modes), at that price not even the maximum reward (for seven victories) makes up for it, so things didn't start well. I set out to submit a ticket after it was over.
    Anyhows as you can imagine I drafted without really understanding what I was doing (then again it's not like other people have done Turbo Draft before), if I understand this correctly the draft part is done with bots, which has the benefits that disconnecting is not an issue and there's no timer (although the time element can be thrilling), but what your opponents play has nothing to do with the packs in your draft. Anyhows I made a BGR deck, the only rare I picked was Crystalline Giant, I also opened Ruinous Ultimatum and Death's Oasis, I did not see any other rare so I figure the bots rare-draft.
    • The first game I kept slightly ahead and won.
    • The second game on my first turn I played Lava Serpent (5/5 with haste) and on the second a 7/7 Ivy Elemental, then my opponent conceded. That's how crazy this mode is.
    • The third one I lost due to my client taking too long to enter the game, I tried closing and reopening it but even that took too long, perhaps I shouldn't have since before it closed I started hearing in-game sounds.
    • The fourth one I kept somewhat behind, and a misplay I made didn't help (played some creature before combat and I ended up needing the mana for Fully Grown) but managed to beat them in the end.
    • The first and sixth ones I got trounced, that last one I mulliganed, got a worse hand and failed to draw a source of non-green mana, although with all the good mutating stuff my opponent played I doubt I would've won anyways.
    With how swingy this mode is, it doesn't feel far off from deciding the winner with a coin flip. If this thing had a convenient way to export draft decks I'd have posted it here.
    So with three victories I got 300 gems and two boosters (it's one booster plus a 26% chance of getting another). I get to keep my drafted cards. From those two boosters I got Cubwarden and Kerruga, the Macrosage.
    As it turns out, the report thing is far from straightforward, unlike games nowadays it's not done in-client but through a webpage in which you have to submit "obvious" things like your username and email, and also a log file that you have to first create then browse to your MTGA folder to find.
    I'd say this experience was a mixed bag, I like drafting and I want to get good at it, but I get so frustrated when I lose over technical issues that I'm reluctant to try, I know I'll be miffed even if I end up with a good result. I'm always nervous when there are things at stake, although I suppose each individual game is ultimately not that big of a deal, the bulk of the prize are the cards you draft and the things you get just for participating. I know Traditional Draft is different, though.
    Also, I just realized that the cost/benefit thing I did at the beginning of this post was under the assumption that the draft boosters are same as normal boosters, I disregarded the fact that you choose the cards, but even letting that aside I hadn't realized that draft boosters are much larger (normal MTGA boosters are 5 commons, 2 uncommons and 1 rare/mythic, draft boosters are like real-life boosters; 11 commons, 3 uncommons, 1 rare/mythic, 1 basic land), that makes things more complicated but it does make drafts more appealing.
    Some time after that it occurred to me that I can use those logs could help me figure out what happened to that gold, I checked them but it only kept those for a few days ago, and the older ones aren't detailed for some reason (maybe it's only logging properly now because I changed some logging settings recently). I can't see what happened to that gold, but I see that I had less than I thought before the draft and it deducted the correct amount.
    Besides that, I went 1/2 on normal play, I played with my RG deck again, hadn't played it in a while, I wasn't sure if Domri would make a big difference but it does.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    edited 2020-09-01 23:23:13
    Perhaps I should start dividing these posts by date.

    31/08
    I went 4/2. There was an Amonkhet booster on sale for 750 gold, again I don't know if I should have bought it but I did. I got Samut, the Tested who I figure will be useful. Regardless, Since I intend to draft in the future I wonder if I should avoid buying boosters, as I'll end up with a large collection of repeats, and although you're rewarded with getting cards that you already have 4x of, it's a very non-generous reward that's not worth the cards you're not getting (a booster worth of wildcards after loads and loads of wasted commons/uncommons).
    and two Sudden Spinnerets that I didn't even know existed and is strictly better than the Giant Growths I was using
    I can't read, it's not +3/+3 as I thought, nonetheless I've found the reach and untapping parts to be surprisingly useful so I think I'll keep them for a while and see.
    I think it's time for me to learn the ropes of the current Standard metagame. I checked some netdecks and to my suprise a lot of those decks are decks I've seen often (although perhaps not completely built yet). That said those decklists have lots of rares/mythics, no wonder people are talking about the cost of playing this game.
    Zendikar Rising is coming up, spoiler season starts now, what I read up now will have changed three weeks from now, that has the disadvantage that it'll not be directly applicable but the advantage that I'll be on an even field with everyone else, so it'll be a good time to start playing semi-competitively.
    Speaking of competitive playing, the season ended, then it occurred to me that there could be rewards for participating for it and indeed there are, not big rewards but still that was a good reason try it out.
    Also I'm surprised about the amount of decks currently being used, I've heard bad things about how things are right now but at least in terms of variety it doesn't seem bad.
    I also found out a lot of people play until their fourth victory of the day and I'm not being particularly casual in that regard.
    Also that rare-drafting is apparently a very good idea and I cheated myself by only taking one rare.
    Also, I just realized that the cost/benefit thing I did at the beginning of this post was under the assumption that the draft boosters are same as normal boosters
    Also they contain no wildcards and don't count for the wildcard every X boosters reward.

    01/09
    Today, I was given 5000 for the draft thing, even after I stated that it was probably a mistake on my part. I feel kind of spoiled.
    Anyhows, I didn't fare well in playing, I went 4/6. I disconnected during two games but I probably wouldn't have won anyways. One of these my opponent conceded immediately.
    Anyhows Iread a lot about drafting, especially about using it to build a collection, I guess those are the two things I want to do the most in this game: draft a lot and build a large collection. I really wanted to try my hand again at it and my connection was being nice so why not. I did an Eldraine draft, I don't remember ever getting cards from there (although I do have a few) so it seemed like a good idea.
    Turns out there's an export feature for draft decks, so:

    Hahah, how cool, this thing saves the decklist on the clipboard. Every deck export feature should work like that.
    Anyhows, I got five rares, rare-drafting is what you're supposed to do to complete a set but I don't have a chance to complete Eldraine nor do I have the uncommons either, nonetheless I persisted with the "normal" strategy and rare-drafted.
    Also I misread Mirrormade (thought it could copy creatures) and Joust (thought it granted +2/+1 to any creature), I had them in the main deck but I took them out afterwards (Arena allows you to change decks mid-draft).
    I like my deck, a UR aggro-control (mostly aggro) with some draw and several of those "whenever you draw the second card of the turn" creatures.
    Things went like this:

    I didn't get the extra booster this time (27% chance at three wins).
    I shouldn't be disappointed, I got more than what the entry fee is for, but after getting winning my first three games I was hoping for more, certainly not losing a game to a disconnection.
    I wasn't aware of it when I joined but it's a ranked draft. At least for it works such that I advance by winning but won't be set back when losing, so that's nice.
    Regardless, I still have much to learn so as to avoid those misplays.
    I went 4/2. There was an Amonkhet booster on sale for 750 gold, again I don't know if I should have bought it but I did.
    Yeah, I should have bought it. Ultimately I should turn my gold into cards, if purchasing a booster the normal way is an okay-ish way to do so, purchasing it at a t-25% discount is well worth it.
    That said, for rares and mythics this thing has "duplicate protection", outside draft decks you're guaranteed not to unpack a rare/mythic that you already have four of, (if it's a draft pick or you already have all rares/mythics in the set, you get gems instead at a bad exchange rate), meaning for completion's sake it's a good idea not to open boosters until you're done drafting it. Hmmm... I have an Eldraine and an M21 booster I don't think I'll draft these much more so I'll open them. I got a Fervent Champion and another Terror of the Peaks.
    Perhaps I should save my gold for completing Zendikar Rising, perhaps even try to complete it.

    I seem to be making longer and longer posts.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    edited 2020-09-04 03:31:19
    I played a bit more yesterday, gotta get high enough level to get another Mastery Orb (that can be traded for a cosmetic reward) before the new set comes out and it can no longer be obtained. I went 2/1, one of those was in a non-ranked Standard game (without Samut, my RG deck is standard legal), as I see it's close to paper magic, you get to choose whether you start or draw and it's best two out of three with sideboard. Anyhows the most remarkable thing about these matches is that for the first time I drew only one land in my starting hand in regular Play mode.
    Also I learned that if I had started playing Arena a few days later I'd have gotten the six Ravnica and the four ELD/THB/IKO/M21 decks I didn't get.

    02/09
    So I lost my first six games, after something like that there's no way I wasn't going to do something about it. I rebuilt my RG deck, took away several of the combat creatures and Shocks it had and put in mana dorks, also I crafted the fourth Season of Growth and Gnarlback Rhino, which on second thought is something I should've done way earlier. Anyhows the deck feels much more consistent now, I ended up 8/8, I played more than usual due to the Mastery Orb thing, however one nasty disconnect near the end of a game (my opponent conceded anyways) told me that I had had enough for the day.

    03/09
    I tried a game with my UW flyers deck (for quest purposes) before work but I faced a monoblack deck with all creature removal under the sun so I didn't have time to finish. I'd say I was slightly behind.
    There was an event about playing some simple decks whcih include 9 copies of Yargle, Glutton of Urborg, some vanilla 9/3 legendary creature normally for 4B but with its cost reduced by 2 for this event. I played with the GB, BR and monoblack ones. Counting that first defeat with the WU deck I went 4/2.
    I'm hyped for the release of Zendikar Rising, I'm not sure why, I'm not terribly interested in the upcoming cards and have barely looked at the spoilers, I think I'm just looking forward to experiencing a new set from scratch, or maybe it's that that's when I'm set to spend my hard earned gold in drafting/collecting.
    Speaking of drafting, I made a small program to calculate the expected value of a Quick Draft (or rather, any event that involves a maximum number of victories/defeats and (for now) numerical outcomes):

    Edit: TIL Python's standard library does not include sorted lists.
  • fourteenwingsfourteenwings
    There is love everywhere, I already know
    it's best two out of three with sideboard

    Ah I was actually wondering about this being a thing that existed in real life that was also incorporated into Wizard's Soul (that manga I read).
    I faced a monoblack deck with all creature removal under the sun so I didn't have time to finish

    From the encyclopaedia that is Wizard's Soul I am told this is called 'Permission'.
    I'm hyped for the release of Zendikar Rising, I'm not sure why, I'm not terribly interested in the upcoming cards and have barely looked at the spoilers, I think I'm just looking forward to experiencing a new set from scratch

    Yeah for the short time I collected Pokemon cards, I was always hyped up for the new sets just because. I think it's just a human thing to look forward to stuff even if it's not all that relevant.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    edited 2020-09-04 13:46:25
    From the encyclopaedia that is Wizard's Soul I am told this is called 'Permission'.
    Close, permission spells are another name for counterspells, rather than cards to destroy/exile creatures that I'm talking about. I double-checked and it's the same in Japanese.
    Maybe that's taken from another game? From the sounds of it the Wizards's Soul writer did a good job at incorporating player lingo.
    (Note: Creature cards are spells too as they're being cast and can be rid off with counterspells as well.)
    Edit: Spelling.
  • fourteenwingsfourteenwings
    There is love everywhere, I already know
    permission spells are another name for counterspells, rather than cards to destroy/exile creatures that I'm talking about

    Ah, I was under the impression that those were the same thing. Mana, the protagonist, tended towards countering spells and taking control of opponents monsters (usually when the opponent was just about to attack so she could just redirect the attack), and so she/others saw her Permission deck (as it was called) as being Great but No Fun, and it was a whole thing.
    Maybe that's taken from another game?

    I think the name 'Permission' came from Magic, but the concept was expanded since her deck needed to do lots of cool, unexpected stuff rather than the same thing over and over.
    From the sounds of it the Wizards's Soul writer did a good job at incorporating player lingo.

    About 70% of the whole manga is just matches of Not MtG, and going by the omake and afterwords the author, her editor and various other friends were all very into MtG (and the Tennis no Ouji-sama card game, which is apparently a real thing).
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    edited 2020-09-04 18:17:19
    Ah, I was under the impression that those were the same thing. Mana, the protagonist, tended towards countering spells and taking control of opponents monsters (usually when the opponent was just about to attack so she could just redirect the attack), and so she/others saw her Permission deck (as it was called) as being Great but No Fun, and it was a whole thing.
    Ah, yeah, that sounds like something that would be called a permission deck.
    he author, her editor and various other friends were all very into MtG
    It shows.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    edited 2020-09-05 22:54:54
    04/09
    Friday Night Magic! You know, I don't think I actually checked if there were FNMs the other fridays. (Edit: It was a Historic Brawl.) Anyhow I made a quickie deck with Keruga, something with ramping and lots of fatties.
    • Torbran, Thane or Red Fell with lots of sources of "small damage". I took lots of damage early on but nothing I couldn't handle, I think my opponent was counting on refraining from playing Torbran until they were in a position to finish me off, but that didn't happen.
    • Rhonas, God Eternal, like mine but with less drawing and more raw power. I misplayed badly having my Kogla, the Titan Ape fight Questing Beast rather than Elder Gargaroth and lost shortly after.
    • I'm a masochist so I played another game, my client disconnected before my opponent's first turn and that was enough MtG for a while.
    • Gishath, Avatar of the Sun, also like mine but relying on things that make creatures cheaper. I got a very good late-game hand, delayed them by returning things to my hand and eventually I had a Beanstalk Giant merged with Sea-Dasher Octopus and Dreamtail Heron.
    I got Liliana, Waker of the Dead and Niambi, Esteemed Speaker. I guess the rewards are always legendary?
    So I went 10/5 counting those four FNM games, I've noticed that ever since I remade this RG deck I've been matched with opponents whose decks are much worse than before, maybe the matchmaking system works by measuring something about decks?
    I bought Gruul sleeves for 2250 gold during a sale (-25%), while at it I learned there are sleeves with Yoshitaka Amano's painting of Liliana. It's "only" 4000 gold. Hmmm...
    In fact, a lot of these are gorgeous. I don't mind not having them as long as they're available, but of course they'll stop selling them at some point, I don't know if there'll be a warning about it. Wizards really know how to make me antsy about spending resources.
    YOLO

    05/09
    I went 11/7, I played early in the day to make use of my new sleeves, that wasn't a great idea given my connection issues, my ISP had been doing work lately, I heard it got better and pinging behaviour seems to indicate that, but I still had problems.
    One of these games was against a blue devotion deck but one fateful turn they played Gadwick, the Wizened with x=6 and things went awry from there. Still, I almost won, I left my opponent at 1 life after failing to pump my Gnarlback Rhino more right before Ram Through.
    Also, one of my individual random rewards upgraded to an Indatha Triome, a really nice land. A second one upgraded too but that was into Treacherous Blessing.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    edited 2020-09-09 01:09:06
    06/05
    I went 10/5. In one of those I disconnected the turn before I was going to win, gosh what is it about me that tells me to play even if my connection is not completely fine. I think I'll stop posting about my connection issues, maybe if I can't pretend that losing over that is not my fault it'll teach me not to keep doing so. Another opponent conceded right as the game started.
    The daily deals were Thalia, Guardian of Thraben sleeves and four Thalia, Guardian of Thraben alternate card styles.

    07/05
    9/9. I learned that I was running 65 cards in my deck. Time to trim.
    Ever since I started playing I thought the feature to pass priority automatically if you don't have anything to play was abusable (convenient as it is), for some reason that hadn't come up for me until today when I used that to know that my opponent didn't have Shock in hand, if I hadn't been sure I would've done things very differently (IIRC it was some combat trickery). That felt dirty.
    I can't read, [Sudden Spinnerets} not +3/+3 as I thought, nonetheless I've found the reach and untapping parts to be surprisingly useful so I think I'll keep them for a while and see.
    Maaaan, this thing is great, I've won too many games because there's sudenly an extra blocker, or because one of them can suddenly fly, or because a creature is suddenly untargettable by the removal part of Heartless Act, I still haven't won because Paradise Druid suddenly regained Hexproof but it's just a matter of time. If I had more I'd replace Giant Growth with them. There's something satisfying about doing fancy tech with bad cards.

    08/09
    I went 10/3 (Edit: 11/3). The priority pass thing came up again when I needed to know if my opponent had burn in hand so as to know whether I should go all out or not.
    I think I've taken a liking for the Individual Card Reward that one gets for every two wins after the first four in the day until the 15th, I think it's the random element plus the fact that I'm aware how incomplete my collection is and that I'll get use I might use ages from now. Plus, it's not like I'm currently using gold rewards anyways. Maybe that's why I've been feeling like playing extra lately.
    TIL blind people can play MtG
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    09/09
    I went 10/5. I noticed an unusual amount of opponents conceding even though I didn't thought they were ahead. Also again one of my starting 7-card hands had only one land, but other than that it was an unremarkable day.

    10/09
    I went 9/6.
    Man, I feel bad, I could've won with the damage to the opponent from casting Ram Through on a trampler but I misplayed (playing Season of Growth after Spellgorger Weird rather than the other way around) and didn't hit my opponent for the extra damage that I needed for that to be lethal.
    My internet connection was puking itself all day long, I was worrying I wouldn't get to play but fortunately I did.
    I noticed I'm actually in the running for getting the next Mastery Orb before rotation, I must've severely miscounted my sources of Exp. if I can (barely) reach ten more levels than I anticipated.
    Rereading my own and all those [name], [title] cards I notice how prevalent legendary creatures are nowadays.

    11/09

    So this week's Friday Night Magic was Historic (not Historic Brawl), again the rewards were two rares, though this time only one was legendary.
    All in all, I went 9/6 today. For the quest I dusted off my monowhite lifegain deck, I remember it being kind of bad but I fared okay with it.
    I've faced the sanctums deck several times already and I've never been able to beat it, today I got the closest, apparently they got a bad hand and IIRC only played the red one by around turn four and the multicolored one by turn six, I got lucky with Sudden Spinnerets allowing me to save/untap my stuff but after the blue one came online there wasn't much I could do. I want to try that deck someday, but it'd require lots of wildcards.
    Gosh, between an ancient computer and connection issues today's playing was a very frustrating experience. A friend has been encouraging me to purchase another router, though I'm reluctant to do so as I don't really need a stable connection for anything else, nor am I certain that that's what the problem is in the first place, on the other hand my current router is borrowed so I suppose I should buy another one anyways. Maybe I will...
  • fourteenwingsfourteenwings
    edited 2020-09-12 05:14:10
    There is love everywhere, I already know
    This thread really makes me want to try the Pokemon TCG again, but my impression of it was that it always moved at a snail's pace.
    So this week's Friday Night Magic

    I'm starting to wonder if miwa's song FRIDAY MA-MAGIC was inspired by this trend, but it's possible the Magic thing didn't even exist in 2013. Plus I doubt miwa is into any of this nerdy stuff (though this song was the ED to the Ouran High School Host Club live-action series).

    Also:

    Friday

  • StormtroperStormtroper
    Friday Night Magic is actually super old, I can't find the date they started but I know they were already a thing by the time I started playing nearly two decades ago. Though I figure "[word] Magic" is too common a template for it not to be a coincidence.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    I can't find the date they started
    I found it, it started in 2000. Wikipedia truly knows it all.

    12/09
    The daily deal was Ugin's sleeves. It's part of the weeb collection though you wouldn't know from looking at it.
    I went 10/13, or was it 10/14? I guess it doesn't look that bad when looking at the win/loss ratio, but after a five and six loss streaks it's disheartening, for that reason I decided to stop cheaping on Wildcards and crafted the two Sudden Spinnerets I was missing.
    I wanted to get ten victories because I'm barely in reach of the next Mastery Orb before rotation... or that was what I thought before finding out you get it at level 55, not 56 as I thought, so I should be able to get it as early as tomorrow, maybe I'll get it then, maybe on Monday.
    I got trounced by a deck somewhat similar to mine but GW, with lots of small enchant creatures and Season of Growth, they put a bunch of stuff on Paradise Druid, which with vigilance and hexproof when untapped there wasn't much I could do.
    I fought that deck again, this time apparently my opponent had worse draws and while they managed to start up that chain of enchantments on Paradise Druid, it was late enough that I managed to get enough damage through to win.
    I had heard about that deck before, looks interesting, perhaps I could try it at some point.

    13/09
    I went 11/7.
    I did it! I beat the sanctums deck! Things started slowly; Island, Mountain, Forest and then the blue sanctum and thus I realized what I was up against, I immediately switched to aggro mode, I already had Paradise Druid and Llanowar Visionary out, I played Spellgorger Weird and Dreadhorde Arcanist, next turn I played Season of Growth, Boulder Rush and three Sudden Spinnerets for 16 damage, I didn't check their life but I don't think that was enough to kill them right there, if they had that red mass removal spell whose name escapes me I could've lost easily, it was a do or die thing, fortunately for me for whatever reason they didn't play a single removal spell (bad draws?). I still had enough to play another Spellgorger Weird which I did right as they were conceding, on second though I shouldn't have played it in case they really had mass removal.
    Maaan, there was this other game, one of those where you lose only to a single card (Nissa, a planeswalker who turns lands into creatures), things were okayish at first but then I made like three misplays in a row (biggest of which was not using a Sudden Spinneret to untap a would-be blocker that would kill one of their very important lands) and I think I had a decent chance at winning if it hadn't been due to that, before I knew it I had way too many lands on me. I dislike it when a single card dominates the game so I really wanted to win against that.
    Whoo, one of my individual card rewards got improved into a mythic (|% chance), I got the moth who resurrects non-fliers whose name escapes me.
    I've noticed a reason for me misplaying is getting overly excited about some elaborate plan I have in case my opponent does X, but then they do something slightly different to X and then in a case of tunnel vision if what I had in mind still works hurry to do that even if there's some better, easy to see play to do instead.
    There, I got the Mastery Orb I was looking for.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    This thread really makes me want to try the Pokemon TCG again, but my impression of it was that it always moved at a snail's pace.
    Do you mean that it's slow between sets being released, things happening irl and so on? If so, it's worth noting that MtG wasn't always that fast, sets took longer to be released and that includes the smaller sets that are an expansion of a previous set, and less side material like it's common now, perhaps you could check out the Pokémon TCG and see if it's changed too, after all they're both owned by WotC.
    If you mean that games go by quickly, it's also worth noting that Arena games are much faster than they actually are IRL or games in non-rules-based engines, what with not having to sort things out with words.

    I happen to read a bit of a previous page where we were talking to MadassAlex about knight decks, with Eldraine and all its Arthurian myth flavour being currently legal in Standard and monoblack knights being (were?) competitive it'd be a good time for him to start playing.

    14/09
    To day wasn't my day, I went 5/10. If you count as a loss the game where my opponent conceded as I disconnected while the game started I got seven losses in a row.
    So I read up a bit on MTGA's matchmaking, apparently for unranked it matches based on "deck strength", that's really weird, for starters even humans have trouble figuring out how good a deck is (presumably it looks at individual cards rather than the deck as a whole), also it sounds like it could result in improving your deck to be a bad thing for your performance, like in those RPGs where your enemies level up with you.
    I had a hunch something like that was going on after me changing my deck (changes that I think were for the better) apparently resulted in getting worse opponents. Also today I added Llanowar Elves (i.e. a card that hasn't been printed in a while) and while I'm not sure I'd say I got matched against better/worse decks (although my performance suggests they were better), I noticed they had older stuff too. If I had to guess this system is in place so you can try new decks willy-nilly without affecting or having it affect your matchmaking score, visible or otherwise.
    Anyhows, I guess if I want to get a good notion of how good my deck is I should be playing ranked instead.
  • fourteenwingsfourteenwings
    There is love everywhere, I already know
    Do you mean that it's slow between sets being released, things happening irl and so on?

    I mean the online play client, which takes it's sweet time with every move.

    The sets are released every four months or so and there's always stuff going on I guess.
    If you mean that games go by quickly, it's also worth noting that Arena games are much faster than they actually are IRL or games in non-rules-based engines

    Yeah so the Pokemon TCG Online is the opposite of this.
    after all they're both owned by WotC.

    The Pokémon Company got the rights back from WotC in 2003 or so and controls all Pokémon media across the West. That's why the anime kept jumping from channel to channel and eventually just ended up on Netflix.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    Somehow in all this time I hadn't heard about Wizards no longer having the rights to the Pokémon TCG.

    15/09
    I went 9/11. I got trounced so hard in ranked queue, several games were against either tier 1 decks or decks with lots of bomb rares/mythics. On the plus side I faced a RGW version of my deck, t'was cool, with lots of stuff to pump their creatures, although nothing to make them fight mine. Regardless, I went back to Play queue.
    Maan, I almost beat another sanctuaries shrines deck, I left my opponent at one life but the black honden forced me to discard the Ram Through that I needed, and I couldn't overcome the tokens the green honden creates or the tapping from the white sanctuary. Perhaps if I had drawn more non-creature spells.
    I almost got decked for the first time (i.e. lost game over trying to draw while having no cards in library) against a UG mill deck (i.e. one that puts cards from your library into your graveyard). I went for style and played things such that I'd win while having no cards in library, but I misplayed (tapped my Paradise Druid for mana rather than play a Forest and tap it instead) and almost left my opponent at 1 life, fortunately I had dealt one extra damage to my opponent with Ram Through before and thus I won. I had never been close to getting milled before, but that deck was much better than the other ones I've seen (I've lost to mill decks before but those were over Ominous Seas tokens, not milling), it didn't help that it didn't actually look like a mill deck until turn 4-5 when it did lots of milling with all the lands it had ramped.

    16/09
    I went 5/7. There wasn't much to remark, I only got to play very late and what I did play didn't strike me as noteworthy, so...

    17/09
    I played a few games in the morning, just enough to complete the quest I got shortly before rotation (which resets quests). I went 1/3.
    Zendikar Rising is out! The planeswalkers are rushing to adventure into the world of Indiana Jonesing... well, okay, Zendikar this time around is more about Dungeons and Dragonsing than Indiana Jonesing, but still.
    Unfortunately the only draft mode currently available is Premier Draft, Quick Draft is not available yet, it'll be open on October 2nd (it uses bots, which in turn uses data gathered over time from human players in Premier Draft). Premier Draft is a more high-risk, high-reward mode, which I didn't mind but I've seen lots of people recommending against doing these for free2players and those who aren't accustomed to drafting, also I learned that from the 2th to the 20th participating in drafts earns you basic land card styles so I guess I should save until then to spend my savings, my endorphin rush will have to wait. In the meantime I'll become the best drafter in the world.
    So let's get going.
    As renewal reward (prize for playing during Magic 2021, the previous set) I got:

    I thought one would only get cards from Zendikar Rising, but nope, they're selected from the other Standard sets, too.
    Whoah everything is green now. It may seem insignificant but with the set having its "visual identity" I feel it goes a long way in making the game feel like it's changing. Plus I like color coding.
    On new rotation each player gets three quests, after one reroll all three of mine involve playing black spells, so I made a quickie monoblack control deck that doesn't control very much, but it'd have to do.
    I faced:

    If I didn't miscount I ended up 9/5 (not counting the early morning games).
    With the RG deck I faced no stuff from Zendikar Rising, in fact I faced almost nothing that wasn't legal in the format that just rotated, I guess this thing is pairing me against people who just like me haven't gotten their hands on the new stuff and are just playing the same thing as usual.
    Also when I did face Zendikar Rising stuff, they had lots of Zendikar Rising stuff, I guess either people spend next to no resources on new stuff, or spend a lot on it.
    Despite the fact that most games involved no new cards, I had lots of fun playing, I'm not sure why. Some game version of the placebo effect, maybe?
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    Also for some reason I was unable to use my Dreadhorde Arcanist's ability to cast the Sudden Spinneret I had in my graveyard.
    I didn't realize until today, it was because my opponent had played a forgettable Grafdigger's Cage on turn 1.

    18/09
    I went 4/4.
    I beat a shrines deck again! I was using my UW flyers deck for questing purpose only, but I was greatly helped by having Banishing Light and Conclave Tribunal to deal with these. Both of us had slow hands, but my opponent managed to play and keep the black and multicolored ones, and I exiled the blue one and two red ones
    I faced an interesting deck with Treasure Find, Awaken the Erstwhile and lots of lands, one of which was the one that eliminates the hand size limit, so Treasure Find fills their hand with stuff and then discards them with Awaken the Erstwhile to put loads of zombie tokens as well as getting rid of whatever answer I may have in my hand (which I didn't).

    19/09
    I went 7/11.
    In celebration of Talk Like a Pirate day, all daily deals are pirate cards (and pirate Vraska), all at 90% discount. I wasn't terribly interested in anything, but at those prizes I felt I could afford them,
    I got milled for the first time today. Can't fault anybody but myself though, I played beyond terrible, failing to play Evolving Wilds twice while needing green mana, a random Sudden Spinneret on a Gnarlback Rhino that was having Unsummon cast on it, and a couple other smaller things.
    It was only a matter of time 'til I faced one of those crazy UG decks that use Lotus Cobra and Omnath, Locus of Creation plus other stuff to put million of things in the battlefield.
    I faced a deck with On Alert and creatures with high toughness, it wrecked me with whatever the 0/5 seahorse is called.

    20/09
    I went 4/2. I won against a monowhite lifegain deck, and I'm sure more interesting things happened but apparently I didn't write on this thread's draft.

    21/09
    I went 5/7.
    For whatever reason I faced an unusual amount of monogreen aggro decks. Also Sudden Spinnerents on my 2/2 Spellgorger Weird in response to it being targeted by Indrik Stomper's ability. Feels good man.
    For the first time I got milled without it being my fault, I got what would usually be a great hand, but my opponent played no creatures until their last turn, creatures that I needed to cast my stuff if only to draw cards and pump my Spellgorger Weird. In hindsight maybe I had an opportunity to cast the Threat side of Thrash // Threat, which I usually don't.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    This is the longest I've gone without posting.

    22/09
    I went 5/4.
    I faced another deck with Treasure Find, this time it decked itself then played Thassa's Oracle, I could kill it in response to its trigger (it was their only coloured permanent) but of course since it says it says you win if your devotion to blue is greater than or equal to the number of cards in your library that wouldn't stop me from losing. I still did it out of principle.
    I got milled again, this time I blame it on drawing terribly (no Spellgorger Weird or Gnarlback Rhino and only two removal spells despite drawing/scrying a lot).
    I get variable results out of Dreadhorde Arcanist, it doesn't often get a chance to do its thing but when it does, it very often is great, I wonder if I should add more copies of it as well as more cards that make good use of it.

    23/09
    I went 7-2, I wasn't intending to play that much but after a four victories streak I thought I'd continue until losing, thus I won three more times before losing again.
    Gosh I love Sudden Spinneret, you can feel the opponent's surprise upon encountering a card they hadn't seen before that does exactly what I need done at the time.

    24/09
    All in all I went 7/2.
    Late at night I played Friday Night Magic, which is remarkable because it was't Friday for me yet. Anyhows it was Artisan (i.e. Standard but with no rares/mythics). I quickly made a monowhite lifegain deck and trounced both of my opponents after drawing lucky starting hands, then with my usual deck I also got lucky hands and won three more games without much of a setback.
    I wasn't so lucky on the sixth, no creatures in my starting hand (maybe I had Thrash // Threat? can't remember), but even then I drew some creatures. I faced a discard deck and although it dealt with my early stuff, between Domri and a super convenient Sudden Spinneret I took the lead, but things took a nosedive when my opponent played Liliana, Dreadhorde General and killed my only two creatures, I still had a chance to recover if I drew another creature (I had two Ram Through in hand and Domri on the battlefield) but next thing I know my last four draws were lands, and so my streak ended anticlimactically.
    I still played some more...
    Hell yeah! I beat my opponent after wiping my stuff with Ugin! I played Rimrock Knight afterwards and had three Sudden Spinnerets to protect it, luckily I also drew Season of Growth and an extra Ram Through that I needed to remove blockers. I almost failed to kill Ugin because the autotapper refrained from tapping my Mountain even though I had no red spells to cast. Still I brought it down and my opponent conceded shortly afterwards (although if I'm being sincere, if they had topdecked another Ugin I'd have lost easily).
    I also faced a GB combo deck with Skola Grovedancer, Doom Whisperer and Citadel of Bolas plus a million ramping spells, things seemed to go fine for me until one fateful turn my opponent made use of all the mana/life they gained to surveil through their library looking for and playing the right cards to keep gaining life/surveiling, while making me lose life with IIRC Epicure of Blood. Eventually I lost 10 life and my opponent had enough to finish me off with Citadel of Bolas.

    25/09
    I went 9-2. Eight of those games were playing the same FNM event from yesterday, with the same monowhite lifegain deck, I was undefeated for seven games and thought I'd keep that record, but got greedy and then lost immediately. The common archetypes seem to be WB lifegain and milling, not that different from regular Play queue.
    I know there was more I was supposed to write about my matches, perhaps I should've had this draft open to keep notes while playing?
    I finally installed one of those assistant plugins (MTGA Assistant), I thought it'd include something to get collection statistics but for whatever reason it doesn't yes it does, but for whatever reason the UI for it is in some standalone executable rather than in-game.
    Something that I like about MtG is that WotC is very open about how it's developed, sometimes [url="MaRo rare lands.https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/163266285288/dear-maro-why-are-most-dual-lands-fetch-pain"]too open[/url].
    My brother and a friend started playing MTGA. Using the free packs from past releases we did boosters duel in their accounts, where each one opens one pack and whoever gets the best rare/mythic wins. t'was fun, my brother won the majority. They both got good stuff too.

    26/09
    I went 10-4. I beat a reanimator deck that successfully reanimated its Viris, Broker of Blood (but didn't use its ability), I had a 2/2 Spellgorger Weird that with Boulder Rush, Sudden Spinneret and Ram Through was large enough to kill it, it felt good.
    Despite the fact that I played quite a bit, I don't think there was any other noteworthy match.
  • StormtroperStormtroper
    edited 2020-09-29 06:57:04
    Wizards announced a ban on Monday. Most people expect the victim will be Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, a crazy good ramping/drawing creature that recurs itself from the graveyard. Anyhows, when a card gets banned that you are in possession of, you get wildcards as compensation and still get to keep the card, so if you know a card is going to get banned you'll want to craft as many as possible before then. I took the risk and crafted 4 Uros, if it doesn't get banned I'll get stuck with 4 mythic wildcards less and four of an overpowered card that I nonetheless don't plan on using.

    27/09
    I thought I'd brave up and play Ranked Historic, if I win twice I'd reach the next rank and get better stuff at the end of the month. I faced:
    • WUBR control with lots of planeswalkers. I got controlled to death.
    • Monoblue Treasure Find. I got Thassa's Oracle'd to death my opponent winning.
    • UG with maybe some white, it seemed like Bant Control but didn't control very much. I won! I played three early mana dorks, my opponent played/sacced Uro, then played Hydroid Kraxis which I killed with Gnarlback Rhino + Ram Through, they then bounced it with Petty Theft but with the help of a Sudden Spinneret I had enough for lethal. I thought that if I won it wouldn't be without much effort , but that was kind of uneventful.
    Regardless, I got two "points" for next rank, at which point I learned the next rank is not "Silver", it's "Bronze 3", and I'd have to win quite a bit before reaching Silver, so yeah, I'll do that next season maybe who knows.
    I went 10- ... 7? or was it 8? I didn't put much effort into recording today's stuff.
    I won against some (colorless?) deck with Steel Overseer, I killed their Crystalline Giant with a surprise blocker from Sudden Spinneret (still cost me a Paradise Druid) but was in a very bad position with no fuel for hitting/drawing/removing and my opponent with Steel Overseer and the artifact creature that untaps an artifact at end of turn. Short of several lucky draws in a row I'd have lost but next thing I know my opponent conceded, apparently they valued the Crystalline Giant a lot.
    I had a tense match against a colorless deck with Forsaken Monument, I didn't draw large creatures until after a while, but had several of them, I managed to get rid of the early stuff (Stonecoil Serpent, Thopter whatsitsname and Palladium Myr) but of course with that Monument every single creature was a decent blocker. They played Karn and Ugin, the Ineffable, drew lots of cards sacrificing artifacts, gained lots of life and transformed my stuff with Transmogrifying Wand, while I drew lots, put lots of dudes on the battlefield and tried my best to hit their face/planeswalkers. Eventually they drew Ugin, the Spirit Dragon (that I guess they were waiting for for ages) and that was the end of me.
    I noticed I've been misreading my Primordial Might all this time, it says "up to one target creature", meaning I can use it to pump one of my creatures even if my opponent has no creatures to fight mine.

    28/09
    My bet paid off, as expected Uro was banned (try to Escape out of that one), so I got four Uros for free, not that I know what to use them for.
    Regardless, a lot of people are miffed/concerned about the fact that Omnath, Locus of Creation wasn't banned (the other candidate for banning), Uro was part of Omnath decks but the expectation is that even without it those decks will still dominate.
    I went 10/12, I don't remember having lost that much in one day.
    I faced a WB lifegain deck, except that instead of using the more recent stuff it had several of Ixalan's not-Spaniard-conquerors vampires.
    I thought I wouldn't see Uro anymore but of course, my deck is Historic so I will. I faced a UG deck with some mutate, some ramp and some Uro, it had ran out of fuel several times but each time Uro was there to keep drawing and buy time to slowly build up a force that would end up overwhelming me.
    I lost to a deck apparently composed entirely of Swamps and Rat Colonies, I thought I'd be fine since I had two Llanowar Emissary plus Sudden Spinnerets to run them out of fuel, but I never drew a second green-mana land that'd let me make good use of those. In hindsight at one point I let both my Emissaries die when I should've kept one for mana purposes.
    Maaan, I feel super silly for losing to a mill deck over a really bad misplay (killing their Merfolk Secretkeeper rather than their Vantress Gargoyle. Well, they drew the Teferi's Tutelage that'd end up decking me so I guess it didn't matter, but I would've had a huge advantage if I hadn't done that.
    Mill decks have really benefitted from the release of Ruin Crab, I'll often find myself with nearly half of my library gone before I get a good chance at killing one. I managed to defeat one while having only one card left in my library, though.
    Anyhows,

    Edit: Oh yeah, and everybody is up in arms due to the upcoming the Walking Dead cards. Unlike the My Little Pony and the Godzilla proxies these cards are going to be legal in eternal formats (or was it just EDH?), and they're going to be very limited in availability, so...
  • fourteenwingsfourteenwings
    There is love everywhere, I already know
    so if you know a card is going to get banned you'll want to craft as many as possible before then

    They really need to fix that.
    I got controlled to death.

    N8UAAIj.png
    I had a tense match against a colorless deck with Forsaken Monument,

    Are these like Amulets from Shadowverse where they stay on the field and nerf you/boost the opponent until they're taken off the field?
    My bet paid off, as expected Uro was banned

    Yay~
    the upcoming the Walking Dead cards

    I feel like My Little Pony (which was practically staked through the heart with G4.5) is still more of a thing than The Walking Dead, but maybe that's just where I look stuff up.

    I don't know if it's really a thing or I just pay attention now but I see Magic decks pop up in my 'Recommended Items' on certain online stores more often nowadays.
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