Magic the Gathering Thread XXIV: *Slaps Roof* This Thread Can Hold So Many Chandras!

[Ninjaman]

Does Castle Garenbrig count as a Sol Land?

No. It's too slow.

[Karnitis]

Okay, need some gift advice for those of yall who have read Wheel of Time.
Friend's favorite character is Perrin. I want to get him a Perrin card.

Green is obvious. Although his personality is Green-White (imo), I want to capitalize on the Dreamwalker (Planeswalker) aspect and go with a Garruk. I'm split between 3 Garruks right now.

1) Garruk Wildspeaker - simple, good, fits in a lot of decks. But on the same hand, a bit bland
2) Garruk Relentless - shows that cool transformation into Perrin's wolfy-self, but it leans toward wolf-tribal and I want my friend to be able to use it without feeling obligated to build a deck around it
3) Garruk Cursed Huntsman - I think it fits early Perrin as he felt he was 'cursed' before he accepted his power, plus its wolf-flavored without requiring the theme of 2. Downside, it's green-black which doesn't suit him even in wolf form (which I'd call more Green-Red)

Bonus if yall might find me a flavorful axe as well! Thanks a bunch, if anyone can share some advice.

[enderlord99]

Wait, why Garuuk specifically? There are other Green Planeswalkers...

[Karnitis]

It's thematic.

1) Creature-focused (compared to Nissa lands, Ajani life, Freyalise elves, Vraska removal)
2) Primarily green (Tamiyo, Oko, Kiora and other blues don't really fit his personality)
3) Looks similar, in so far as he's very large and he wields an axe
4) Flavorwise, hes a hunter which is similar to Perrin's wolf form

That said, my initial thought was because he was a flip card. As I think about it Id be open to others, perhaps Arlinn Kord or Vivien.

[Spore]

Honestly I would advise for Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves, and/or Nightpack Ambushers for the basis of a wolf tribal. Maybe Ferocious Pups for sheer adorableness.

You can always round this out with a Garruk card if you want. Arlinn is a werewolf planeswalker, tho.

[Tvtyrant]

Huntmaster of the Fells seems like the best fit to me.

[LansXero]

Huntmaster of the Fells seems like the best fit to me.

Was going to say, it has axe, wolfyness, RG with a 'whiteish' lifegain.

[Tvtyrant]

Was going to say, it has axe, wolfyness, RG with a 'whiteish' lifegain.

Switches back and forth between wolf leader and human leader, they fit together perfectly.

[enderlord99]

I just cast River's Rebuke while my opponent controlled a Lurking Predators. The top card of their library had an Adventure, so that was neat.
They immediately conceded, which is disappointing because I was hoping they would find a creative use for the relatively-powerful sorcery I had just accidentally given them access to.

[Mystic Muse]

I just cast River's Rebuke while my opponent controlled a Lurking Predators. The top card of their library had an Adventure, so that was neat.
They immediately conceded, which is disappointing because I was hoping they would find a creative use for the relatively-powerful sorcery I had just accidentally given them access to.

They don't get access to the sorcery from what I'm reading. They can put the creature part on the battlefield, and that's it, which does not help at all against River's rebuke.

Heck, I'm not sure which adventures would even be especially effective against a River's Rebuke, unless they also had a bunch of lucky clovers.

[enderlord99]

They don't get access to the sorcery from what I'm reading.

Not at first, but...

They can put the creature part on the battlefield

Yes.

and that's it

That's "it" for what the Lurking Predators does. That is not "it" for what happens.

which does not help at all against River's rebuke.

River's Rebuke returns it to their hand (along with everything else) which is why they can now cast it. I didn't say it would be free; I said they now had access to it. They had a lot of lands.

[Mystic Muse]

Not at first, but...Yes.That's "it" for what the Lurking Predators does. That is not "it" for what happens. River's Rebuke returns it to their hand (along with everything else) which is why they can now cast it. I didn't say it would be free; I said they now had access to it. They had a lot of lands.

Ah, that's completely fair. Sorry, I just misread what you meant. It probably doesn't help that I have friends who misunderstand really fundamental things about this game.

And you'd be surprised how often people will concede for no particular reason. Twice in a recent draft, my opponents have conceded when they seemed to be in a better position than I was.

Plus, some people just get salty as can be.

[enderlord99]

For further context, I was using my deck that I call the Trampoline Museum, which is based around getting out a God-Pharaoh's Statue, animating it, and equipping it with a Helm of the Host. I have three copies of the Statue in my mainboard, plus one in the sideboard (to be fetched with Karn the Great Creator).

They had already destroyed two of my Statues through various means, and the third one was animated but not equipped; I also had Karn out. They had a single Lucky Clover in their hand and the card that Lurking Predators revealed was a Murderous Rider. They had 9 lands, so they could have cast lucky clover for (4) then cast Swift End for (3)(B)(B), thus destroying both my last mainboard Statue (because it was currently a creature, and thus a legal target for Swift End) and my way of fetching my sideboard copy (a planeswalker, and thus a legal target for the copy of that same Swift End)

EDIT: They had much more than the 5 life needed to survive doing this. They had more than 20 life, even!

[Fable Wright]

They immediately conceded, which is disappointing because I was hoping they would find a creative use for the relatively-powerful sorcery I had just accidentally given them access to.

I mean, your deck sounds like a slow, janky combo engine that (1) probably don't know has a limited set of win conditions and (2) just promised to stall out the game for another long set of turns. Since this is on Arena, they were probably just tired of playing against this deck and wanted to play against a quicker and/or more meta deck. Especially since answering you meant discarding a lot of what they had on the field and also the fact that it's just exhausting to play through the statue.

[enderlord99]

I mean, your deck sounds like a slow, janky combo engine that (1) probably don't know has a limited set of win conditions and (2) just promised to stall out the game for another long set of turns. Since this is on Arena, they were probably just tired of playing against this deck and wanted to play against a quicker and/or more meta deck. Especially since answering you meant discarding a lot of what they had on the field and also the fact that it's just exhausting to play through the statue.

That's a fair assessment.

[Spore]

I mean, your deck sounds like a slow, janky combo engine that (1) probably don't know has a limited set of win conditions and (2) just promised to stall out the game for another long set of turns. Since this is on Arena, they were probably just tired of playing against this deck and wanted to play against a quicker and/or more meta deck. Especially since answering you meant discarding a lot of what they had on the field and also the fact that it's just exhausting to play through the statue.

Anything that ruins the cookie cutter Temur Adventure deck's fun is good in my books. I am running a grueling mono black list from reddit featuring Kaervek to kill the Innkeepers and Faeries, Clackbridge Troll, and a bunch of targetted and AoE removal. Necromentia to remove combo pieces, Massacre Wurm as another removal/finisher. It is honestly fun because it has no CLEAR win con besides removing enemy stuff and punching face, so you gotta get a bit tricksy.

(It is not THAT grueling, but very heavy control.)

[enderlord99]

Anything that ruins the cookie cutter Temur Adventure deck's fun is good in my books.

I mean, I'm not out to "ruin" anything, but I also dislike netdecking.

I am running a grueling mono black list

...okay...

from reddit

[Eurus]

Not wanting to play "netdecks" is fine, but don't knock them too much. Deck building is a rather different skill and experience from actually playing MTG, and not everyone enjoys both of them.

[enderlord99]

Not wanting to play "netdecks" is fine, but don't knock them too much. Deck building is a rather different skill and experience from actually playing MTG, and not everyone enjoys both of them.

That's fair, I suppose.

[Gaius Hermicus]

Looks decent. Two things though. Heartfire Immolator is great, but it might potentially be too slow. Remember Chandra's Pyreling and Igneous Cur exist in the 2 slot as well with the latter having good synergy with Embercleave. Not a fan of Dragonfire as it cannot go face. But removal/damage spells are always reliant on the meta. I am a fan of Raking Claws x2, because people just forget it exists.

Thanks for the advice. I'll agree that Heartfire Immolator is a bit slow, but I don't see that either Igneous Cur or the Pyreling are any faster. Plus Immolator gets me some extra removal if I need it, as some play has shown me that my biggest problem is dealing with enemy creatures.

Raking Claws looks pretty cool but again I'd have to switch out some removal to get it. On the other hand it's a pretty solid pump spell that plays well with Anax and Bonecrusher. I'll try it out for a few games and see how it goes.

Here's hoping there's some solid red two-drops in Zendikar Rising! That's my weakest spot for sure.

[LaZodiac]

Zendikar day!

Landfall is coming back, as expected. Kicker too!

New mechanics
Party, a batching style mechanic that cares if you have a Warrior, Rogue, Wizard, and Cleric around.
Modular DFC: Double faced cards that can just be cast on either side. In Zendikar Rising, it'll be a Land on one side and anything else on the other!

MTG Story
Free webfiction returns!
Plot is Nahiri wanting to stop the Roil. She's taking an understandable "any cost to stop this" approach, though the Roil is presumably a natural (but agitated by time) mechanism of the plane. She is not being treated like an uwu savior archetype but people are still thinking that because nuance is dead.

The Future Of Magic
Next year's sets are all revealed!
Kaldheim!
Strixhaven, the School of Magic
Time Spiral Remastered
The Forgotten Realms! DND IN MAGIC OFFICIALLY
Modern Horizons 2! Enemy Fetches!
Innistrad: Werewolves and Innistrad: Vampires, two sets worth of Innistrad!
They mention a vampire wedding!

[Personification]

Zendikar day!

Landfall is coming back, as expected. Kicker too!

New mechanics
Party, a batching style mechanic that cares if you have a Warrior, Rogue, Wizard, and Cleric around.
Modular DFC: Double faced cards that can just be cast on either side. In Zendikar Rising, it'll be a Land on one side and anything else on the other!

MTG Story
Free webfiction returns!
Plot is Nahiri wanting to stop the Roil. She's taking an understandable "any cost to stop this" approach, though the Roil is presumably a natural (but agitated by time) mechanism of the plane. She is not being treated like an uwu savior archetype but people are still thinking that because nuance is dead.

The Future Of Magic
Next year's sets are all revealed!
Kaldheim!
Strixhaven, the School of Magic
Time Spiral Remastered
The Forgotten Realms! DND IN MAGIC OFFICIALLY
Modern Horizons 2! Enemy Fetches!
Innistrad: Werewolves and Innistrad: Vampires, two sets worth of Innistrad!
They mention a vampire wedding!

I came here to post this.
Also, here is my reaction.

[Amechra]

Plot is Nahiri wanting to stop the Roil. She's taking an understandable "any cost to stop this" approach, though the Roil is presumably a natural (but agitated by time) mechanism of the plane. She is not being treated like an uwu savior archetype but people are still thinking that because nuance is dead.

Ah, the good old "plate tectonics is a personal insult, and I won't stand for it" plan.

Now I want a Mazdamundi alter for one of her cards.

[Tvtyrant]

Ah, the good old "plate tectonics is a personal insult, and I won't stand for it" plan.

Now I want a Mazdamundi alter for one of her cards.

If science really loved her it would stop happening without her approval.

[LaZodiac]

Ah, the good old "plate tectonics is a personal insult, and I won't stand for it" plan.

Now I want a Mazdamundi alter for one of her cards.

I mean in the case of Zendikar is kinda explicitly IS. The Roil was the plane bucking in response to the Eldrazi stuck inside of it, and now it's just the plane's defenses. Nahiri just thinks Zendikar's got an auto-immune disease.

[Personification]

Ah, the good old "plate tectonics is a personal insult, and I won't stand for it" plan.

Now I want a Mazdamundi alter for one of her cards.

I mean, that is kind of the plot of the Broken Earth Trilogy too. Also, in this case (and I guess that one) it is an actual force with a mind that is doing it, though it has good intentions.

I do like how they are continuing to show the psycho blood knight side of Nahiri that manifested during her thousands of years of solitary confinement and the psychological toll of her plane being destroyed because she was betrayed.

Also, the Legendary Artifact - McGuffin in the commercial looks a lot like the beacons from Critical Role.

[Amechra]

I mean in the case of Zendikar is kinda explicitly IS. The Roil was the plane bucking in response to the Eldrazi stuck inside of it, and now it's just the plane's defenses. Nahiri just thinks Zendikar's got an auto-immune disease.

I mean, I get that, I just find that plot really funny whenever I see it. It's so oddly specific, and yet I've seen it multiple times.

---

I have some concerns about Party. It looks like it's going to be pretty hard to get a full party, since you'll need to have four creatures with different types out simultaneously. And of the cards that have been spoiled, the only one that seems to really pay off that effort is Coveted Prize, since the bonus you get for having a full party is downright insane. Spoils of Adventure is also pretty decent if you have 2+ relevant creatures.

On the other hand, I like it way more than Ally tribal, since it won't be anywhere near as insular. It's also a clever way to tie together a tribal set. So I'm kinda conflicted here.

[Personification]

I mean, I get that, I just find that plot really funny whenever I see it. It's so oddly specific, and yet I've seen it multiple times.

---

I have some concerns about Party. It looks like it's going to be pretty hard to get a full party, since you'll need to have four creatures with different types out simultaneously. And of the cards that have been spoiled, the only one that seems to really pay off that effort is Coveted Prize, since the bonus you get for having a full party is downright insane. Spoils of Adventure is also pretty decent if you have 2+ relevant creatures.

On the other hand, I like it way more than Ally tribal, since it won't be anywhere near as insular. It's also a clever way to tie together a tribal set. So I'm kinda conflicted here.

I think it is designed assuming you will usually only have like two, with the scaling ones getting great at 3-4 and the "full party" ones being a bit bonkers.
Plus, there is also minor regular tribal in each tribe in case you want to go for the all cleric party.

[Dienekes]

Hello, so hope this is alright to bring up in the MTG thread.

Because of virus nonsense my brother is currently living with me. He has recently expressed interest in getting into Magic, and has asked if I could go with him and help him pick out one or two premade decks so we could play in the long wasted hours of quarantine.

Here’s the thing, once I was really into the game. Played in tournaments and even one a few small ones. But I’ve not played since Invasion block (or maybe the one that came right after). So I was wondering if anything’s changed in the last twenty years of the game? I understand Planeswalker cards are a thing now. And have learned roughly how they work. But if I just go to the game store and pick up a few decks with my brother will I be thrown in for a loop?

Red still blow things up. Blue still make it their life’s mission to annoy everyone to death. Black gets zombies and steals everyone else’s gimmick but pays life for it. Green gets a bunch of weak things and then suddenly shifts to giant really scary things. And white makes themselves hard to kill.

That all hold true? If there are premade decks you guys know are there any that have a reputation for being very fun or recent sets I should avoid?

Anything would be helpful. Thanks guys.

[LansXero]

I think it is designed assuming you will usually only have like two

So, taking bets something will get banned because of it? like 'we didnt think Oko would see play!' and 'we didnt think Companions would be broken!'