Magic: The Gathering,GO TEAM MS!

[InflatablePie]

got refunded, sign on to MTGO. draft is laggy/autopicks (p1p1 marshmist titan p1p2 mountain. ...). game 3 slightly laggy (somehow, I won). and then after that MTGO crashed for everyone.

I guess I don't get to draft ever

[Shanba]

With TNN a thing I think I prefer modern to legacy right now /heresy

Edit: nevermind someone is playing aluren with shardless agents and baleful strix and eternal witness and just 2for 1 ing without even combo oh my

Edit 2:this is fascinating

its like he took shardless bug and said you know what this needs? Aluren combo. VALUEEEEEEEEE!

Edit 3:I think I'm in love with this deck. I don't even care if its good and a playset of imperial recruiters is a down payment on a mortgage. My oh my.

[Natirasha]

I know no one reads these, but I've been brewing for modern and I got a spicy one!

Junk Smallpox. Smallpox is one of those cards I just fucking love, and I figure with the rise of Bogles incoming and lots of single-creature decks coming in, it's a card I think has a lot of potential to come back into the meta. I started with an old BW list I had from yonder days(like extended...). It worked okay. Like, it had a game vs every deck out there, but I never felt super-in-charge(except vs Bogles lol). As time went by, I noticed some things

--Flagstones of Trokair is insane on turn two with Fetid Heath, complete ass everywhere else.
--despite being 2 color, the fact this deck wanted to hit WW and BB on turn 2/3 was really hard and meant that it was still vulnerable to Blood Moon.
--Hard to interact with artifacts or pack hate due to the fact the deck relied on the graveyard and activated/triggered abilities.
--Kitchen Finks is, indeed, Green.
--The only real white cards I had in the deck at this point are 3 Path to Exiles.

Spoiler: BGW Smallpox

2 Thoughtseize
4 Smallpox
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Marsh Flats
2 Godless Shrine
3 Swamp
1 Plains
3 Path to Exile
3 Bitterblossom
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Dark Confidant
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Tragic Slip
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
2 Temple Garden
2 Forest
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Courser of Kruphix
1 Shadow of Doubt
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Gavony Township
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Isolated Chapel
---------
1 Thoughtseize
1 Batterskull
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Damnation
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Spellskite
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Krosan Grip
2 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Deathmark

This deck is hilarious and completely absurd. But, what's better, it's actually been winning for some god-unknown reason. It plays like an unholy cross between Jund, bw tokens and 8rack.

Some of the more curious choices
Courser of Kruphix: One of the coolest things in Green, really. This deck, as you can imagine, has a LOT of incidental damage. It also wants to play the super-grindy game. Courser works really well in that regard. Additionally, Finks isn't as good as it used to be due to Anger being an all-star in every red deck ever right now, and this survives anger.
Sword of Light and Shadow: Bitterblossom is slow...really slow. Of all the Swords, this one was the best I could find. In a perfect world, Sword of War and Peace had relevant abilities, but this deck tends to go hellbent fast and Light and Shadow can completely close out games vs midrange/aggro by doing fun things like recurring Kitchen Finks(or Fulminator Mages as my tron opponent yesterday learned, lol). You'll usually have some sort of flying token to hold the sword, so you pretty much 90% get the hit.
Tragic Slip: I can't think of any x/2s in the format, so the fun of sometimes going Smallpox->Slip beats out things like Disfigure. I didn't want to max out on Paths because this deck does kinda play the LD game at times.
Shadow of Doubt: Smallpox #5. No one ever expects it from black decks.
Gavony Township: This was orginally a second sword, but as previously mentioned, SoWaP sucks ass and this deck doesn't really use the others well. Township works best in the long, grindy bitterblossom games. Truthfully, I'm not very keen on it as is(I've activated it twice over like 20 matches).
Tectonic Edge: In a perfect world, this would be another Overgrown Tomb, but tron's big in my meta so I made a small concession. As to the one in the side...
Sideboard: A mess. WoS&M is like a ghetto Rest In Peace, which is a sad neccessity due to our Souls/Finks. The Fulminator Mages are good, as are the spellskites and TSeize. Batterskull has been outstanding in the matches it's relevant(Jund et all+UWR). Damnation is just useful. KGrip has been really solid, being uninteractable and all that--it's worth the two extra mana for the effect. I don't know about Creeping Corrosion--I think this will probably end up being a Stony Silence or another Kataki. Deathmark is a card people forget exists most of the time--I find the best way to beat pod is to kill the first elf, and Deathmark also deals with random Goyfs or Nacatls(not that the deck needed it--Zoo is a good matchup too) as relevant. And I legit don't know why tecedge is there--something about a 24th land, but I've never found a reason to bring it in.

I admit, I'm still something of a neophyte when it comes to modern, and this is my first time brewing a purely new-deck. I mean, smallpox has been around since forever or whatever, but it's been dead forever too and there is no standard list. I think the maindeck is in the right direction, but I would like to hear what everyone thinks if anyone has anything to add.

[Shanba]

So, I dont normally like playing 8-4 draft queues because I lose quite a bit in limited still, but today I was waitign in the swiss m14 queue as the only player without really enough time to wait for it to fill and I saw an almost full 8-4 and said, well, whatever I may as well. I joined the queue, started drafting, ended up in kinda ok but not really r/g slivers with the +3/+3 sliver. Pick 1 pack 3 comes around and I'm not too confident in my deck, it feels like I'm being cut (and I actually played against g/w slivers round 1 so that may well be accurate) and I see a pack with a bunch of nice blue and something mediocre for me. I look at particularly the opportunity in the pack with longing but reluctantly pass it.

Its coming to an end, the drafting portion and I've picked up the +2/+0 sliver and my deck looks fine now, probably not going to win anything but at least playable. My opening pack comes back.

Opportunity wheeled

.

I 3-0d that draft.

[Gammagooey]

oh god

just did a cockatrice draft

where both of us were three colors with kiora and got the emblem off

i lost by running out of cards

[kdowns]

Well... Going to SCG Dallas.

I am going to be playing BW Midrange/Control in Standard and Manaless Dredge in Legacy.

[Lord_Farkwad]

Speaking of manaless dredge, I love going to opens and getting paired against dredge players and beating them because I understand their deck better than they do.

Format knowledge OP

[kdowns]

Speaking of manaless dredge, I love going to opens and getting paired against dredge players and beating them because I understand their deck better than they do.

Format knowledge OP

So do I. My knowledge of both formats is pretty damn high. Manaless is just the cheapest deck for me to build at the moment to get my foot in the door.

[Natirasha]

Man, I'm so psyched to think they might kill off Elspeth and Ajani this block.

[bv310]

They won't. Ajani will trade his soul for Elspeth's with Athreos or something. The first ebook set up a pretty strong case for Daxos to do something similar, too.

[Natirasha]

I have yet to read the e-book, but I'm like 90% sure that one of them will die this block. Ajani's more likely but the JIN trailer was all about Elspeth dying so I dunno. I think Ajani's death needs to happen at some point so they can get rid of him from the core set rotation(iirc Doug Beyer said having ajani be a cat was a mistake for being one of the OG5 'walkers).

[kdowns]

Legacy is definitely more fun to play in.

I went 1-4 drop in the legacy open in Dallas playing Manaless Dredge and it was much more fun than the day before when I went 7-4 in the Standard Open.
Legacy is a lot more thought intensive than you would expect. I think if you become really good in legacy you will be able to do well in any format.

[Klazam]

^^ Agreed


For standard, I'm gonna try and build Orzhov beatdown after the new set. That BW god is an EXCELLENT answer to wraths.

[kdowns]

Just expect to RiP in the SB again.

[Natirasha]

My personal rival at the shop got second at the standard event, can't wait to beat him tonight at the win a box.

So, I think Pharika is actually good. I'm not psycho here, am I?

[bv310]

She's not bad, but I don't see a home for her in current Standard

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

I went 5-2 and took ninth at a PTQ over the weekend; so damn close to making the cut and drafting for a spot at the PT.

[Burning_Earth]

She's not bad, but I don't see a home for her in current Standard

I disagree. I think she is the worst two color god save Karametra.

Athreos, however, is awesome.

[Klazam]

She's not bad, but I don't see a home for her in current Standard

I disagree. I think she is the worst two color god save Karametra.

Athreos, however, is awesome.

Everyone has their place. Pharika is nice in EDH for one. (so is a lot of other crap lol)

[Burning_Earth]

I don't play EDH, so I don't know.

Pharika MIGHT be better if she always gave you the insects.

[Shanba]

I think being a 3 mana god is pretty relevant even when you ignore the ability, which is also fine. It's probably more likely to be relevant than something like karametra's or kruphix's. If the constellation cards were just a little better then I think she would have a place - as is, I think she probably misses out the cut.

Also Athreos is cool but I bet he ends up being really annoying and clunky in practice and not actually that amazing.

[bv310]

I think she'd be decent in a BG Rock shell or something. Doomwake Giant at 5cmc is probably relevant, and BG has some really nice solid cards to back her up/turn on devotion.

[PJ.]

What does legacy look like nowadays? How much more expensive is it than the next best format?

[Burning_Earth]

What does legacy look like nowadays? How much more expensive is it than the next best format?

just look at some decklists Way expensivey

[Sudo_Nym]

Legacy has a steep entry cost, but it's also the cheapest to maintain. If you're buying into Standard, it might cost you 500, but then you're constantly spending to keep up with rotations. If you buy a legacy deck, that might set you back $1000+, but after that, you're basically buying one playset every release, if that. Sometimes there's a sea change in Legacy, but it's rare.