Magic: The Gathering,GO TEAM MS!

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

GP was meh, 4-4, deck was fine, just needed to face more Jeskai and Abzan decks. Think the Esper token version that Ray Perez played in the finals is better than Bant tokens and I lost to a similar list during the tourney. RPTQ I went 5-2 which is obviously a fine showing. Unfortunately, there were 126 people there which means I didn't even prize out since I placed 25th and they only prize to Top 24; guess I should've traveled to San Jose and skipped the GP to just play up my odds of making the PT.

[Natirasha]

Esper tokens is a sick deck and I've been jamming it since GFab got second in an event last week with it.

[bv310]

Fwiw, I'd consider getting back in to MTGO. They've improved by leaps and bounds in the past year-ish of dev time.

I hadn't played MTGO in a while, but I wanted something to do to pass some time before the Server downtime later, and it was ISD flashback drafts. So I log on, buy some tickets, it crashes. I go to my collection and it shows 2 tickets, which I assume I already had. I had just tried to buy 14. I go back to the purchase page, it immediately crashes again. Finally I get into it. I join the draft, I'm the first person, cool I'll go do some other stuff, seems like a while has passed so I go back to look at it, 10 seconds left on pack 1, no visual or audio cue that the draft had started. The program is a piece of shit.

That's brutal, but I've been playing near-daily for months with zero issues beyond memory leak.

[InflatablePie]

Been tweaking my deck a bit.

Spoiler: stuff

Land (26) - 2x Blighted Cataract, 2x Evolving Wilds, 4x Prairie Stream, 4x Tranquil Cove, 6x Island, 8x Plains

Went down to 2 Blighted Cataract because drawing multiples early really really hurts. Shelled out ~5 tix for the other two Streams, probably not picking up Flooded Strands though. Maybe in paper I can use my Windswept Heaths or something. Also went up to 26 land, because I kept getting stuck on 3-4 Mana, even with Monastery Siege down, an uncomfortable amount of time.

Removal (21) - 3 Quarantine Field, 4 Planar Outburst, 2 Pacifism, 3 Silkwrap, 1 Celestial Flare, 4 Stasis Snare, 2 Suppression Bonds, 2 Citadel Siege
Card draw/Engines (9) - 4x Sphinx's Tutelage, 3x Monastery Siege, 2x Ugin's Insight
Protection etc (4) - 2x Negate, 1x Disdainful Stroke, 1x Starfield of Nyx

Took out a Silkwrap for one MB Disdainful Stroke, because I am tired of losing to Gx Ramp decks with Ugins and Ulamogs and it helps that game 1 slightly. Plus it has targets in most decks (Atarka Red's Become Immenses, control's PWs, various midrange stuff). I can see adjusting that back to 4 depending on meta.

Also took out an Ugin's Insight, as I don't usually

need

to draw more than one per game, and lots of games I don't have time to take a turn off until I completely lock down my opponent's creatures.

SB: 4x Arashin Cleric, 2x Orbs of Warding, 1x Dampening Pulse, 1x Celestial Flare, 1x End Hostilities, 2x Negate, 2x Disdainful Stroke, 2x Dispel

Dropped the Cranial Archives completely for more Strokes. Could see dropping an Arashin Cleric but not sure what I'd throw in (maybe the 4th Silkwrap?). Could also see running 3/1 Outburst/Hostilities main with a second Hostilities in the side, if I'm running into more decks with Awaken (Esper Control) or something like the RB/Grixis Eldrazi deck with Ghostfire Blades etc.

[PeregrineV]

Been tweaking my deck a bit.

Spoiler: stuff

Land (26) - 2x Blighted Cataract, 2x Evolving Wilds, 4x Prairie Stream, 4x Tranquil Cove, 6x Island, 8x Plains

Went down to 2 Blighted Cataract because drawing multiples early really really hurts. Shelled out ~5 tix for the other two Streams, probably not picking up Flooded Strands though. Maybe in paper I can use my Windswept Heaths or something. Also went up to 26 land, because I kept getting stuck on 3-4 Mana, even with Monastery Siege down, an uncomfortable amount of time.

Removal (21) - 3 Quarantine Field, 4 Planar Outburst, 2 Pacifism, 3 Silkwrap, 1 Celestial Flare, 4 Stasis Snare, 2 Suppression Bonds, 2 Citadel Siege
Card draw/Engines (9) - 4x Sphinx's Tutelage, 3x Monastery Siege, 2x Ugin's Insight
Protection etc (4) - 2x Negate, 1x Disdainful Stroke, 1x Starfield of Nyx

Took out a Silkwrap for one MB Disdainful Stroke, because I am tired of losing to Gx Ramp decks with Ugins and Ulamogs and it helps that game 1 slightly. Plus it has targets in most decks (Atarka Red's Become Immenses, control's PWs, various midrange stuff). I can see adjusting that back to 4 depending on meta.

Also took out an Ugin's Insight, as I don't usually

need

to draw more than one per game, and lots of games I don't have time to take a turn off until I completely lock down my opponent's creatures.

SB: 4x Arashin Cleric, 2x Orbs of Warding, 1x Dampening Pulse, 1x Celestial Flare, 1x End Hostilities, 2x Negate, 2x Disdainful Stroke, 2x Dispel

Dropped the Cranial Archives completely for more Strokes. Could see dropping an Arashin Cleric but not sure what I'd throw in (maybe the 4th Silkwrap?). Could also see running 3/1 Outburst/Hostilities main with a second Hostilities in the side, if I'm running into more decks with Awaken (Esper Control) or something like the RB/Grixis Eldrazi deck with Ghostfire Blades etc.

How are you doing gamewise compared to Saff's videos?

[InflatablePie]

Not too awful. I can hold my own against Jeskai and Aristocrats, can usually beat Esper Control, Atarka Red, GWx Megamorph and Abzan(+ Bring To Light 4c/5c), but have a hard time with Gx Ramp and Bant Tokens, especially the former.

Also TWoo got suspended from CFB (again?)

"I wrote down on my hand, "Do not talk about Hitler on stream," 'cuz I thought that would be a bad idea to do.

However...

" - Travis Woo
~15 min in - "If we say the Jews did absolutely nothing wrong, then the only conclusion is that there's a whole race of evil people that turned bloodthirsty for no reason."
53:25 "I don't necessarily need to be right on facts. ... It's really hard to determine what 'facts' are."
and then it devolves into conspiracy stuff involving propaganda and also something about asian stereotypes
(also that first deck he's playing against is UW Marshmallows, funny timing)

[InflatablePie]

Actually, gonna test out the 4th Silkwrap in place of the 3rd Disdainful Stroke, think 3 might be too many. I dunno. I'm not really sure if the extra slot to boost the Gx Ramp matchup a bit is worth it, because it's still really hard to fight through the inevitable 4 Ulamogs/4 Ugins with Sanctum backup so I'm tempted to just scoop to that deck tbh. I feel like Atarka Red/Abzan/etc matchups can get really close (like, winning at 1-3 life or losing one turn too late) and only having 3 in the 75 probably doesn't help my Jeskai matchup.

Contemplating going back to 3 Blighted Cataract now that I have 4 Tranquil Cove and 4 Prairie Stream (dropping an EWilds in that case) but man does getting those double-Cataract hands suck. Someone talk me out of it or something.

[e] immediately matched against G Ramp, fml
[e2] twice

[Natirasha]

Unique & Fun Tier

Karlov, Mazirek, Daxos

Interesting Take On an Archtype Tier

Ezuri, Meren of Clan Bad Names

Snakeman Tier

Kasoto

At Least Her Name Is Cool Tier

Kalemne, Mizzix the Shizzix

Can WR Do Things Besides Turn Sideways Tier

Random Forgettable Angel Lady

Completely Pointless Tier

Arjun, the Sifting Flame

Also all the decks except UG and BG are pointless, especially the god-awful 'Let's reprint all of Theros block' WB deck. Moreover, why would you not put Black Market & Solemn Simulacrum in the sacrifice deck?

[Natirasha]

Bonus Round, I've been designing a custom set, right? Here is my cool WR Commander design that is far better than anything they did.

Mithos, Executor Admiral 1WWRR
Legendary Creature--Human Marine
Haste, Vigilance, Lifelink
T: Mithos, Executor Admiral deals damage equal to his power to target creature or player.
3/3

See, it still turns sideways, but it also does cool things like Lifelink-Soul's Fire! Progress!

[bv310]

I'm probably picking up the UR deck. Been wanting to play a Spellslinger-type deck, and that deck is a really solid shell for it.

[Ythan]

Oh hell yeah next block is Innistrad 2. Apart from the reversible cards that was my favorite block in a long time.

[AGar]

Oh hell yeah next block is Innistrad 2. Apart from the reversible cards that was my favorite block in a long time.

Huh? Where did you see this?

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

[AGar]

Hmmm. Kinda concerned to see that this soon, not gonna lie.

[Ythan]

Calling Kamigawa 2 next.

[AGar]

MaRo has repeatedly said they won't go back to Kamigawa because the set didn't "test well" or something to that effect - the feel of the set and flavor wise didn't do what they wanted it to.

[hasdgfas]

Calling Kamigawa 2 next.

nah, they're not doing 3 returns in a row. If anything, I think they'll do a new plane, THEN return to Kamigawa.

Regardless of how poorly it may have tested, I think lots of people want to go back, and I think they have a good chance of actually going back.

[Sudo_Nym]

Time for Return to Dominaria!

[Ythan]

Now that core sets are out that's not unlikely to happen eventually I think.

[DeathNote]

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/18-10-15 ... o-victory/

This deck is hilarious to play and I am doing decent with it but no idea how to make it actually competitive for me. I get crushed by Atarka red every time and usually draw the other games.

[Natirasha]

We'll get Return to Lorwyn before Kamigawa, count my words.

In fact, I suspect we'll never get RTKamigawa, I know I've heard rumors from semi-official sources that, if they revisit the far-east plane, they intend to just filter the good aspects of Kamigawa and make a new plane.

Kinda like how they recycled parts of Mhonsoon(or whatever it was) into Tarkir.

[Sudo_Nym]

They could bring back Rath, I remember that being a decent plane.

[chamber]

I haven't read the story in forever, but wasn't rath an artificial plane used as a staging ground for a phyrexian invasion or something?

[Sudo_Nym]

Yeah. I think the deal was that Phyrexia was permanently sealed off from Dominaria to prevent Yawgmoth from conquering the place, so they created the artificial plane of Rath to invade from instead. And then also Volrath took it over for a while for reasons.

[chamber]

My point was more that after Invasion happened, I assume the plane no longer exists.