Magic: The Gathering (Discussion)

[Dice]

How was she in Sealed?

[Hemingway]

I got a promo foil Ojutai! I don't really play Ojutai or Jeskai, though.

[Dimir]

How was she in Sealed?

Not that useful sadly. The issue was that there weren't very many sorcery/instant cards to use.

[Dimir]

Wanted to update this thread and see how our matches and decks were going. As a result of the Narset in my booster, I made an Oloro EDH deck complete with Sanguine Bond and Test Of Endurance. However people are getting annoyed of me using Oloro so I'm testing out a Dromar control build on Friday. I really like three-colour decks in EDH.

I also placed an order of $21 worth of Grixis cards for my birthday, including Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. That deck will be centred around Thraximundar and I can't wait to try it after June 4th.

[Geeklet]

Yeah, my Oloro deck, I purposefully made it, and make sure that my opponents know, its not an annoying esper control deck. Its a fun deck based around Extort and such. Still receives some hate because it gains too much too early, but probably not as much as it would otherwise.

[Dimir]

Taking my friend to draft tomorrow so he can get introduced to Dragons Of Tarkir. If I get anything good trade worthy then I'm going to look into whether they have Terminus and Story Circle.

[Hemingway]

Just thought I'd brag a little: Just walked into my local store and bought three Modern Masters 2015 boosters. Got a Dark Confidant and foil Karn Liberated.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy.

[Geeklet]

Could be much worse. Could be the guy that bought 4 boxes of MM2 and got 69 foil Rusted Relics.

[Hemingway]

Yes.

Yes, that would be worse.

Anyway. I have quite a few high-value cards now. Thinking about getting into Modern with a faerie deck. It's a big investment, but assuming I can find people with the proper cards and willingness to trade, I could probably do it. My binder could do with some thinning anyway.

[RubySlippers]

Thankfully I just play for fun, so I can tap Commons from ALL the sets and get creative tossing in some Uncommon and Rare cards if I feel like it.

[Dimir]

Thankfully I just play for fun, so I can tap Commons from ALL the sets and get creative tossing in some Uncommon and Rare cards if I feel like it.

Welcome to the thread! :)

I take it you play with friends? Going through store binders and packs and building a deck out of mainly commons can still be casually fun. :)

[Geeklet]

I was actually going to go to FNM tonight for like the first time in a year.. but its storming pretty bad out right now. :(

[Hemingway]

I always thought it a shame that so many commons got really great art and themes, but often don't work too well.

Occasionally they're really good, though. Those Wojek Halberdiers...

Also. Really pleasantly surprised to see I already own a lot of the staple cards for Modern Faeries. Just need ~$300 worth of cards for a decent deck. Got nearly half of that covered with the cards I got today.

[Sprikut]

are you running a bitterblossom faerie deck? Got a specific decklist in mind?

[Hemingway]

I will be - once I get the required cards. I don't want to just copy a decklist off the internet, even though my deck at the moment is very much just that. I actually thought I'd ask for some input here, to see if I couldn't find some of the more interesting cards. I may have to start out with fewer of the more pricey cards, as I only have a few really solid value cards to trade. Looking the list over, it's going to take some time to collect all of what's needed. I estimate I've got enough easily traded, high-value cards to get maybe a third of the really high-value cards needed ( the $50+ ones ).

I may have to start my deck with some cheaper, less effective alternatives. In that case, I'd probably focus on getting my hands on some Bitterblossoms first, as it's allegedly the engine of the entire deck. I'm lucky enough to already have a Cryptic Command, so maybe grab one more of those. Then I'd probably grab some cheaper faeries. Pestermite could be . . . decent, maybe Oona herself for fun.

Anyway, the cards:

Enchantments

4 x Bitterblossom

Creatures

2 - 3 x Mistbind Clique
2 - 3 x Vendilion Clique
2 x Scion of Oona
3 - 4 x Spellstutter Sprite

Discard

2 - 3 x Inquisition of Kozilek
1 - 2 x Thoughtseize

Removal

2 - 3 x Dismember
0 - 1 x Murderous Cut
1 - 2 x Agony Warp

Counterspells / Others

2 - 4 x Cryptic Command
2 x Mana Leak
2 x Spell Snare

I still have to work in a few more things, and I'm not sure what. I really don't know what the local metagame is like at the moment, so it'll probably depend on that. If I'm going to get into Modern, I don't want to do anything half-way.

[Eranil Morathim]

Probably not legal anymore, but on the off chance its been re-released, mana chains is always a fun way one.

[Hemingway]

Interesting. I just found a nice faeries primer, and it had some interesting points.

I think I might cut Vendilion Clique - at least at first. Remove the shocks and fetches ( more goodies to trade away! ), put in a lot more manlands ( Mutavault and Creeping Tar Pit - 4 of each, ideally ). Include some Loxodon Warhammers for tasty, tasy lifesteal.

[Sprikut]

As far as faries goes it seems to me theres 2 main ways to do it.  Though I've never actively played with one over the other.

Hand Control Fairies revolving more around cards like Vendillion clique, Cryptic command and Spell Stutter Sprite. The Idea being to push off any threats and win a bit at a time with high attack fliers.

ANd Then Bitter Blossom faeries that relies more on trying to get an incremental faerie advantage. Resolve 1-2 Bitter Blossom and protect it and you will eventually over whelm with your waves of 1/1s that are difficult to remove. You'd want stuff like glen elandra liege, Warhammer is a good call. Maybe a couple swords.


Neither specifically precludes any one card from being used but deciding on a primary strategy would inform the rest of your deck. 

I'd personally look at something like. Main game plan land a Bitterblossom and stall out the game using your counter and removal suite. A Resolved Scion and Liege makes your Bitter Blossom faeries 3/3 Shroud Flying... Which is scary scary in modern.

12 Bodies
4 Bitterblossom
4 Scion of Oona
3 Glen Elandra Liege
1 Sower of Temptation

7 Removal
2 peppersmoke
1 Murderous Cut
2 Dismember
2 Victim of the Night

10 Disruption
3 Spellstutter Sprite
1 Glen Elendra archmage
2 Vendillion Cliques
1 Spellsnare
3 Inquisition of Kozilek

7 Other
4 Thieves' Fortune
1 Quickling
2 Loxodon Warhammer

22 Lands
4 Polluted Delta
3 Watery Grave
2 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Faerie Conclave
4 of the B/U Faerie Land
4 Islands
2 Swamps

[Hemingway]

I definitely want to create my deck more on the control side. I've always been a fan of it - just never very good at making the decks work. Faeries seems to rely very much on playing the right cards at the right time, and as a player who thinks he's smarter than he actually is, that appeals to me.

With that said, I'm cheap, so I'm going to hold off on some of the more expensive cards - mainly Vendilion Clique. I've revised what I plan to try a bit, so now it looks a bit more like this ( list is incomplete ):

Decklist

THE CORE ( 8 ):
4 x Bitterblossom
4 x Cryptic Command

CREATURES ( 11 ):
4 x Spellstutter Sprite
3 x Mistbind Clique
2 x Pestermite
2 x Vendilion Clique

REMOVAL ( 5 ):
2 x Go for the Throat ( to dodge Spellskite )
1 x Murderous Cut
1 x Agony Warp
1 x Dismember

COUNTERS ( 4 ):
2 x Mana Leak
2 x Spell Snare

DISCARD ( 4 ):
2 x Inquisition of Kozilek
2 x Thoughtseize

EQUIPMENT ( 2 ):
1 x Loxodon Warhammer
1 x Sword of Feast and Famine

LANDS ( 26 ):
4 x Mutavault
4 x Creeping Tar Pit
Others.

... Which actually comes out to 60 cards. I might try with something like that. I know reanimator was wildly popular here a year or so ago, and I'm anticipating a lot of Goyfs. I've tried to plan accordingly. I'll probably sideboard in some nice graveyard hate for that.

Other cards I may sideboard or include as cheaper alternatives include Doom Blade, Peppersmoke, Faerie Conclave ( in place of Creeping Tar Pits ). I'll basically try to get the core cards first ( which shouldn't be too difficult, assuming people have them around here ), then use some budget alternatives until such a time as I can get my hands on the more expensive cards.

[Sprikut]

I'd much rather have Vendillion cliques in a control oriented deck than Bitter blossom. Clique controls their hand and is still a flying beater.

Bitter blossom slowly kills you and gives you little tokens that are useful for some things. Thats not to say its horrible just that its less of a priority in my mind.

I would also say that if dodging spellskite is a concern why is go for the throat in your main 60? I'd maindeck something that can kill artifact creatures to make my preboard game vs. Affinity as strong as possible (getting a preboard win is often a major nail in Affinity's coffin). Spellskite is rarely if ever in main boards and doesnt even do anything particularly brutal against your deck as far as I can see, other than redirect removal. But that is why you have counter suites and removal in the first place.

[CountessJess]

Check your meta before you get all the Bitterblossoms - if there's a lot of burn or delver consider leaving them out, or at least in the sideboard. Nowadays everyone and their mother is playing some variant of burn, and imho when I've played w/b tokens the bitterblossom has ended up killing me.

[LuckyOwl]

Can any of you reccomend decent starter resources for someone looking to get into MtG? I googled some tutorials and used to play Yu-Gi-Oh! competitively so I have a decent grasp of how TCGs work (Konami can rot in hell, though), but I thought maybe some of the veteran players around here knew someplace to accelerate my learning curve (for example, what duelistgroundz was to Yu-Gi-Oh!)

[Hemingway]

I would also say that if dodging spellskite is a concern why is go for the throat in your main 60? I'd maindeck something that can kill artifact creatures to make my preboard game vs. Affinity as strong as possible (getting a preboard win is often a major nail in Affinity's coffin). Spellskite is rarely if ever in main boards and doesnt even do anything particularly brutal against your deck as far as I can see, other than redirect removal. But that is why you have counter suites and removal in the first place.

I'm not sure it is a concern. My removals are very much a work in progress. I even came across some others that I'll be playing around with.

Check your meta before you get all the Bitterblossoms - if there's a lot of burn or delver consider leaving them out, or at least in the sideboard. Nowadays everyone and their mother is playing some variant of burn, and imho when I've played w/b tokens the bitterblossom has ended up killing me.

Delvers. *shudders*

Reminds me I need Ratchet Bombs, or something similar. Anyway! I have no idea what the meta is like, and I'm not sure it really matters. The players around here are vicious, and I don't expect I'll do a lot of winning either way. I'm mainly doing this just for the sake of having an expensive modern deck lying around. Which may sound weird, but . . .no, it is weird. Only, I've got all these cards lying around, and I'd rather trade them in for fewer.

Can any of you reccomend decent starter resources for someone looking to get into MtG? I googled some tutorials and used to play Yu-Gi-Oh! competitively so I have a decent grasp of how TCGs work (Konami can rot in hell, though), but I thought maybe some of the veteran players around here knew someplace to accelerate my learning curve (for example, what duelistgroundz was to Yu-Gi-Oh!)

Well, the first thing is probably to walk down to your local game store and get them to give you one of the free 30 card starter decks and a tutorial. Just, because, why not?

I also know of one really solid guide. It probably won't be relevant for a bit - or maybe it's self-explanatory since you've played other games - but here it is anyway: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/370207/what-i-know-about-magic-gathering

[Dimir]

Can any of you reccomend decent starter resources for someone looking to get into MtG? I googled some tutorials and used to play Yu-Gi-Oh! competitively so I have a decent grasp of how TCGs work (Konami can rot in hell, though), but I thought maybe some of the veteran players around here knew someplace to accelerate my learning curve (for example, what duelistgroundz was to Yu-Gi-Oh!)

Oh welcome to the thread and mtg in general. ^^

Wizards of the coast's website lists stores in your area that sell mtg products so as Hemingway suggested, go over to one and chat with the owners and local players.

http://locator.wizards.com/

[LuckyOwl]

Thanks! :) My nearest store is selling the 30 card packs for nearly 16$ each, so I don't think I'll be picking one up soon.

And thank you for the recommendations, they're appreciated.