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Magic: the Gathering - Return to Ravnica

Started by Hemingway, April 09, 2013, 05:52:07 PM

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Hemingway

Hello, I'm Hemingway, and I recently got addicted to Magic. A friend of mine wanted to introduce me to the game to have someone to play casually with, but instead created a monster. It's apparently a game I can be quite good at.

Well, since I just started out and I'm most familiar with the current series, and since threads exist for older blocks, I figured I'd make one specifically for Return to Ravnica.

Now, I've told you about my sick addiction. Allow me to tell you a bit about what I play. Because I've been quite lucky. I have a Boros ( red / white ) deck that contains practically nothing but cards that make opponents go "oh, god..." and is highly playable. Unfortunately, that's not really my favorite. What I really enjoy is Blue. More specifically, I've tried to build a Dimir ( blue / black ) deck which combines strong elements of control ( quite possibly the most entertaining part of Magic, to me, is telling my opponent sorry, but I'm not going to let you play that card ), and quite effective milling of the opponent's deck. It doesn't really work that well - yet - but I'm constantly tweaking it.

With that particular deck, I got lucky enough to draw Lazav, the Dimir Mastermind. Who, aside from having a cool name, shapeshifts into any enemy creature that ends up in the enemy's graveyard, by any means. When your deck is basically about putting enemy cards into the enemy graveyard, that means a lot of shapeshifting potential - even on the same turn - and a lot of fun.

I'm still working on that Dimir deck, however. And I would be thrilled if anyone had any advice on that. Otherwise, I'd be curious to hear of other peoples' addictions.

SinXAzgard21

I spent roughly 30 bucks total building my deck that is all Ravnica.  Me and Goldie have tons of cards though so we could make just about anything deck wise.... But I'm trying to just play standard myself.
If you know me personally, you know how to contact me.

Tsenta

I don't have many RTR cards, I bought a 2013 core and AVR deckbox. Pondering a GTC box cause Gideon will REALLY run well in my Orzhov deck.
There ain't no rest for the wicked.

[Sic Semper Tyrannis - "Thus always to tyrants"] - Marcus Junius Brutus The Younger.

Hemingway

I'm curious, which Gideon is that? What makes him work well?

Callie Del Noire

Hmm.. free and clear.. nearly 16 years.

Somewhere at home is a big shoe box full of some alphas, betas, one or two Arabian nights and a butt load of antiquities cards.

I used to play a white/blue deck with a lot of relic lands for mana and some nasty relics. (Armagedon Clock, COP: Artifacts, Dingus Eggs and so on)

Question Mark

#5
Ooooh, I love MTG!

I'm a casual player, but man if I don't love the game.  Unfortunately, I'm also a poor uni student, so I can't really afford to buy lots of cards.  I usually just get a pair of boosters or $10 intro pack for every set, and maintain a capable, albeit ramshackle, deck.

I'm your typical "good guy," and I tend to roleplay as such when I play, so I'm attracted to the generally benevolent themes in the white and green colors.  I used to be monowhite, with a love affair for lifegain, tokens, battlefield control (can you say Oblivion Ring?), but Selesnya (green/white) is starting to grow on me, pun somewhat ambiguously intended.  Throw in lifegain and token spam, and I'm seriously considering splurging $30 and throwing together a green/white deck.

Quote from: Callie Del Noire on April 10, 2013, 01:19:24 PM
Hmm.. free and clear.. nearly 16 years.

Somewhere at home is a big shoe box full of some alphas, betas, one or two Arabian nights and a butt load of antiquities cards.

I used to play a white/blue deck with a lot of relic lands for mana and some nasty relics. (Armagedon Clock, COP: Artifacts, Dingus Eggs and so on)

:O  Do you have any Mox?

SinXAzgard21

Quote from: Question Mark on April 10, 2013, 09:14:50 PM
Ooooh, I love MTG!

I'm a casual player, but man if I don't love the game.  Unfortunately, I'm also a poor uni student, so I can't really afford to buy lots of cards.  I usually just get a pair of boosters or $10 intro pack for every block, and maintain a capable, albeit ramshackle, deck.

I'm your typical "good guy," and I tend to roleplay as such when I play, so I'm attracted to the generally benevolent themes in the white and green colors.  I used to be monowhite, with a love affair for lifegain, tokens, battlefield control (can you say Oblivion Ring?), but Selesnya (green/white) is starting to grow on me, pun somewhat ambiguously intended.  Throw in lifegain and token spam, and I'm seriously considering splurging $30 and throwing together a green/white deck.

:O  Do you have any Mox?

Honestly if you don't spend much on cards it would be cheaper to just buy individual cards.
If you know me personally, you know how to contact me.

Question Mark

Quote from: SinXAzgard21 on April 10, 2013, 09:17:58 PM
Honestly if you don't spend much on cards it would be cheaper to just buy individual cards.

I appreciate your tip, but I gotta be honest; that would take a lot of fun out of the game for me.

While I enjoy the actual duels, I get a huge kick out of the flavor and side components of MTG.  For example, I tend to value thematic cohesion as much as in-game effectiveness when building a deck.  I feel like designing a deck to be the most efficient just sucks it dry of entertainment.  Throwing a deck together from the myriad cards I've collected from boosters, making due with what I've got, ultimately makes me feel more proud of my decks.

I suppose that's why I'm primarily a casual player.  Those sort of shenanigans would not hold in a tournament setting!

Funguy81

I haven't bought any new cards since the 2012 core set. ate away at my wallet a bit to much. lol.

But I would have to say my favorite deck I have created is a white "holy" deck I put together. its designed using the Kor's to transfer damage to one another, or to creatures that have protection from almost any colors, though truly effective against black. Damn near impossible to kill them. funny thing is I didnt really find out the theme until i saw every creature is a knight, angel, or spirit...which fits the "holy" theme perfectly.

I missed playing the game though, and I haven't really found anyone that still plays the game the way its meant suppose to be. I'm not sure what anyone else feels on this, but I can't stand players who make decks full of proxies or print out the cards from the net. The way i see it a deck should be built based on the cards you actually have. I wouldn't care if your decks are put together when alpha was around, but at least have the cards.

Hemingway

I can relate to building a fun deck rather than an efficient one. It's basically why I have two decks. I have a highly capable Boros deck, which I built from an event deck I bought, and added a bunch of really good cards I drew by chance, and some cards my girlfriend lent me. It's a straight aggro deck, though, and not really what I most like playing.

That's why I have my Dimir deck. I bought an intro pack for House Dimir, but I found that unsatisfying. By now, there are only bits and pieces of that left. What I've turned it into is basically a milling / control deck, where about half the cards are spells. I think a little under half of those are dedicated to milling cards, and a little under half are counterspells. Some do a little of both. Because I'm a control freak, and I don't want to play a game where I'm not in charge of what the opponent gets to do. I'm actually having great fun with this deck, but due to its slow nature, it doesn't work half the time. It would get absolutely eviscerated by my Boros deck, for instance. I mean, game-lost-on-turn-4-eviscerated.

Tsenta

#10
Quote from: Hemingway on April 10, 2013, 11:01:23 AM
I'm curious, which Gideon is that? What makes him work well?

Gideon, Champion of Justice. Since I have a few high mana cards (Obzedat and Avacyn, Angel of Hope). Gideon's good for getting high loyalty counters against aggro decks then use his 0 attack or -10 to clear the field. Basically a trollish stall against aggro decks until I can get Avacyn out to make my entire field indestructible. Or pair Obzedat with Cloudshift to exile him 3 - 4 times in a turn do 8 dmg/turn and gain that much life with just Obzedat.


I just got MTGO and I'm putting together a pretty beast G/W aggro deck just from starter cards/free cards from a few friends and bots. It's going to be beastly.
There ain't no rest for the wicked.

[Sic Semper Tyrannis - "Thus always to tyrants"] - Marcus Junius Brutus The Younger.

Hemingway

Quote from: Tsenta on April 11, 2013, 11:55:00 AM
Gideon, Champion of Justice. Since I have a few high mana cards (Obzedat and Avacyn, Angel of Hope). Gideon's good for getting high loyalty counters against aggro decks then use his 0 attack or -10 to clear the field. Basically a trollish stall against aggro decks until I can get Avacyn out to make my entire field indestructible. Or pair Obzedat with Cloudshift to exile him 3 - 4 times in a turn do 8 dmg/turn and gain that much life with just Obzedat.

Isn't it -15?

Also, Gideon exiles everything, which is ... why I don't really see the point in his ultimate ability. You're setting yourself back, too, and Avacyn costs 8 mana. You're not going to get that very fast after exiling all permanents. It seems like if you have a 15/15 indestructible soldier, you're already in a pretty good spot.

Gideon just puzzles me in general. If he weren't such a handsome bastard...

Geeklet

THere is an MTG thread and I didnt know? *gasp*

And Gideon exiles everything but himself. Sure, it may set you back on creatures/lands as well, but you still have a planeswalker that can become a creature, which is more than the other person has. So unless they can pull up a new boardstate out of their ass, they will lose.

Hemingway

Sure, sure, but ... that's assuming you can get him up to 16 loyalty, or more. I suppose that would be doable against an aggro deck with lots of little creature, but ... I'm still not sold on him. It's not like that green/red Planeswalker Domri Rade, who's just an absolute godsend/I-win button for any aggro deck ( +1 let's you peek at the top card of your library and draw it if it's a creature, -2 is a pit fight thing, and -7 gives you an emblem which gives your creatures double strike, hexproof, trample, and haste ).

Ahh, but I don't know.

Geeklet

He's good, just so different than any other, it is hard to evaluate him, I agree.

SinXAzgard21

No planes walkers for my deck.  I gots me some chalice of life/death, elixir of immortality, luxodon smiter and a Trostanic Selesnya's Voice.
If you know me personally, you know how to contact me.

Tsenta

Tbh mana cost isn't hard, if I scrap Orzhov and play Selesnya. Elves are like infimana. Pair it up with Garruk, Primal Hunter and you've got some cheap easy aggro too.
There ain't no rest for the wicked.

[Sic Semper Tyrannis - "Thus always to tyrants"] - Marcus Junius Brutus The Younger.

Hemingway

Sure - but then why bother with Gideon? ;D

Tell me about the elves, though. Arbor Elf + Forest + Verdant Haven is a mean, mean combination. Well, it doesn't help when you get nothing to play with all that mana, but ... When mana is basically the primary concern of my Blue / Black deck, I do get jealous.

Geeklet

What do you mean, nothing to do? Play Soul of the Harvest. Big trampling dude... who lets you draw cards when you play creatures. Make a bunch of mana, play a bunch of creatures, then lay down a Craterhoof Behemoth and RAWR all over your opponent. :P

Hemingway

If it was my comment you were referring to, I mean in those cases where you get unlucky and none of your beefy creatures come up. You know, you've got ten mana lined up, and you draw a 1/1 elf. It's like, come on.

Giant green creatures is why I always keep Grisly Spectacle handy. It's an instant ( an expensive one, but Arcane Melee takes care of that! ), it destroys creatures, and it mills cards equal to their power. In cases where I've got that, a 9/9 creature isn't a huge threat, it's like a neatly wrapped present.

Of course, usually I don't have it when I need it, and I get trampled all over. D:

Ephiral

My local scene tends to play with very relaxed allowable-cards rules - pretty much anything non-limited and non-banned goes. My personal favourite deck is a U/B oddity based mostly on Alara with some Zendikar, Scars, and Innistrad woven in, and a touch of other stuff as far back as 4th. It's primarily milling with a bit of damage and a fair chunk of control/destruction woven in - the basic goal is to let me say "That's a nice everything you've got there...". Would love to play a game or two via Cockatrice, if anyone's up.

Geeklet

At my store, its usually either some type of constructed format for FNM (Usually Standard, but some people are trying to get Modern going), or, my favorite, EDH. I LOOOOVE me some EDH.

HockeyGod


Tsenta

Quote from: Hemingway on April 12, 2013, 07:53:28 AM
Sure - but then why bother with Gideon? ;D

Tell me about the elves, though. Arbor Elf + Forest + Verdant Haven is a mean, mean combination. Well, it doesn't help when you get nothing to play with all that mana, but ... When mana is basically the primary concern of my Blue / Black deck, I do get jealous.

Arbor Elf, Llanwar Elves, Wood Elves, Sylvan Ranger. A few mana fetches. You could easily drop a high mana creature out way earlier than normal.

I'm thinking of going mono green with elf ramps (aka boost mana up) then instand/equip/sorcery spam. To add a little early game oomph maybe some Elven Pipers and two Emrakul in the deck.
There ain't no rest for the wicked.

[Sic Semper Tyrannis - "Thus always to tyrants"] - Marcus Junius Brutus The Younger.

Hemingway

Quote from: Tsenta on April 13, 2013, 03:55:50 AM
Arbor Elf, Llanwar Elves, Wood Elves, Sylvan Ranger. A few mana fetches. You could easily drop a high mana creature out way earlier than normal.

I'm thinking of going mono green with elf ramps (aka boost mana up) then instand/equip/sorcery spam. To add a little early game oomph maybe some Elven Pipers and two Emrakul in the deck.

The beauty of the Arbor Elf + Verdant Haven combination is that the can then untap the forest you've enchanted, giving you not just one additional mana, but two, for a total of four from a single land card. Which is, in a word, sick.