Magic: The Gathering

theamericandream38

theamericandream38

Because you totally can't float mana before you activate the ultimate right

Last time I checked, a one-sided Abyss is pretty fucking huge card advantage. Nobody plays creatures that can block him so he literally just eats their guys every turn or they dont block and they are on a 3-4 turn clock. Seems pretty fucking good to me
 

MrIndigo

If you can assume you can float mana before playing a threat and then exiling the board, it's just as fair to assume your opponent can hold mana for a removal spell.

And that's leaving aside the fact you should have killed your opponent long before Gideon even got to 15 loyalty, which in turn assumes he can even get there given he can't defend himself in the slightest, or defend you.

He's nothing Control wants, he's not good against Aggro, and he's only marginally useful in Aggro against Control. He's basically the third-worst Planeswalker printed so far (after Tibalt and Chandra Ablaze, obviously).
 
Temperantia

Temperantia

Sooo, Domri was just officially spoiled. Anyone's opinion of him changed?

EDIT: Also, it was officially announced as a male. No one here was questioning it, but mtgsalvation was ablaze with discussion for the last few days... >_<
 
theamericandream38

theamericandream38

MrIndigo said:
If you can assume you can float mana before playing a threat and then exiling the board, it's just as fair to assume your opponent can hold mana for a removal spell.

And that's leaving aside the fact you should have killed your opponent long before Gideon even got to 15 loyalty, which in turn assumes he can even get there given he can't defend himself in the slightest, or defend you.

He's nothing Control wants, he's not good against Aggro, and he's only marginally useful in Aggro against Control. He's basically the third-worst Planeswalker printed so far (after Tibalt and Chandra Ablaze, obviously).
Click to expand...
Yeah okay im not even going to bother arguing with you after that last comment holy shit
 
Mr.E

Mr.E

unban me from Discord
is a Two-Time Past SPL Champion
Sure as hell ain't better than Gideon Jura.

The more dudes your opponent has, the better his +1 is. Then again, the more dudes your opponent has, the faster he's going to die... doesn't really help. Champion needs at least three enemy creatures on the board to equal Jura when he comes down, plus he doesn't actually force the attack on him in a number of circumstances where you want that. Low on life? Gets ignored, you die. Other walkers? Gets ignored, they die. Can grow larger if you have bigger guys on the board to block theirs but the opponent gets to choose, rather than outright being forced into a bad attack.

He starts out smaller if you're gonna be swinging in with him against control and he shrinks if the opponent has dudes to swing in on him. No Vengeance and his ult seems virtually impossible to reach. He is indestructible this time but most of the current removal doesn't care about that to my knowledge: Selesnya Charm and Tragic Slip still hit, any burn that hits players can be used beforehand. The only major thing he has going for him is a lower mana cost, except Jura is actually worth paying for.
 
Temperantia

Temperantia

Why don't people like Sarkhan Vol? Maybe I just don't understand it all that well, but he seems better than Sarkhan the Mad and certainly better than Gideon 2, Chandra 1 and Tibalt.
 
GTS

GTS



very interested to see how we will get to use Battalion. My allegiance to Boros is as strong as ever.


Already dreaming up R/W and Naya decks to work with, although a lot of these cards would work well in an American Control/Mid Range deck as well.

and its surprising how many Gruul cards are viable for Boros, or especially, Naya.
 

MrIndigo

Temperantia said:
Why don't people like Sarkhan Vol? Maybe I just don't understand it all that well, but he seems better than Sarkhan the Mad and certainly better than Gideon 2, Chandra 1 and Tibalt.
Click to expand...
He was hyped initially because of the resemblance to [c]Fires of Yavimaya[/c], but ultimately he turned out not to work well in practice, because he was a turn to slow. I'd rate him more than Gideon 2 at first glance, but in practice being a creature might be better than being Sarkhan Vol.

Sarkhan the Mad was a good CA engine and saw a bunch of play in midrange Jund decks.
 
Temperantia

Temperantia

Every day previews continue, I grow more confident that the Simic and Gruul will be the champions of Gatecrash limited and have the most constructed-playable cards overall.

Cipher could be the best mechanic, if more cards with reasonable costs were played with it. I'm sorry, but one-sided smallpox with what amounts to an aura version of itself is not worth six in most formats.
 
Hobo Joe

Hobo Joe

Boros Charm looks pretty nuts.
Burn a player for 4, or all permanents become indestructi, or a creature gets double strike for the turn.
Although Boros looks like it needs some more little dorks for Battalion to be more effective in Limited.
 
GTS

GTS

boros charm and aurelia's fury

definitely pleased with these 2 reveals.

boros charm has super utility, and aurelia will probably work better in UWR control or some midrange naya or something, but its still a great card. people are calling it a 20-30$ card already.

i've been playtesting with the new frontline medic and a few other cards released so far. i already love my boros deck.
 
Arcticblast

Arcticblast

Trans rights are human rights
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My friends and I play casual Magic, and I just have a couple questions.
- How many land cards should be in an average deck? I'm betting on ~20 but I'm not sure.
- How does the Soulbond ability work exactly?
 
theamericandream38

theamericandream38

Arcticblast said:
My friends and I play casual Magic, and I just have a couple questions.
- How many land cards should be in an average deck? I'm betting on ~20 but I'm not sure.
- How does the Soulbond ability work exactly?
Click to expand...
It depends on if your deck's mana cost curve and how much card drawing/filtering you have in your deck. In a typical Standard-legal aggressive deck (meaning your curve isn't stupid low like a Legacy aggro deck would be) with no card filtering or drawing, you probably want somewhere between 20 and 22 lands. As your deck's mana curve and card advantage options increase, you want to add more and more mana sources (not necessarily lands - always keep in mind keyrunes and other mana sources that are available) so that you can continue to hit your land drops up to turn 6 and beyond. Whereas an aggressive deck will usually top out its curve with only a few 5 drops (thundermaw hellkite comes to mind), a midrange deck may have several 6 or 7 costing spells or may want to cast multiple spells in a turn. When you're playing a slow control deck with massive sources of card advantage like Sphinx's Revelation, it is not unheard of to play 27 or more lands (in alara-zendikar block standard there were decks that performed very well with over 30 mana sources, because cards like Noble Heirarch and Celestial Colonnade performed dual service as mana sources and threats).

As for Soulbond, this is the entire section of the comprehensive rules on Soulbond:

702.93a. Soulbond is a keyword that represents two triggered abilities. "Soulbond" means "When this creature enters the battlefield, if you control both this creature and another creature and both are unpaired, you may pair this creature with another unpaired creature you control for as long as both remain creatures on the battlefield under your control" and "Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, if you control both that creature and this one and both are unpaired, you may pair that creature with this creature for as long as both remain creatures on the battlefield under your control."
702.93b A creature becomes "paired" with another as the result of a soulbond ability. Abilities may refer to a paired creature, the creature another creature is paired with, or whether a creature is paired. An "unpaired" creature is one that is not paired.
702.93c When the soulbond ability resolves, if either object that would be paired is no longer a creature, no longer on the battlefield, or no longer under the control of the player who controls the soulbond ability, neither object becomes paired.
702.93d A creature can be paired with only one other creature.
702.93e A paired creature becomes unpaired if any of the following occur: another player gains control of it or the creature it's paired with; it or the creature it's paired with stops being a creature; or it or the creature it's paired with leaves the battlefield.
 
Mr.E

Mr.E

unban me from Discord
is a Two-Time Past SPL Champion
20-22 is low, standard is 24 land and working up/down from there. Nonland mana sources also should not be counted as wholly equivalent to a land card, keeping in mind that it generally costs you mana to play them and if you don't have enough land in the first place to cast them, well they aren't doing you any good as a mana source. ;[ (e.g. 24 land + three mana rocks > 23 land + four mana rocks in terms of mana availability.) The same proportion can be applied to Limited decks, which are only 40 cards (minimum) large and generally run 16-18 land.

New or very casual players often have the mindset that hey, I wanna pack more spells in my deck. But spells don't do any good if you can't consistently cast them! Better to err toward more land than less when deckbuilding but playtesting will eventually tell you how to tweak the manabase. If you're finding yourself frequently short on mana then you should add more land. Flooded, you can drop a land or add mana outlets to your deck (an X spell, Flashback spells, an expensive bomb).
 
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