Magic: The Gathering

[strawdonkey]

Magic Online has finally added a bunch of Phantom limited queues! Phantom queues are sealed events where you don't keep any of the cards you use, but the entry fee is drastically reduced. You get one pack for winning two games and three packs for winning three games.

The price is right for me - I don't really want to invest money in to MTGO but enjoy playing, so £3 with the chance of winning £3/£9 if I do well is pretty good. This is only my second one of these but I'm currently sat at 2-0 with a largely uninspiring Gruul pool, though I've just beaten someone up with Gruul Ragebeast which was pretty satisfying. Came back from a one-lander mana screw game in the first match too /flex

Felt like yesterday's pool was better - RUG with about five pieces of removal as opposed to straight GR with one piece of removal, one creature that vaguely passes for removal and a Gruul Ragebeast which is Pit Fight on a stick.

Limited is the best.

[strawdonkey]

*so* close. 1-1 in the final and my opponent encoded a horrible flier with a horrible thing that makes a creature token copy of target creature on the field every time it attacks. I'd just made a 7/6 and then all of a sudden he had two of them!

[Vorgot]

Magic Online has finally added a bunch of Phantom limited queues! Phantom queues are sealed events where you don't keep any of the cards you use, but the entry fee is drastically reduced. You get one pack for winning two games and three packs for winning three games.

The price is right for me - I don't really want to invest money in to MTGO but enjoy playing, so £3 with the chance of winning £3/£9 if I do well is pretty good. This is only my second one of these but I'm currently sat at 2-0 with a largely uninspiring Gruul pool, though I've just beaten someone up with Gruul Ragebeast which was pretty satisfying. Came back from a one-lander mana screw game in the first match too /flex

Felt like yesterday's pool was better - RUG with about five pieces of removal as opposed to straight GR with one piece of removal, one creature that vaguely passes for removal and a Gruul Ragebeast which is Pit Fight on a stick.

Limited is the best.

Sounds like fun, I might log in over the next few days. I've been playing some drafts, getting some awesome cards and then selling them to be able to play more drafts, this just cuts out that middle man!

[strawdonkey]

Sold my booster for a shade over three tickets. This basically lets you play Sealed for $1 as long as you hit a 2-1 record consistently; if you 3-0 then you can play twice for free with a little left over.

[strawdonkey]

Two more tonight (done nothing but play cards all day!). First one had the worst pool ever. This one is OK - just beaten someone by making Skyknight Legionnaire on turns 3, 4, 5 and 6. Opening four of those in six packs is bad beats!

[paddyo]

haha!! Thats mental!! Bet your oppo couldnt believe it!!

[LaParka]

Been messing around with Pauper, but to be honest i'm getting a bit bored of constantly playing against Faeries or Post decks.

I've been using a Kiln Fiend deck, wins about 50% of the time, very vulnerable to removal.

Dipped my toes into Modern over the past week. Reddit and MTGSalvation have a cheap deck challenge ($20). Put some of them together and been playing a few games with them.

My absolute favourite is BU Zombie Hunter.

4 Treasure Hunt
4 Reliquary Tower
4 Zombie Infestation
21 Swamp
27 Island

Mulligan down until you have Reliquary Tower and if possible Treasure hunt.

Play Tower to give you no max hand size. Cast Treasure hunt to hopefully find Zombie infestation. With all the land cards put in your hand, discard 2 for 1 zombie, flood board. My best game I had about 20 zombies on the board and about 4 cards left in my deck, nearly milled myself. Deck cost about $4 to put together

[paddyo]

haha!! that sounds good fun!!

[LaParka]

Its mad, theres no thinking to do, it can only win one way. The amount of Turn 3 victories i've had from people giving up is great.

[moosegrinder]

That sounds fucking GLORIOUS!

[LaParka]

Play Tower to give you no max hand size. Cast Treasure hunt to hopefully find Zombie infestation. With all the land cards put in your hand, discard 2 for 1 zombie, flood board. My best game I had about 20 zombies on the board and about 4 cards left in my deck, nearly milled myself. Deck cost about $4 to put together

Actually, i've found (been told) a way to play it much more effectively. You mulligan until you have Treasure Hunt in hand, reliquary tower is nice but not a must. TH searches for a nonland card. Hopefully it picks up Zombie Infestation. You play TH on the third turn so you've got two mana in play and one more to play. If it works, when you dig through your deck for Zombie Infestation you should have a Reliquary Tower in hand to play to stop you having to discard your hand.

[strawdonkey]

Mana screw is leaving a sour taste now - seems to happen to me in 50% of my games, even when playing 18 lands in a 40-card deck with no splash.

Sure I'll get over it

[paddyo]

Try upping teh land count to 20 or 22... are you playing aggro?

[strawdonkey]

22 lands in limited seems a little overkill, Paddy

[paddyo]

Lol, sorry mate, didn't realise you were talking about limited!! Yeah sounds like u have plenty

[strawdonkey]

I got over the mana screw issues, and finally won my first 8-man today with what felt like an utterly terrible sealed pool. The curve was all wrong (two 2cc creatures, tons of 4cc creatures) but all the other options were even worse so just took a risk.

Favourite game involved keeping a six-land hand with a Syndic of Tithes in, then drawing 3cc, 4cc, 5cc and 6cc creatures on subsequent turns.

Oh, and my opponent in the finals didn't turn up. So still searching for that first legitimate win

[LaParka]

Well done. I keep meaning to try it but then back out and go play some constructed instead.

I played some paper magic last night. Convinced the wife to have a go. Wish I didn't though. Had two quick games to get used to the game. She beat me in the first real game using Kiln Fiends and replicate instant spells (at a reduced cost too!) to swing for 30 damage in one turn! The instant spells she was casting wiped my board too.

grumble grumble

[RadgyAdgy]

Played some Winchester draft games using the new Dragons Maze boosters. Seems like its a fairly decent set we had some really good games from the 6 boosters we used. Also got some good cards from the boosters including Savageborn Hydra, Sire of Insanity, Tajic (brilliant card!) and a Steam Vents dual land which is selling for silly money as most new dual lands seem to.

[paddyo]

Got my trades sorted if anybody fancies any?

HAVES -

1x Frontline Medic

2x Search the City

2x Talrand, Sky Summoner

2x Simic Manipulator

1x Void Stalker

1x Battle of Wits

3x Disciple of Bolas

4x Gravecrawler

4x Geralf's Messenger

2x Skirsdag High Priest

1x Xathrid Gorgon

1x Desecration demon

3x Mutilate

3x Bloodgift Demon

4x Sever the Bloodline

3x Underworld Connections

1x Wits End

1x Nefarox (Foil)

1x Curse of Deaths Hold

1x Lilliana of the Dark realms

1x Stromkirk Noble

4x Thragtusk

1x Renegade Krasis

2x Wolfir Silverheart

1x Deadbridge Goliath

2x Ulvenwald Tracker

2x Tree of Redemption

1x Avacyns Pilgrim (FNM Promo Foil)

1x Azors Elocutors

4x Alms Beast

2x High Priest of Penance

1x Olivia Voldaren

2x Cryptborn Horror

1x Carnival Hellsteed

3x Fathom Mage

1x Dragonshift

1x Melek, Izzet Paragon

2x Mercurial Chemister (1x FOIL)

1x Boros Battleshaper

1x Tajic, Blade of the Legion

1x Collective Blessing

1x Ral Zarek

3x Hellion Crucible

1x Rakdos Guildgate (foil)

1x Boros Guildgate (Foil)

1x Slayers Stronghold

2x Maze's End (1x promo foil)

3x Witchbane Orb

4x Lashwrithe

1x Ratchet Bomb

1x Isochron Scepter

1x Sphinx Bone Wand

1x Lodestone golem

WANTS -

4x Blind Obedience (Main Want)

4x Rest in Peace

Lists

Altered Cards especially edh playables

[poppa_f]

I built a milling deck the other day along these lines: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/perfection-of-milling/

And then played someone who pulled in some Rest in Pieces from his sideboard! Needless to say I lost very quickly

[Mr Cochese]

It's alright if you don't really play Magic anymore and want an occasional fix, or possibly as an introduction.

[Mr Cochese]

To be fair, you have a reasonable amount of scope in these games. Within a game, there's a lot to learn about basic tactics like timings, when to hold cards back, when to commit and so on. Even with lame draws I've occasionally pulled a win out of my arse by sitting there taking it in the face until the right chance materialises. Some of the starting cards in the decks are just plain bad or not really appropriate for the deck, and it could take you ages to out which ones without reading a guide. Also, you can retry a level with a completely different deck that is better suited.

If it's cheap, maybe give it a go to see how you get on.

[strider]

What mr cochese has said. It's a great introduction to the game at a brilliant price.

Going forward, even letting you simply construct decks from the different ones you've unlocked would be a massive step forward for the non-pc version.

[strider]

Im daztm if you fancy a game

[Kyouma]

Can anyone else report the prices their local game shop are charging for drafts and boxes/boosters of Modern Masters?

The one in Norwich has said on their forum they could be charging £40 per draft (with no prize support)

This is outrageous

[Mr Cochese]

That would be a lot for a sealed deck. Are sure that's per draft?

[Mr Cochese]

Oh wait, I just remembered what Modern Masters is. It's one of those things where they reprint really good cards in incredibly limited numbers so that the secondary market can gouge people for them. The store probably paid about 300 quid per box themself.

[strawdonkey]

Which store is that, Kyouma? I know a lot of stores are only getting a limited amount of product in for the set, a couple of stores I know are selling boxes of 24 packs for about £135-140, meaning a pack is a shade over six quid.

£40 for a three-pack draft? Are they off their box?!

[idespair]

Dark Sphere are doing a normal 3 booster draft for £30, with booster into the prize pool - seems a little more reasonable.

[Mr Cochese]

This sort of shit is part of the reason why I stopped playing. Mythic rarity very quickly turned into a way to increase the scarcity of key tournament cards and thereby force people to buy more randomised product, and the power creep in the game is worse than ever.