Magic: The Gathering

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

I just got back from my pre-release. My experience was characterized by absurd luck of both kinds. I drew Izzet/Boros as well, exactly as I'd hoped. I got precisely zero Viashino Firstblades, but found a bomb in Boros Battleshaper. Then I opened by Gatecrash pack and found FUCKING AURELIA. So I built what I felt was a very solid RWU deck, threw in those two bombs and ...

Proceed to get my ass kicked. I went 1-2, 1-2, 2-1. Most games I was either mana starved or mana flooded. Of the four wins, in two my opponents got remarkably bad draws, and I was able to play both Aurelia and Battleshaper, so the only times they really saw play were in games where victory was already a foregone conclusion. Two games were really good, though, ending in clutch reversals the turn before I would have lost, with Traitorous Instinct shifting the board exactly enough to get through lethal damage. Both against very good decks, too. My last opponent built a really strong control deck featuring Master of Cruelties and Undercity Plague. I've never seen such a thing in a limited format. Anyway, my record was pretty bad but through yet another reversal of fortune ...

I manage to top 8. My second opponent wasn't going to stick around for the rest of the tourney, so he reported I won our match 2-1 to give me a shot at the prize pool. Nobody managed a 3-0 record so my 2-1s were good enough to edge me in. Plus, the store manager had extra prize product around, so he pulled some shenanigans and offered to throw two extra packs into the prize pool for every pack we purchased. The other guys there were fucking card fiends, so after the split I walked away with nine freakin boosters. Score.

I'll post my decklist after dinner if anyone cares. Sadly my son went 0fer six. He made some pretty questionable card choices, but he had a pretty poor pool anyway, with virtually no bombs in his colors and a very anemic choice of creatures for Simic/Izzet. I think he had a good time anyway, though.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Did the prerelease yesterday about Noontime.

Signed up with the Boros (yay) and got the Izzet as my secret ally (yay).

The Boros pack had Assemble the Legion (uh . . .).

The Izzet pack had Firemind's Foresight (ugh).

Two of the Dragon's Maze boosters had Golgari Rares (Gaze of Granite and Varloz, the Scar-Striped, specifically).

Just for completion's sake, the last two Rares sucked significantly less: Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker and Lavinia of the Tenth, but with my pool it was debatable whether it was worth dipping into Black, and since I'm biased against it anyway only the latter saw use. (Thankfully, Lavinia is good. She is really, really good. For real.)

Got a ton of mana-fixing for Green, but next to no playable Green cards.

Went 2-2 in four rounds worth of play (the store was using a highly simplified prize structure that made the event last only four rounds). First was lost to color screw, since deckbuilding ended before I figured out the proportions of mana I needed. Fourth was lost to some hipster Simic dude who was packing more removal than you'd reasonably expect Simic to have. But the two rounds I won were beautiful, particularly during Game 3 for each of them, which involved explosive openings with Madcap Skills.

In the end, I walked out of the store with naught but the pack I got at the start, 25% of the Kozilek EDH deck I'm building bought directly from the shop, some goodies for my Standard Boros deck (missing only Legion's Initiative and Pyrewild Shaman from the new set), and a slight envy for the person across the table from me at the start of the event who, among other things, notably opened both Isperia, Supreme Judge and Ral Zarek.

[Malacite]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Yeah so Dragon's Maze was kinda meh...

Honestly, Return to Ravnica was overall underwhelming sadly. I liked the original iteration better. For one thing, I can't understand for the life of me why they pussed out so badly on Boros... ugh.


The next set is sounding pretty awesome though, very heavily based on greek mythology I think. I'm really hoping for a Kamigawa 2.0 (lots of Legendaries)

[cidbahamut]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Prime Hivemind deck material right there.

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

I saw this card and suddenly missed you guys.

[Firewind]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

It only really minor inconveniences me since I like to mess around building decks on my laptop and mostly play Magic on my PC for voice comms.

- - - Updated - - -

It only really minor inconveniences me since I like to mess around building decks on my laptop and mostly play Magic on my PC for voice comms.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

There is no save deck to server option so I would back up all decks onto dropbox or something.

Never even considered doing either of those things in the first place (good freaking thing, too). Dropbox doesn't sound like a terrible idea, though, if it somehow becomes disadvantageous to just have the decks on my computer.

[Malacite]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Really? Wasn't aware of that.

Huh, so does this mean we might see MLP as a joke set at some point like Unglued?

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

WotC became a subsidiary of Hasbro in '99.

[Armando]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Panic is over after 2 seconds of google searching for cockatrice servers not yet pulled down by Hasbro.

Don't you mean Wizards of the Coast? Or did Hasbro buy MtG?

Also, if Cockatrice is something you can install, worst case scenario I could set up a server for you guys if they keep getting shut down.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Seriously? SERIOUSLY!?

[Firewind]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

New server: play.woogerworks.com
Port: 4747

There is no save deck to server option so I would back up all decks onto dropbox or something.

Panic is over after 2 seconds of google searching for cockatrice servers not yet pulled down by Hasbro.

[Malacite]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Damn it, so they got found out then?

Well it was fun while it lasted.

[Taskmage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

ADD: Well . . . crap. It seems that Cockatrice was taken down just recently. D:

I was already missing playing with you guys, and it seems I won't get to do so again.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

So people aren't using Obzedat yet. Naya Humans and Dega Aristocrats are apparently all the rage right now. Part of me wants to say to give it time, since metagames tend to be most aggro-focused (they're arguably the easiest deck type to junction new cards into) the month after set release.

The rest of me is looking at Standard right now and going "nuts, it's crazy fast." Even before Gatecrash, Standard-legal decks were arguably Modern-worthy; Gatecrash just removed any doubt.

On the bright side, for that very reason, if there were ever a good time to get into Standard, it would be now (and arguably all throughout Return block's tenure within it, to boot).

On another note, The Dragon's Maze Prerelease : Daily MTG : Magic: The Gathering looks like it's going to be awesome. At least, for me. You're telling me that I get the pack marked with my favorite guild, and I automatically get a 75% chance of also getting a Guild Booster from one of my next three favorites, who were all in RTR instead of GTC? Where do I sign up?

ADD: Well . . . crap. It seems that Cockatrice was taken down just recently. D:

I was already missing playing with you guys, and it seems I won't get to do so again.