Magic the Gathering--Who plays?

[Iris Kojiro]

Mmmm...love those "do cool things" lands from Zendikar. I've got two of Emeria, the Sky Ruin in my deck (with enough plains to fuel it) to help bring back my more expensive angels while my tokens hold the front lines.

And I agre, if you're not having fun, why play? That's why Hubby wants to tweak his Elven Eldrazi Cult deck. It's too efficient, and he has no fun playing it right now. I told him to at least wait until I build a control deck so I can see how it stacks against anti-summoning tricks.

Sounds interesting. Your husband's deck sounds like something I want to play against. I'm not an elite player like some friends of mine are (one is going to Pro Tour Nagoya), but I'm always up for new challenges.

I'm guessing he runs Treespeakers, Llanowar Elves, and Arbor Elves, getting turn two Archdruids, which tap for a bajillion mana to get Eldrazi out quickly. I'm not too familiar with the old cards, though. I'm not sure what format your husband plays (Standard, Extended, Legacy, etc).

Depending on in what format his deck is legal, instead of him tweaking it, have him take it to a FNM event somewhere in town. He might win store credit to buy more cool stuff. In the meantime, most elves cost one mana, so a playset of Mental Misstep might be in the cards for you. (it's a $5-6 uncommon from New Phyrexia that's a bit hard to come by). If you can counter his first turn elf (which you can do even on the draw as you have the option of paying 2 life to cast it), you'll really slow him down. ^_^

[Iris Kojiro]

This was one reason I almost didn't go to the release event. Here I am this chick who's only been playing a few months and still learning the mechanics of the game. I felt a bit tossed to the card sharks since I had to build my own deck there on the spot, which I'd also never done (Li'l Bro helped me tweak a pre-con deck and taught me a few tricks). One of my opponents was the type who took it WAY too seriously. That was my least fun match of the day. The other two guys wiped the floor with me, but at least they didn't act like the fate of the world depended on them winning.


Ooh! And check out the promo from the New Phyrexia set: Shelodred, Whispering One. 'Course the one I got was shinier and had different art, but the abilities are the same. I totally want it in my deck because it's a beast of a card. But that's a card you build a deck around and I don't think I have the right support cards.

I'll admit I'm one of those people who takes their matches seriously, but not to the point where I'm calling a judge for every little misstep my opponent makes. I had someone try to do that to me for forgetting to tap one of my creatures on an "all creatures must attack" trigger. I ended up winning the match, but got stuck with a warning for a game rules violation. Granted, I was at a National Qualifier event, but still.

I like to help people get better at the game as well. If a sealed event is loose enough to where you can tweak your deck as the tournament goes on, I'll frequently help my past opponents build better decks if given enough time. It's kind of cool when they get the "A-ha!" look. ^_^

A common rule to follow is bombs (awesome undercosted creatures that do great things, planeswalkers, things that steal your opponents big guys, etc) first, removal second, creatures third, and filler stuff fourth. My first time at a sealed event was similar to your experience. I only won one match and I was totally lost on how to build decks with only six packs to work with.

The Praetor cycle is certainly interesting. The black one gives you awesome card advantage provided he stays on the field for more than a turn. The white one is awesome too as he controls the board by just chillaxing. I'm not a fan of the green one, though. He just manipulates mana in the late game, which is not really relevant. The blue one will see a lot of casual play, like in Commander/EDH, and the red one is my favorite thus far. He's undercosted, gives all your guys haste and their guys come into play tapped.

As far as Sheoldred goes, he's definitely better in a controlling style deck. A fast, aggressive deck has no use for him, as those decks want to kill before turn seven. Any idea what type/colors of deck you want to use him in?

[jedimaster91]

As far as Sheoldred goes, he's definitely better in a controlling style deck. A fast, aggressive deck has no use for him, as those decks want to kill before turn seven. Any idea what type/colors of deck you want to use him in?

I typically play blue/black with a heavy emphasis on infect creatures. I like having to only deal ten damage, so my deck is built to proliferate like crazy (hello, Contagion Engine, Decimator Web). I've got a couple Plague Stingers for a cheap infect flyer, some Blackcleave Gobilns for the haste aspect and a couple Fume Spitters for something cheap to get out on the board. Thrummingbird has been pretty useful and so has Hand of the Praetors.

I've got enough non-infect creatures to do some damage if my infect gets shut down (which can happen). I'm thinking about switching to green/black since the green mana acceleration decks were tearing right through mine.

[Kogarashi]

I'm guessing he runs Treespeakers, Llanowar Elves, and Arbor Elves, getting turn two Archdruids, which tap for a bajillion mana to get Eldrazi out quickly. I'm not too familiar with the old cards, though. I'm not sure what format your husband plays (Standard, Extended, Legacy, etc).

No Archdruids, but the smaller elves sound about right. He's got a couple Krosan Drovers (I think that's the right one) that make the expensive creatures cheaper to summon to help bring cost down, and a handful of other cards to dig out just what he wants just when he wants it (I think that includes Time of Need from the Kamigawa block to hunt down one of his legendary Eldrazi).

As for format, we generally don't do tourney play, so we're likely to have Legacy-legal decks, but I'd have to check the banned list. I doubt they're legal for much in the way of other formats. We pull from all over our collection to build our decks, mostly because we usually only play with friends who don't care about format either.

[Fire_on_High]

I used to play mono White back when Shadow was the shiz. I had a super nasty Soltari deck.

[Iris Kojiro]

I typically play blue/black with a heavy emphasis on infect creatures. I like having to only deal ten damage, so my deck is built to proliferate like crazy (hello, Contagion Engine, Decimator Web). I've got a couple Plague Stingers for a cheap infect flyer, some Blackcleave Gobilns for the haste aspect and a couple Fume Spitters for something cheap to get out on the board. Thrummingbird has been pretty useful and so has Hand of the Praetors.

I've got enough non-infect creatures to do some damage if my infect gets shut down (which can happen). I'm thinking about switching to green/black since the green mana acceleration decks were tearing right through mine.

U/B Poison Control is a better deck right now than the G/B "Poison Deck Wins" builds. I used to play the G/B version and I didn't like its inconsistency. If you have them, Phyrexian Crusaders are worth their weight in gold. I pretty much play poison guys along with the standard U/B bag of tricks. I also really like Contagion Clasp in the deck as well. The new counterspell in New Phyrexia is absolutely bonkers once you get the first poison hit in. (it costs the same as Mana Leak, but it's a hard counter once your opponent is poisoned).

[Jetfire]

I've been playing for a year or so now, due to a coworker getting me into it.

I have 2 favorite decks (both of which rotate out in October). Allies, where all/most of your creature cards are "Ally" subtype, and usually have triggers that go off when they or another Ally enters the field. (Usually they just pump, but some give colour protection, or destroy artifacts, or tap for mana based on the number of allies, or mill cards, etc....). It was a major deck up until Eldrazi/M11 came out.

My other favorite deck is MonoGreen Eldrazi. Similar to Valukut, you play mana ramp (Treespeakers, Cultivates, Overgrown Battlements, etc... ) to build up your mana pool to try and get Prime Time out (Primeval Titan) to fetch lands, usually Eye of Ugin and/or Eldrazi Temples. Then once you have the mana out, you plop down the Big Eldrazi Titans, like Emrakul or Kozilik or Ulamog. They make your opponent destroy their own permanants when they attack (6 for Emmy, 4 for the other 2), and have other abilities as they are cast (Emmy gives you an extra turn, Koz draws 4 cards, Ully destroys target permanant). The other fun thing with that deck is its Summoning Traps; if someone counters your Prime time or some other creature, you can play 1 or more traps, look at the top 7 cards, and play any creature in that Top 7 for free. Makes countering that early game ramp VERY dangerous. Avenger of Zendikar is another fun aspect of the deck, as is Terrastadon. (Avenger gives you a plant token for every land you have when it enters, and pumps those plants up every landfall afterwards. Terrastadon lets you turn 3 non-creature permanants into Elephant tokens, they don't have to be your permanants either. Handy to get rid of annoying planeswalkers, auras and equipment or even to kill some land.)

I'm not sure yet what decks I'll play once Zendikar rotates out.

Oh and I'm also plotting a bit of a janky Glissa-based EDH deck. It probably won't do well, but it has potential I'm sure.

[Kara]

I played a bit of MTG, but my main TCG was Yu-Gi-Oh. Don't look at me like that, a fair number of people played it at T-Mobile and if you sat near someone with some decks, it gave you something to do. I had a large amount of cards, but when they packed up my stuff after giving me the boot, magically my absolute favorite deck (a lovingly-crafted kickass Dragon-themed deck) magically went missing.

I prefer the structure of MTG, YGO always felt a bit random thanks to the infinite number of cards that allowed you to completely disregard the rules and restrictions of the game.

[jedimaster91]

Did anyone attend the Commander launch? I got exactly the deck I wanted: Blue/Green/Black.

I have to say, I do like the EDH format better. I dunno if it was the different venue, the people, or the game style (or all three), but it was MUCH more relaxed and newbie friendly. And more fun. Apparently you get points for doing goofy things at the table, so we were hamming it up. I was sad when it ended. Although I was once again the only female playing in the event. I think it's a bit of an advantage for me as the other players don't go after me as much. Newbie + female = able to sit back and plot. Heheheh....

ETA: And much to everyone's surprise, there's an Eldrazi in the U/G/B deck (can't remember which one offhand though). Little lady over here carries a big stick.

[Orgaloth]

I had started playing toward the end of Beta, and gave up buying cards when Ice Age came out. Stopped playing all together shortly after that.

I generally played an all red deck, and more specifically a goblin deck. 4 Goblin Kings, shamans and caves, plus a several other goblin cards. If lucky, by 3rd-4th round the 1/1 goblins produced by the Caves would be something like 15/15 goblins, and churning out 4 a turn.

Best game was a 20 man all in brawl. I took out something like 12 of the players on my own. Came second to an all white deck.

I wonder if I still have my alpha black lotus.

[Cat]

No Magic, but the bf and I were collecting WoW cards, and finally found a starter pack whist in Boston.


Gonna teach ourselves how to play....now..........

[Dasota]

I *just* started playing. My boyfriend's been playing since he was in high school, and he has buddies that come over all the time and play, so when I am feeling social, I'll go out and play. I bought a starter deck builder for 20 bucks at Target, and from it, I have a Mono-black deck that has Leyline of the Void in it, and I absolutely love it. I have mono-green, which is ok, but when I all I have is just the green cards that came in the deck builder, it's a little scatterbrained. I also have a Red/White deck, which I want to refine, but all I know is the concept, not what cards I want. I really dig the concept of "My life! *punches, gains life*

[RayvenQ]

Don't buy the MTG game (that's on steam) the ai cheats, blatantly.